NOTE! There was a miscommunication about our 5% discount stacking on top of the 10% discount of MMH members. This is NOT the case, and we apologize for any confusion caused. Non-MMH members still get 5% off with our code (CHANGINGLANES), and MMH members still get their 10% discount.
Great video and overview of your system. As a fellow IT guy, these techy videos are my fav. We rock the Pepwave Transit Duo with 2 cellular and Starlink connections and has been rock solid this past year of full time travels. Highly recommend Mobile Must Have for the Pepwave gear. They are awesome. Oh and hello from the other side of the Smoky Mountains!
Years ago, I used to install custom car audio and electronics. We learned to run your hole saw backward when drilling materials or plastic that might catch. Once started through the direction, it can be corrected for the base material.
Trying to pull the trigger on a Mobil Must Have Starlink package with the BR1 Pro 5G. Stalling on antenna selection. Wondering how often the effort of erecting a pole mount PEPWAVE would actually benefit over a Husky Pro 7 roof mount. The decisions never end!
I'm surprised you don't have the TMHI in your setup, i have gotten away with murder with that thing, and you're paying $150 for t-mobile for 800 gb, when you can get truly unlimited with tmhi, other than that i find your setup really cool, a little bit of an overkill with the AP and the extra routers, hey if it makes you happy im glad.
Chad you are the best! Will you have a diagram for your internet setup like you have for the electric setup? Btw when you make these videos is Tara behind the camera, recharging her batteries, doing other stuff?
This video was just me... mounted gopros and canon on tripod. 😊 No diagram, but it's just the BR2 and Starlink connected to WAN ports on the BR1. And the BR1 and both APs are connected to the switch.
What speeds are y’all seeing on average with your set up esp through the nc mountains? We have a trip from brevard through Franklin up into east Tn this summer and are trying to decide on our final internet setup. We already have Starlink but need to add a cellular router for backup.
Great walkthrough! How do the drives in that Synology NAS hold up with all the travel? I have always thought that a spinning HDD wouldn't survive a drive day in an RV.
Do you happen to know if you have a permanent home base with a high speed connection (Cable or Fiber) could you put another Peplink box there and then run your own SpeedFusion instance from your RV to that so you would not have to pay Peplink for a higher performance speed tier?
Great update. Have you used or did you consider a powerline adapter to extend your internet? I used one previously in my house and I would think it could work in an RV. Would be much easier than fishing the line. Thoughts?
You'd use power line instead of the attic duct run, and put the peplink AP on it in the bedroom somewhere much like now. You'd need a POE injector too unless you could find a power line adapter that had it. We used this in our 5er but the speeds can be a bit slow depending on your AC panel. Much easier than running cable though
I see it every now and again on the roof and think... eventually I need to see what's in that thing. I know it's tied to a single carrier plan and it's very limited. That is, when i last looked into it at least.
@@ChangingLanes MIRC had a good video on it. It also supports the tv antenna, a Wi-Fi antenna, and two cellular antennas. I was originally thinking about replacing that with your setup, but we'd lose the tv antenna. It does have wiring going to at least three different locations and that might be of benefit when snaking wires. The other thing is it takes valuable roof space if it isn't being used. I'm just doing research at this point. Take delivery of a 380FL in about a month.
Did you use shielded RJ45 connectors for the starling cable at the waterproof connector? About to do this upgrade and wondering if I need to order some.
Why did you need the WAPs? I would have expected the Wi-Fi antennae in your roof antenna to provide more than enough coverage in the RV? Or do those antennae only provide WAN over Wifi connections to the peplink BR2 and you need additional AP for Wi-Fi review to connect to your network?
I didn't dive deep, but I usually configure a "guest" wifi (with password) on the roof antenna and let it do that and wifi as wan... then I configure the inside APs with our regular SSIDs. We found in our last RV that the wifi wouldn't reach the truck without the AP in the bedroom. Metal truck and all....
FYI, I tried the discount code and it did not stack on top of my existing discounts (10% bundle+membership). It replaced them, and the total was more expensive than without the code.
Chad..wow, a lot to absorb. When I am not using my Motorhome, I Turn off the battery switches, therefore I have no 12V in the coach and therefore cannot monitor my Ring and other devices. and certainly no internet. You said something interesting. If I were to use a Mobile Hot Spot and some how wire the power to it directly to a battery in the belly (while the rest of the system is off, it should not be a large draw. ). But you said the Hotspots need to be re-booted often. So. i think that is not a solution. Comment?
TV SUBSCRIBE BUTTON Enjoy following you guys. A large percentage of your viewers watch your videos on their smart tv, where there is no subscribe button. You would get more subscribers if you posted a subscribe button on your screen like this guy did. Go to RU-vid, Justin's Project "PROBLEMS WITH A SOLAR SYSTEM" at 7:39 min. you will see a live subscribe button embedded in the lower right of the screen. The viewer just has to click his tv remote to subscribe.
Great video as always. Just curious, why do you not use T-mobile home internet box? I use it for working while traveling (we are full-time RVer’s) and have only had a problem once or twice. It picks up 5G when available. It’s only $50 a month. Plug and play. On another note, we met you guys at Tampa RV show on industry day. Hubby is a NRVTA graduate with his own business now. We love you guys and you are the reason we are where we are today. Thanks!!
