Hi everyone! Hi, welcome back to the channel! Welcome back to the channel. Yes a lot of you
thought we weren't going to come back this week but uh we're here. It's not because we're not
in the van as much as before that we're not going to do videos. We're still going to be
here. We're still going to. See we're in the van right now: it's not green screen,
it's the actual van. And talking of the van, since we've been back, we've been working what... two or
three days a week in the van?! We try to enjoy the van still. Yeah we do and it's still.. I mean with
the heater, it's still feasible to work in the van right now. So, we do spend a couple of days
a week working from the van and this week we're answering one of the questions you
have the most and that is a holy question: How do we get wi-fi on the road? So we're
going to be telling you what's our setup, what's our gear, if we have a portable
modem or something fixed to the car, how much we pay for that wi-fi, and we are going to show
you a hack: a way to extend your network, a way to have wi-fi in places where there is not that much
wi-fi. Yes, it's like a magic trick, it's like a magic trick. So gonna be showing you... and it's a
bit evil. So, that's what we're gonna be talking about this week, we're gonna be showing you our
setup and everything so you can work from the van. Obviously we've done it for the past six eight,
nine months and it's been like... it's feasible it's the same as as back home. Yeah so stay tuned!
We're gonna show you how to... stay tuned! stay tuned! We're
gonna show you everything in a few minutes.
Hi! We're Dom and Marie and since 2016 we traveled the world by van looking for the perfect road
trip. Until we decided to buy and convert our own little home on wheels that we named Vanessa.
Every Sunday, we share parts of our van life experience with as much details as possible:
tips, tricks and stories that we hope will inspire you to start your own travel project. But,
for now buckle up, subscribe and enjoy the ride for this new episode of Vanlife Sagas. Let's go
back to what we do as a living. We've talked about this a few weeks ago in the ""How we make money
on the road video'' we'll be putting the link to that below, the card will appear somewhere here.
So what I do? I need to work on my computer all the time. I'm a social media manager, so I need to
be posting and interacting with customers online and I'm also doing... I'm still in school doing
a Ph.D so I need to be downloading articles and writing things online. So, I need wi-fi all the
time, all the time, day/night, everywhere. And it can get pretty dramatic when we don't have wi-fi.
Well when you know you have something to publish for a customer and the freaking app on Instagram
doesn't work to program posts, you need wi-fi and you need it now. What about you dude?
Dude? Babe. You're calling me dude? Baby, honey, love,
pumpkin. For my part, I don't need wi-fi all the time.
I need wi-fi once or twice a day. However,
when I need wi-fi, it's usually for large transfers of information.
For example, I mainly work with 4k videos and super high resolution pictures so when
I send that to my clients or to my team, I usually need a big chunk of fast wi-fi.
So, she has a steady need for average wi-fi and I need a very, a very low quantity but... very low
quantity of wi-fi needed, but very fast and very powerful wi-fi when i need it. There you go!
So, before we give you what we use for our wi-fi connection in the van,
we're going to tell you about the options that people have in general. Yeah! There are three
options we found that are very useful. 1) You have the portable modem. Modeem? Modam?
Modom? How do you pronounce modem? I think it's modem. How do you pronounce
modem?
Okay, so you have the portable modem, you have the portable mode which means
you can carry around a cardish kind of device in your pocket, if you want to go work in a cafe,
or if you... if you want to go work in a park. You have the van modem and this would be the device
you install somewhere in your van that has access to the Internet, which would distribute it in
the van similar to what you have at home. So, when at home, you have a
modem and it stays there so it's similar to that. And, the third option is the cell
phone hotspot basically just using your phone to share your connection with the environment.
So, there you go. Now pros and cons of each option?
Now starting with the first option which was the portable device.
Portable modem, you have two devices. I'm imitating the portable device.
