- We finally have a solution
to our full-time RV internet issue.
- And today we're gonna share it with you. (upbeat music)
- All right, before we tell you
what fancy RV internet system we have now,
Phil's gonna tell you what we had before.
- Yeah, we had this little guy here.
It's an AT&T hotspot.
And it did work pretty well for us most of the time.
- Some of the time. - Yeah, we did have a weBoost
that we would have to put out
when our signal was really bad and that did help.
But we were always having to reboot,
you know, move it around the RV
to try to find the right window
that had the good signal and whatnot.
So it did serve its purpose when we started out.
But we're glad this thing is done.
We're done with it. - Yeah, it's awful, terrible.
And actually our provider that we had through AT&T
lost her contract with AT&T.
So in March, right as COVID hit,
we didn't have anything.
We were using park WiFi for a little while, it was awful.
- Yeah, and those of you that have had to connect
to park WiFi, it's not the best,
nor is it the most secure.
- No, and you cannot upload a video for most of it.
So we were running around to find Starbucks, or McDonald's,
or somebody with WiFi, for that occasionally.
- Yeah, the only thing that it was good
for is when we were thinking about changing locations,
we would throw this in the Jeep
and we would go to that new location and we would say,
"Nope, still sucks."
So, you know, it did serve multiple functions for us.
And if you hear some water slurping, it's just Gizmo.
- Yeah, he's drinking some water.
- Yeah, he's a little thirsty.
- All right, so numbers
before we got the new system.
- Yeah, we were dragging.
And when I say we were dragging,
we had a big old carrier anchor that we were dragging.
That's how slow we were moving.
- Okay, that's Navy talk.
Carrier anchor. - Yeah.
As you can see here,
we were getting 1.9 megabytes down
up to, you know, five and nine.
But then you can see
the day that we switched over to the new modem,
we started getting double digit speeds.
We'd never, that I can remember,
never saw speeds like this
on that little hotspot that we had.
No matter where we were,
what angle we were sitting at,
with the weBoost,
we didn't get speeds like this.
So as you can see, the proof is in the pudding.
- So what we decided to go
with is from the company called MobileMustHave.
And this company is actually owned by RVers.
I don't know if they're still full-time RVers,
but I know they were for awhile.
But the bundle that we decided to get,
I'm reading it, in case you're wondering,
is the Ultimate Road Warrior Bundle with Poynting.
The reason we decided to go with this bundle
is because we upload videos and we use a lot,
a lot, gigabytes, megabytes,
whatever you wanna call it on the internet.
You may not need a bundle with everything that we have.
There are many bundles at MobileMustHave
and you can go check it out.
There are cheaper as well as more expensive bundles.
So, you know, if you're working from home
and you need more than what we have,
they offer that as well.
So let's break down exactly what we have
here for our internet needs.
- Yeah, so to start out with,
this is the little beauty,
the dual modem that Stacy was talking about.
And what do we mean by dual modem?
Well, under this dust cover right here
is a spot that you can put two SIM cards per modem.
So that gives you four slots for four SIM cards.
And what do the SIM cards do for you?
Well, the SIM cards are attached
to a particular cell service or a cell provider,
AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint.
Well, I think T-Mobile and Sprint have merged.
So you have four options.
And you can have different plans, SIMs.
I mean, it's just whatever you're looking to pull in
there's a plan out there.
We chose the dual modem
because eventually we're gonna have
two different cell providers as a failover,
I guess is the lack of a better term.
So if our AT&T, for example,
isn't as strong in an area that we're at
and we have a Verizon,
the Verizon will kick over, or we can switch over to it,
and then we're good to go.
We won't lose anything.
- Right, now mind you, that being said,
not everyone, you know, has uploading needs like we do.
And for streaming you probably won't need two modems,
but it is what our needs are.
And although we only have one carrier right now,
eventually we'll probably add a second.
- Right, they do have single modems that you can purchase.
So if you have a SIM already in a hotspot,
you can put it in there and you can go from there.
Most of the plans out there,
if you just wanna stream and check email,
and maybe FaceTime the grandkids every now and then,
there's a plan out there that you can find
that you don't have to get as beefy a system as we have.
- All right, let's tell them what we like most
about this modem and why we chose it.
- Okay, but first I gotta switch pages here.
- Oh no, hold on we have to do our notes.
Let me show you what it looks like.
I'll show you our behind the scenes.
Sometimes we are a little scripted.
Wait, hold on here's Phil.
There you go, all right.
So this is a Pepwave, so fill 'em in.
Phil, fill 'em in.
Philly, Phyllis, Phil. - Well, well played.
You have the Pepwave MAX Transit Duo Modem.
I really like the fact that here it is right now
with six of the seven antennas that are attached to it.
