Hmmmm. As you say, what would really be useful is an online meter that displays specific bandwidth usage. Our cellular Internet provider is Sprint. I will check out Sprint.com and see if such a meter is available.

The Wifi in Motion chart is useful… The upshot of the bandwidth restrictions, unfortunately, is that video usage is affected.

In my case, for example, one of our 5-minute HD videos typically consumes 200MB of data. To complicate matters, sometimes these videos require reuploading (due to edits and so forth)…so if I upload a video 3 or 4 times, I’ve consumed almost 800MB of my alloted bandwidth.

So far the bandwidth limits haven’t been a problem for us, but we’ll see. In our travels, we often come across campgrounds with wifi — in fact, the first question we usually ask campgrounds is whether they offer wifi. It makes sense to use someone else’s bandwidth any chance you get!

Sean

Great to hear from you!

I found a nifty little chart that has made me feel a bit better. Here is the link to it:
http://www.wifiinmotion.com/frequently-asked-questions

You may have already seen it. What I would love now is a little alert meter from the cell provider when one is nearing their limit

Cheers,
Taryn

To answer your question, yes we are still using this system. In fact we used it extensively this spring with good success in the Northeast. When camping in 3G cellular territory, the access speeds are really nice.

I learned a few techniques with regard to maximizing access speed and reliability. We found that we got best results by moving the wifi router to our tow vehicle, instead of housing it inside our RV. (Maybe because our Airstream has an aluminum shell that acts as a shield degrading the signal.) If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t even install the signal booster — we never use it anyway.

Now with regard to your news… I didn’t get the memo about the FCC 5GB cap. I’m sorry to hear about it! For many casual Internet users, 5GB may be sufficient. But for those of us who watch / upload lots of video, this is bad news indeed.

In lieu of the recent FCC cap on 5gb of air cards, are you still using this system? I just learned about the 5gb limit recently and was so dismayed about it. I thought I would check in with you to see how you are coping with such access limitations…I hope there is a better way! Sigh….

As for your comments about the videos, thanks also! I really appreciate the positive feedback. As I’ve said before, positive energy is what keeps this blog going…

We considered the Autonet product, but it has some drawbacks which steered us (no pun intended) to the WiFi In Motion system. The Autonet box doesn’t have a 3-watt amplifier like the WiFi In Motion system. Autonet also forces your provider on you(have to use Verizon). Autonet has an embedded air card that only will work with Verizon. While I think Verizon is one of the better providers, I do like that WiFi In Motion leaves the choice of provider up to you. As cell providers upgrade to the next level of EVDO (for example), the entire Autonet box becomes obsolete. We went through this with a product called Internet in Motion, and once Verizon upgraded their network from EVDO rev-o to rev-a, we were told we would have to pay an upgrade fee of $500…no thanks (we originally spent $1,600 on our first Internet in Motion system)! Instead, we went with WiFi In Motion. Once technology updates with our WiFi In Motion system, we just connect to the Internet, and do a firmware upgrade…takes a couple of minutes, and no $500 upgrade fee!

Also, the WiFi system has multiple ethernet ports (four), which Autnoet doesn’t. Autonet seems like a good system for a small family who sticks to metropolitan areas, as it doesn’t offer the amplification that we get from WiFi In Motion. Since we like to travel outside the metro area, we went with WiFi In Motion and couldn’t be happier. Hopefully our post will save some of you the headaches we went through.

As usual…great job Sean! Hope this info helps! Keep up the videos…our family loves them!

I checked out your RV.net article and you make a good point — satellite will be available in certain places that cellular is not.

That said, we’ve only had a few instances where we’ve camped without ANY cellular signals whatsoever (Yellowstone National Park comes to mind). I suppose the cellular booster helps with signal range, but in places like Yellowstone we’d probably be out of luck.

An additional upside to satellite is the option to receive TV on it (with some extra equipment and an additional subscription).

But a satellite system costs about six times the Wifi In Motion kit! Like I said, maybe I’m a cheapskate, but I’m inclined to save the extra $5k (and quickly blow it on video equipment!).