For my first post I want to talk about a recent addition to my tech-minded arsenal while on the road.
Internet has become one of those things that is critical to comfortable RV travel, whether for keeping in touch with friends and family, for researching an area or even getting the 'lay of the land' on Google Maps. Sharing pictures is wonderfully simple using some of the many picture sharing websites out on the Internet, Picasa being my favorite since it ties in with everything else Google.
For a couple of years my preferred way to connect to the Internet was using a Hughesnet (previously Direcway) satellite Internet system, or where I could find it, a free WiFi connection. Hughesnet mostly worked well with the only drawback being the half hour to forty five minute setup time for the satellite antenna... I am not wealthy enough to convince myself to buy one of those fancy, automated, roof mounted antennas that set up in minutes. I used my Hughesnet system for three years.
Last winter I decided I did not want to pay the $60 monthly fee for the Hughesnet service and decided to give Internet by cell phone a try. If I connected through my cellphone, my monthly charges with Alltel, my cell phone provider, would drop to $30 a month for 'unlimited' Internet access and I can turn the service on and off at will as I need it. For cellular Internet unlimited usually means about 5 gigabytes of data transfer a month... good enough for general web surfing and email and perhaps the transfer of some pictures and downloading some music. Don't count on it for doing a lot of video... even an old black and white 90 minute movie download would use ten to twenty percent or more of that monthly allotment.
Getting back to my first experiment with Internet by cell phone (also known as tethering), one of the issues I ran into was sharing my Internet connection to my wife's computer. I used the Internet connection sharing feature built into the operating system on my computer. Sharing my connection in this way worked fairly well but not as well as it had with the satellite dish and a wireless router. There might be a better way.....
Getting back to my first experiment with Internet by cell phone (also known as tethering), one of the issues I ran into was sharing my Internet connection to my wife's computer. I used the Internet connection sharing feature built into the operating system on my computer. Sharing my connection in this way worked fairly well but not as well as it had with the satellite dish and a wireless router. There might be a better way.....
After getting back from my winter sojourn this year I decided to look into a device I had recently read about that connects to the cell phone (similar to how I had connected my computer to my cell phone) and creates a WiFi hot spot. I had some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket (well actually credit card rebate $$$$$, or as I call it funny money) and decided to purchase a Cradlepoint CTR350 through one of the Amazon.com partner vendors for $129.00 (Amazon will be the subject of a future RV Things That Work post.)
I promptly received the item and was amazed at its diminutive size. The picture on the Cradlepoint website did not really represent the size of the thing. I mean, to me, it is tiny!
I promptly received the item and was amazed at its diminutive size. The picture on the Cradlepoint website did not really represent the size of the thing. I mean, to me, it is tiny!
I had some concerns because my cellphone, a Motorola E-815, was not on Cradlepoint's list of known and tested compatible cell phones. I had done some research (on the Internet of course) and found some posts on some cellular forums that the E-815 should work with the CTR350, so I took a gamble that this information was accurate.
You may be wondering why I would just not get an approved phone. Unfortunately, there are very few phones available that allow you to connect an external antenna. The E-815 was one of the last cell phones sold that has an external antenna port and was sold by Alltel. I say 'was' because the E-815 is no longer being manufactured. It is still available on eBay.
Though having an external antenna connection has become less of an issue, we do travel to a few places where an external antenna is helpful. For example, last weekend when we went to a Corps of Engineers park along the Mississippi River. The cellular signal was quite weak in the park but with the outside antenna things were much better.
An appropriate cell phone (or a USB data card) connects to the CTR350 via the USB port and an appropriate cable. Once you have connected the cell phone and router you access the router wirelessly via a WiFi connection and log in to it with your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) by going to an IP address supplied in the enclosed documentation. There are more potential settings to this router than most routers I have seen. Most settings the average user does not have to touch... In fact I found that I really did not have to set anything in my case... the only thing I set was how the connection to the Internet was invoked; that being allowing the router to automatically connect when the router saw activity (on demand) or to connect to the Internet manually, the method I prefer. I also set security that limits the access to the router to those users that I want to give an access password.