So we have two WiFi,
both 2.4 and 5.8 gigahertz,
that just to let you know your speed, your range,
this, that, and the other.
I'm not gonna get too technical with you.
And then it has four cellular antennas
that you can attach to the modem directly
and have it anywhere inside your RV.
So as most of you know, newsflash,
we have a YouTube channel,
so it requires us to have a little bit
more download and upload speeds than most folks.
For those of you that need to be hardwired
or plugged in to your internet system, have no fear.
There's two LAN ports on the backside,
or the front side, of your Pepwave.
So they got you covered there.
I failed to mention that this is a CAT12 dual, dual,
duo(?), dual, dual!
- Doe, do, DOE a deer, a female deer.
- This is a, sounds like, I don't know if I should stand clear.
This is a CAT12 dual modem.
And what is a CAT12?
CAT12 just let's you know that it's a category of speed.
So it's a max of 600 megabytes down
and 100 megabytes up.
That's what CAT12 does for you.
- Yep, now this also can work as a WAN.
- And WiFi is WAN, the WAN stands for wide area network.
So it allows you to reach out grab those private, or that private,
open WiFi sources, such as an RV park,
a McDonald's parking lot, or a Starbucks,
bring it into your rig and broadcast it.
- Perfect. - Okay.
- Now one good thing about this
if you do have dual carriers,
this does something called load balancing.
And all that does is it helps
send the signal to either one of those
to make sure the workload is not too heavy for one
while the other one's sitting idle.
So it's just a fancy way
of deciding which way to send and receive.
- Another cool feature is Band 14.
And Band 14 is an open net
that is most commonly used for public safety networks.
But they've partnered with AT&T
to allow Band 14 to be used on their modem.
- Yeah, so it just gives more options as far as bandwidth.
- Right.
- All right, and last but not least for this component,
you can hardwire this directly into your RV,
or you can just plug it right in,
which is what we're doing
because where we're putting this in the cabinet,
which is actually right behind our head,
there's an outlet right there.
So we'll just do it the easy way.
- Yeah, I know you're saying,
"You said there's six of seven antennas attached here
and there's one port that's not been covered."
This here is the GPS antenna
that you can hook directly to this.
And GPS for this modem,
or as we speak, it's kind of like a LoJack.
So if you ever misplace your modem
or your rig comes up missing,
you'll be able to log in
and it'll tell you exactly where it is.
- All right, so let's move on
to the next part of our system.
And that is this bad boy right here,
which is a fancy antenna.
- And I gotta change notes again.
- Oh, hold on.
All right, we wanna make sure
we don't leave anything out for you guys.
All of the important parts anyway.
- So this here is the 7-in-1 Poynting Antenna.
And the seven are the same seven connections,
or same antenna connections,
that you have on the modem here.
So you have two WiFi, four cellular,
and the one GPS port.
- I feel like Vanna White right now.
- Yes, there you go.
- So we don't always need this.
As you can see, we have not mounted it on the roof yet.
But we have had to pull it out a couple of times
when our signal was really weak,
and this did make a huge difference in our signal.
And all you're gonna do is take these off the back.
You're gonna put this on the roof.
Run it down in and you're gonna connect these instead.
- Yeah, and the reason we haven't attached it
to the roof yet is because I'm a big old chicken,
and I haven't drilled a hole in the roof
into this cabinet above us
so we can run the wiring straight in.
Now the antenna does allow you
to run the cabling straight in.
So if you had a hole in your roof,
you could just set it right over the top.
Caulk it, Dicor it, whatever you need to do, seal it off.
Or you can run it out the back of the antenna, like so,
and run it to a hole that's elsewhere or a combiner box,
or something else to bring it into your RV.
The other good thing about the connections
are they're actually color-coded
and labeled for you already.
So that's really cool when you're running
it through, you know, ports in your roof,
or the side of your RV,
to run it into your rig.
- Yeah, and there's two ways
to permanently affix it to your rig.
One is this handy-dandy foam,
I wanna call it a sticker,
but I guess that's not really what it is.
- No, it's a peel and stick.
So you peel it, stick it on the bottom.
Peel the other end, stick it to your roof.
And then you would Dicor it or caulk it,
whatever you needed to do to protect it,
or protect water from coming into your rig.
- Yep, or you can upgrade and get a magnet.
So we know a lot of you guys get lost
when it comes to internet.
"What do we get?
What equipment we need?
How do we hook it up?"
So we wanted to let you know that in 2021,
MobileMustHave is going to have a package
that you can purchase for 99 bucks
that will remotely set up your equipment
after you receive it.
- Yeah, 'cause RV WiFi is tricky.
So if, you know, we get asked a ton of questions,
"What do you use?
How do you use it?
What do I need?"
And all of that varies,
but MobileMustHave has taken the guesswork
out of setting up your system.