Okay. Sorry were these your antennas? Well these are my virtual antennas. Okay. So portable modem,
two devices. One that is very very small, similar to a credit card that you can put in
your pocket or in a purse and one that is slightly bigger. Now these need to be plugged. A/c? For
recharging purposes. For recharging purposes. I think they last 12 hours if I am right. So,
you need to charge them obviously during the night or when you're not working. The pros of this is
that you can have wi-fi in various areas so if you're going in a cafe, if you're going somewhere
else as we mentioned before, hiking a mountain, whatever, you can have that device with you
and you have wi-fi. But cons that I feel with that portable wi-fi device is that you need to manage
your battery in order to get wi-fi. Now it sounds pretty simple but for some people like Marie who
need absolute wi-fi, 24/7 no matter where she is, managing the battery and running out of battery
is not an option. So that's a little con for you and I guess for many people. Now second option was
the fixed modem in the van. So something that is fixed to the car. Do you like my imitation
of the fixed modem? So that is similar to what you have at home as we mentioned before.
Something that stays in the van. The pros of this: you always have wi-fi when you're in the van and
you don't need to worry about the battery, so the cons of a van modem? Well it's pretty simple you
need to be near your van to have wi-fi. While some people think it's very useful to just stay
around your van, I know a lot of people we met on the road would like to, at least be able to go
a couple of hundred meters to work and remember vans are big metal boxes so sometimes wi-fi gets
not that far from your van. If you're... you know... we met someone who was working
just outside at a picnic table on a camping spot and he couldn't get the wi-fi from the van. So
he needed to be really close or in the van to get that wi-fi so that's a con for the van modem.
And the third device is the iPhone or any phone that has wi-fi. It's us on the picture. It's us.
It's us, the couple us at Bow Lake. So, the pros of having wi-fi on your phone is well,
most of the time you'll have it with you, so you always have wi-fi. You can move around with it,
similar to a portable device and you don't need to buy another machine because you already have wi-fi
on this. So, you don't need to buy something else to have wi-fi because you have this.
The cons of having your personal hotspot from your phone is that whether you realize it or not,
you use a lot of batteries just asking for your phone to scan for networks all the time. For
some people that have older phones, for example, when your battery is getting tired, this can be
a real pain in the ass and those of you who have an iPhone, we don't know about the other phones,
but those of you who have an iPhone, you know that in the winter, when it's cold, your phone
stops working. So, that's a con. So, to recap, three options to have wi-fi in your van: 1) fixed
modem so something that is fixed to the van, 2) portable devices, and 3) sharing
the connection with your phone. Now, no matter the system, whatever you choose to work with,
you are always going to have the same capacity of wi-fi or the same... the same speed of wi-fi, and
that is because of the towers. So, what that means is that whether you're going for a portable modem,
a van modem or a telephone hotspot, you are relying on the same kind of technology. So,
that's it! Whether you go for a data plan on this or on a modem, you're going to have to pay for it.
You're paying for the same thing, one way or the other. That's right. Now what's our plan?
What's our plan? My plan is to finish this video and then go eat dinner. Now what's our setup? Ah
the setup. The setup is rather simple for what we do. We use Marie's hotspot when we're on the road,
so she has an iPhone 10, yeah? I think. That allows us to use her data plan with
her personal hotspot. Today, the plan we have is a 100go/month and
the first 50go are fast data, really really fast. So, we can use it for video uploads,
downloads, publications, pretty much anything. And it's quite fast depending on the quality of the
network where you are located. The second half of the plan, the last 50go are slower.
But the last 50go, you can still send an email, I can post something on facebook,
post something on Instagram, I can answer to clients online, it's just harder for you to
upload videos, but we can still upload pictures and stuff like that. So, you just need more patience for
the second half of your data plan while the first half is super quick. So, the first month
we would, you know, do everything and we ran out a couple of days before the end so now what we do,
if we have a very, very, very big upload we'll try to go to a cafe or find some wi-fi.