Though having an external antenna connection has become less of an issue, we do travel to a few places where an external antenna is helpful. For example, last weekend when we went to a Corps of Engineers park along the Mississippi River. The cellular signal was quite weak in the park but with the outside antenna things were much better.
An appropriate cell phone (or a USB data card) connects to the CTR350 via the USB port and an appropriate cable. Once you have connected the cell phone and router you access the router wirelessly via a WiFi connection and log in to it with your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) by going to an IP address supplied in the enclosed documentation. There are more potential settings to this router than most routers I have seen. Most settings the average user does not have to touch... In fact I found that I really did not have to set anything in my case... the only thing I set was how the connection to the Internet was invoked; that being allowing the router to automatically connect when the router saw activity (on demand) or to connect to the Internet manually, the method I prefer. I also set security that limits the access to the router to those users that I want to give an access password.
Before I knew it, I was hooked up and online. The CTR350 had connected without much effort or input from me. I was expecting getting the CTR350 and my phone connected, configured and online to be harder than it was!
This little box is very powerful and has some capabilities that I find amazing for the price. It has an Ethernet port which will allow you to make a wired connection to a computer as well as allowing for some other advanced uses, features that I will never take advantage of.
Cradlepoint appears to be keeping their products current as they seem to make regular upgrades available to the software in the unit.
Cradlepoint makes several units with additional features. For example, the CTR350 does not have an external WiFI antenna, something that may be desirable if you were trying to have longer range with your WiFi signal. The CTR500 has external antenna capability as well as some additional features.
I found that the CTR350s WiFi range to be quite good, considering that it does not have an external antenna. I tested it between my RV and a friends last weekend and got an adequate signal though we were more than 100 feet apart.
There is one thing that I might improve if I were Cradlepoint. For security reasons, the router software logs you out from its web page automatically after a short period of time. As I mentioned, I like starting a connection manually. I prefer this method because a lot of programs and web pages these days keep using the Internet, whether to check for updates or to refresh the content of the page. I don't want to unnecessarily use my available 5 gigabytes of bandwidth.
That means that I have to log in to the router to effect a connection and I have to login again to disconnect. It might be nice to be able to access a page solely for the purpose of completing a connection or a disconnection, one that does not require a login.
This is one amazing unit... the first of my RV Things That Work!
Update 7/29/09: It looks like the price has decreased on the CTR350... I see Amazon partners now have this for $99, freight included!
Update 7/29/09: It looks like the price has decreased on the CTR350... I see Amazon partners now have this for $99, freight included!
I bought a CRT 35 in Florida in 2010. I was tired of sharing my T-Mobile Internet stick between the two computers. Like you say, it set up easily and created a WIFI zone about 100' around the RV. enough to share with neighbours as the chance arose.
ReplyDeleteLast year we were back in Mexico and my Telcel (Mexican) stick would connect but quickly drop the connection if it was in the Cradlepoint. In the computer it worked fine. I went to their site and found out that particular stick was not on Cradlepoint's list. Telcel has since updated their stick so I may buy a new one this year, their prices are quite good, or at least were last year.
Telcel gives 3 GB of data for about $25 per month on a pay as you go basis. I never download movies so I have never used more than 2 GB of data.
Amazing price for pay as you go. Heck, amazing price for cellular internet, period. It is a no brainer for internet in Mexico.
ReplyDeleteAs my post suggested, the CTR-350 is a great device, but it is no longer being sold by Cradlepoint. It has been superseded by the CTR-35 that is slightly larger and 4G device compatible. I bought one of the CTR-35 devices this past winter just in case if at some point I got a 4G device I would be ready.
I have a 3G device that works with the CTR-350 that does not work with the CTR-35, but 4G devices don't work with the CTR-350 so it is a tradeoff of sorts.
One problem with the CTR-350 is that since they are no longer selling it, they are no longer updating the firmware, so make sure the new device you get is on the compatibility list.
I bought the CTR-35 refurbished on Amazon for about 35 bucks