If you wanna do it yourself,
they'll send you an email
with the instructions and a guide
and it'll walk you through it.
But for 99 bucks,
they make sure that the firmware is up to date.
They help set up your password,
your WiFi name.
I mean, you name it, they're there to help you.
- Yeah, so that is an option for you
if you're nervous about setting all this up yourself.
All right, so next up,
if you wanna go check out MobileMustHaves
and all their bundles they offer,
if you have questions,
we do wanna fill you in on a little thing,
and that is you can't call them with questions
as far as, "What bundle do I need?
What should I do?"
Because right now their phone lines can't handle it.
And we're gonna blame that on Chad and Tara,
who a couple of months ago, they actually have this,
is it the exact same system?
- Yeah, I think it is or very similar, yeah.
- They actually have a system from MobileMustHave
and they put out a video,
and then they were just overrun with calls
and their system just couldn't handle it.
- Which is a good problem to have if you're MobileMustHave,
it means people are interested in the product.
- Yeah, so how they're handling that at the moment
is they are answering email.
It's easier for them to answer email.
So if you have a, "What do I need?"
Or, "Please explain this bundle to me,"
if you send them an email,
they are answering them pretty quickly.
They will get back to you
and you can go back and forth
and figure out what your needs are.
- They also have a chat window on their website.
So you can send them a message that way as well.
And if you do call them,
if you're one of those stubborn guys, like me,
that's gonna call anyway,
they're recording says, "Leave an email
or join the chat." - "Go to a chat."
- So we're gonna help cut out the middleman.
And they do have an AT&T plan,
but those plans are subject to change.
So when you're looking at maybe
purchasing the plan that they have on their website,
read the small print, see if it's going to work for you.
Maybe it'll be overkill.
Maybe you don't need that.
But make sure, on all of the products
that we've listed here,
that you go in and you read the description
and make sure that it works for you.
And just know that products change,
pricing changes, plans change.
- Especially, for the internet.
We all know next month, everything we have
could change and be less data go to limit.
It's crazy how it changes every month.
- Right, so I mean,
just know what you're getting into upfront.
And it's nothing that we're all not used to,
'cause it does happen day to day.
- And just so you know, the AT&T plan that they offer
is probably overkill for probably 80% of people out there.
If you're not working from home,
you don't have a YouTube channel,
it's probably more expensive
and more data than you could ever use.
So check it out, and then compare it with other plans
and see what works best for you.
I will never say this is the plan you should have,
because everybody's needs are different.
So go ahead and check out see how much data
you've used over the past few months,
and then that way you'll know
if this is a... (phone ringing)
Sorry, it's my kiddo.
That way you'll know which plan is best for you.
- Yeah, and we don't know what plans are out there
'cause there's so many to choose from.
We just know that the one we're using works for us.
So once we found them, we stopped searching.
- Yeah, so don't ask us what we found,
'cause it's been a good four or five months,
'cause we've been using this for a couple months already
since Phil has done the research on it.
And, you know, like we said,
the plans change all the time.
So we don't have an answer to that question.
- Yeah, and that, and "What's the perfect setup?"
Our perfect setup is gonna be different from yours.
So we ask you to, you know, do your research.
- So if you have questions though,
you can go to MobileMustHave
and send them an email and tell them what you're doing.
If you're only streaming and maybe FaceTiming the grandkids,
you know, once a month,
they can tell you, you know, what your needs are.
If you're staying in an RV park in the city,
as opposed to somebody
who's out in the boondocks all the time,
your needs are also gonna be different.
- Right. - So, all right.
So we are affiliates with MobileMustHave.
So we have our affiliate link down below.
If you wanna click that link
and check out their offerings,
you can see what'll work for you.
- Yeah, and you know, the proof is in the pudding.
We've showed you the numbers that indicate the speeds
that we had with our hotspot compared to the cell modem.
And our RV WiFi and RV internet has just, I mean...
- We're so happy now.
- Yeah, we can't believe the speeds we're getting.
And we've had some speeds that are a little lower
than what we've shown,
but they're a lot higher
than what we had with our hotspot.
So just keep in mind that location will vary
depending on where you are in relation to the antenna,
what server it reaches out to.
So know all of those things upfront.
(large metal banging loudly) - Yeah, there's no such thing
as perfect internet, no matter what.
I think they're emptying the dumpsters.
- I hope so, it sounded like a shotgun.
- Like he said, we are very happy with our internet now.
So, hopefully, this helps you guys out.
- Yeah.
- All right, is that it? - I guess that's it.
We wanted to keep it short and sweet.
We just wanted to show you what we have.
What's working for us now.
And we think after you do your homework,
we think that something in this arena
will work for you as well. - Yep.
All right, thanks again for watching.
And, hopefully, next year
COVID is a thing of the past
and we can see you
on the road. - On the road.
(upbeat music)