So what company should you go with? Plans in the US
and in Europe, and Asia and Canada are very very
different.
There are various companies here in Canada and what we did before going with Nomad Telecom, I
called a lot of them wanted to know what their maximum plan was, and how much it would
cost and the cheapest and the most reliable was Nomad Telecom who is affiliate of Rogers.
They are located in the Ottawa/Gatineau now. Why we went with them? They work entirely online. They
are a small team of people and they are seriously there to help us out. Guys just to start off with
we're not sponsored or anything we're just sharing our knowledge and their knowledge because they're
freaking amazing. I think he paid Marie a couple of McFlurries. No, but he should.
So, they started this specialty service a few months ago just because they were having a lot
of customers asking for special deals on travel products, events as well, so
they know what's going on when you're trying to operate something on the field. They know
the importance of having fast data, they know also the importance of being on the line when
someone calls. They're also very good at telling you what you need. When we first started van life,
I called LP and I was like ''okay so this is what I'm going to be doing, I'm going to be working from
the van most of the time, but I'm also going to be working in cafes and outdoors. Sometimes Dom and I
walk just to get to a table besides the water. We work there for the entire day and we can't
bring the van there, so what are my options?'' And he said ''Marie, with the things that you do and what
you want to do, the best option for you is to share from your phone''. So, he's really good at telling you
your options and explaining what you need exactly and giving you what you need.
Now how do we get wi-fi when there is no wi-fi? We told you about a hack. This hack was shared
by friends that we met on the road. MP and Zac. When we had one bar of a wi-fi on our
phone, they had three and I was like what the hell, how do you do it? And their trick is what we call
the weBoost. And we just... what? A weBoost. What? A weBoost is a cell signal booster. You read
the box. Well, yeah it's cell signal booster. So, what we need to understand here is that on your small
devices like these, you have an antenna okay? And this is what you use to to get the signal in your
phone and use the wi-fi, okay? So the antenna in a phone is probably not that big. It's that big.
The weBoost, what's fun with it, is that the antenna gets rather big actually. We could open it
and show you what... We're gonna open it okay? Let's open it. So the weBoost is just a single enhancer,
it helps you reach farther distances with your antenna to have more network coming in your van.
It's just a big, it's Christmas. It's Christmas. It's just a very simple way to have more network
coming in your devices than if you were using small antennas like this. And this
is the outside antenna, you install outside your truck mostly (on the ladder on the back of the van).
So, this is the whole device and this is... it would be as if you were going like this... sort of. So, this
is the outside antenna, outside antenna. This goes inside the van, this is the inside antenna and this
is the booster. It's the booster. So, it looks like a piece from Star Trek. So what happens, like
Marie just described, is that when you're in a not so powerful wi-fi zone or network zone, this system
reaches out way farther and helps you boost your signal to have more wi-fi in your van.
It's just... seriously, if you're working from the van, this is something that you need to invest
in. It's something that you need, especially if you want to be in remote places. If you're
always staying in campgrounds or in cities, you probably don't need it because you have,
you can rely on really good wi-fi, but us, we like to be in remote places, a bit secluded
and, you know, in the mountains out there and that's exactly what we needed so weBoost is a
game changer. Alright so this is it guys. This is our setup. Obviously, there are various options
out there. It's up to you to choose whatever is best for your needs and interests. We decided to
go with the phone because it was just the simplest option and we had LP that told us exactly what
we needed and how we should use it based on our working profile. And then recently we added
the weBoost that we need to install based on very positive experiences that we had in the
West. Exactly. We used it for two weeks from Zac and MP and it just like... it changed everything.
Yeah! So, remember the countries are different. We know in Europe there's a lot of providers, in Asia
a lot as well. In North America, it's different. Networks are super wide, super extended so it
all depends on where you are and what you do. See you next Sunday and enjoy the french lesson.
Say bye! I did the bye. I did it. Stop right now, thank you very much...