Internet and Vanlife: the guide to being connected almost everywhere

Introduction

As you know, when you adopt the VanLife and set off on a RoadTrip, you don’t have 50 solutions. Either you save your money and go away, taking a little from your savings every day, or you decide to work part of the day and travel the rest of the time, which is what we decided to do.

But for this we needed an excellent internet connectionso that I can respond to your request of my employer and customers in my marketing workbut also for Caroline to work on networks and achieve the feat of making Twitch streams across the roads of Europe.

Without a good connection, there’s no work, without work, there’s no money, and without money, there’s no VanLife!

So we’ve looked at all the possibilities, the pros and cons of existing packages and equipment, to help you choose the right internet connection for your RoadTrip.

In France:

• Orange
• Bouygues Telecom
• Free

In the UK:

• BT (British Telecom)
• Sky
• O2

In the US:

• AT&T
• Verizon
• T-Mobile

The Different Types of Modems for Vans and Motorhomes

Once you’ve chosen your plan, you’ll need some hardware to stay connected from your home on wheels. Depending on your needs and how much you value your connection, you’ll need different equipment. However, they all share the common trait of being able to run on very little power, either via USB or a cigarette lighter socket, so you won’t need a transformer to power a modem.

Your Phone

Let’s start with the simplest option. You can connect to the Internet using something you already have with you every day: your phone, or rather, your smartphone. These devices include a modem function, usually called a hotspot, letting you turn your phone into a small modem for your computer or tablet.

Benefits: It’s free if your phone already has this feature.
Drawbacks: Inside your van, signal strength can be weaker, affecting your Internet speed. In areas with good coverage, it should be fine for basic browsing, but in more remote areas, it might struggle.

Mobile Modems (Consumer)

If you don’t want to use your phone as a modem, there are mobile modems available both from ISPs and over-the-counter, with varying performance based on two main criteria: with or without an antenna or external connection.

Antenna-Free Mobile Modems

These will perform similarly to your phone. Their main benefit is freeing your phone from being multitasked. Models like the Huawei Router at around €50 ($55/£45) will do the job. Some high-end models, such as Netgear’s NightHawk modems, offer better battery life and reception quality but don’t allow for an external antenna connection, which I find to be the biggest drawback. Considering the price of these modems, you can find better value elsewhere, but they do have the advantage of being portable thanks to their battery.

Mobile Modems with External Connection

The second type includes those that allow for external antennas or even domes on the roof of your vehicle. This ensures that the signal isn’t blocked by the metal body of your van or motorhome, improving the signal.

Advantages: Suitable for standard Internet activities like browsing, email, and watching YouTube videos. Easy to set up with more conventional after-sales service. Can be used outside the motorhome with a battery.
Drawbacks: As you move up in price, the cost isn’t always justified. You end up paying more for the brand than the performance.

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Professional Mobile Modems

After extensive research, I found that there are several brands that aren’t well-known to the general public but are perfect for demanding mobile Internet needs.

These modems are used in public and private buses, or even in ATMs, so you can trust their reliability.

After a year of testing, we can confirm that the performance is spot on.

We chose the Teltonika RUTX-11. This modem can be powered from a 12V cigarette lighter socket (low power consumption despite high performance) or a mains socket, with two SIM card holders, four Ethernet ports, two WiFi antennas, and two sockets for connecting either 4G antennas or an external dome (LTE sockets), which we added to use the product to its full potential.

So, it’s not for everyone, and you’ll need to learn more than you would for the consumer modems mentioned above. Its administration interface is well-designed, and I use only about 10% of its capabilities.

Among the features, I tested the automatic network switching (and thus SIM cards) if:

• There’s no signal
• Signal strength is too low (in dBm)
• Based on data availability
• Network access is denied

A USB port is available for connecting a hard drive to create a mini file server.

Two WiFi networks are created, one in 2.4GHz and the other in 5GHz, and it’s possible to create several with different SSIDs, or even a public hotspot (be careful with data and authorized sites).

The Tests

In 365 days, we only struggled once to stream in Aisne, but we managed to surf and stream in 540p, which requires a decent upload speed. We successfully streamed while driving over 150km without interruption, as our dome connected to various relay antennas along the way.

Here are two speed test results taken in challenging locations: one in a remote area of Italy and the other during a thunderstorm in Switzerland.

Twice, we removed the modem from the camper van and plugged it into our host’s home (with the two antennas, not the dome), which had a worse ADSL connection than our modem.

Advantages: It’s hard to get a better connection right now. You could potentially improve it by upgrading the dome, but that would increase the height of the camper van, which might not be ideal.

Drawbacks: This modem doesn’t work well with the SFR network, which is why we didn’t choose it. However, we’re happy with the other three operators.

Where to Buy a High-Performance Modem for Vanlife?

To save you time, I’ve prepared a list of links for this equipment:

• Teltonika RUTX-11 modem (or newer model)
• Dome antenna for Modem LTE 4G 12Dbi
• Cigar lighter socket for modem (not included with the modem)

Starlink and Road Trips?

That’s a great question, and we get a lot of inquiries about it. So, what about using Elon Musk’s Starlink service while traveling?

In our opinion, for now, even though it theoretically allows you to surf in remote areas for a regular fee, there are still some concerns.

Starlink uses a satellite dish that needs to be pointed at a satellite, so you have to calibrate it for each new location, similar to setting up a television dish. This is fine if you’re staying in one place for a while, but it’s not practical for quick stops. Setting up the antenna on a sidewalk for a short break isn’t feasible. And when we say fixed, it means it will be very complicated to use it while on the move.

This means saying goodbye to seamless streaming while driving. Additionally, delivery times for the modem are still quite long. If you’re planning your trip months in advance, you might be okay, but if you need a quick delivery right as your trip starts, it could be a hassle, both logistically and administratively.

Lastly, after some research, it turns out that Starlink’s service isn’t really designed for connecting from various locations frequently, as it’s not typically covered in their user agreement.

For all these reasons, we still prefer using a 4G connection, where coverage is very good throughout Europe.

Conclusion and Sources

The choice of our internet connection was crucial for our business, for our employer, for our customers, for Caro’s planet project. Without this, our RoadTrip might not come to fruition, or come to a halt very quickly if these imperatives could not be honored.

The equipment we chose exceeded our expectations, allowing us to work comfortably, entertain ourselves when we had any DATA left over, and above all manage to stream on Twitch and offer immersive lives at the wheel of the camper van, something very rare on the platform.

To achieve this feat, you’ll need to set up your stream software correctly, but that’s the subject of a future article.