Such a clean install. Glad the starlink external plug worked out for you. Was a game changer for me. I shared that same hesitation prior to cutting the cable. A tip for me was adding a small dap of dialectic greese to the connector. Even though "waterproof", I still had a bit of corrosion on the connectors after about 8 months.
Chad - Great video again on internet solutions. Quick question on the Speed Fusion. You mentioned that basically it is making a VPN circuit to load balance across all 3 or 4 internet solutions (Starlink, Verizon, ATT, & TMobile)... Do you know if you can run a VPN on your laptop through the Speed Fusion solution? In other words, you have the speed fusion all setup and running, and my wife or I need to connect to work, we must use a VPN connection between our laptop and the corporate network. This absolutely would put our minds at ease in regards to building out as "bullet proof" solution as possible for working while traveling - we need to be on very important MS Team calls and using Cisco VoIP Soft Phones talking to our different staffs...
I hope you are running Plenum rated cables in the air ducts. It's normally a little more expensive than non Plenum rated, but it is much safer in case of a duct fire.
Chad fabulous video as a retired network engineer I was drooling at what you installed in your RV. I made meany videos on the old WifiRanger on my channel aaa those were the days lol. I now am using a Unfi system with high security and virus protection. But that a video for an other time. Again great video on your system
Thanks, Chad. This looks like quite a project, but having gone through this before probably helped a bunch. Probably a lot more simple if you weren't working from "home" but then ya'll couldn't get out and do what you do. Looked like a clean and fairly simple install, good job. Thanks guys for another nice video. Hope Tara's treatments are going well. God bless ya'll and stay safe on the road when you get out there.
You should move everything to DC rather than AC!!! If you have a house battery, you can run your 12V or even 48V to your box, then get a USB-C PD box, then you should be able to get connectors that will feed all of your devices. USB-C PD supports 5v, 9v, 12v, 15v, 20v, and soon with 3.1, 24v and 48v! Now you can get rid of your UPS! The amount of power loss converting from DC to AC and back to DC for all your electronics is significant. USB-C can solve 90% of your power issues. You can also buy devices that can be configured to a fixed voltage that you then connect to your non-USB-C-native devices, e.g. USB-C in, a fixed 5v out, connect to a barrel 5.5mm x 2.1mm, plug into your electronic device. WIN! Also, it seems like you are spending about $500/month for your Internet access: $150 Verizon, $160 T-Mobile, $10 AT&T, $150 Starlink, plus like what, $2,000 on the hardware? More?
Great as always Chad! I am surprised you are not including T-Mobile & Verizon Home Internet as a basic resources @ $40-50 a month unlimited & unthrottled! Salespersons may say (they don’t know better) that these are home based but I’m using them all over as they provide better signals than hot spots, serve as their own router, and the price is great too! See y’all @ Grand Design National Rally!
I was just reading the FAQ for t-mobile home internet: "there are some restrictions on activities that can damage or disproportionately congest the network. For example, Home Internet is not intended for unattended use, automatic data feeds, automated machine-to-machine connections". I think most have terms like this.. So, our large amounts of dropbox data would disqualify us.. We use 1-2 TB a month. That said, it might be very viable for the "normal" user. We might have to try them out at some point to test....
I’m using the BR1 with ATT SIM card. Verizon & TMobile Home Internet via wan with new feature in 8.3, and Starlink via WiFi as Wan. I am a Zoom trainer and redundancy and reliability are not optional. Pepwave should be at the heart of your system! Chad, MIRC, and Mobile Must Have are your go to resources!
I had to have leg amputated first of the year and basically quit watching anything on RU-vid. Ive started back some lately and watching this video just made me realize how much I missed your channel. Thanks for sharing and will be going back over the past months to get caught up. Thanks 😊
Man oh man, my husband and I would be the luckiest RVers ever if we were to ever be able to run into you and sweet talk you into a consult. We went with the Peplink Dual Max Pro set up and we’re just eeking by on our speed.
Hi Chad. I have the old 4G Pepwave Max device with the 5-in-1 antenna. I want to upgrade to the new 5G device. How do you get the old antenna off the roof without messing up the roof membrane?
I'm un-sure why you would use the junction box, and not just mount the 11-1 antenna directly to the roof of the RV? Peplinks versions allow for the sealant / rubber gasket to ensure watertight connection.
Super informative video! I'm a full time RVer and getting internet has been a crucial aspect for my ability to work remotely. I use homeFi and its been great, super reliable and inexpensive!
Yup....way, way over my head , and what an old Vietnam, rv'n vet needs for my exploration of our great country! Love the channel! Hope you hit the road soon.
Why not use the in-built Wifi from the 11-1 dish? That has more than enough coverage for an RV - stupidly overkill to have 2 APs so close to each other.
I can't begin to try and explain how far over my head this was. You literally are speaking a foreign language. I have Starlink in a new build home in the middle of rural America, I have their Mesh system too but I still have issues. I do need to have you as my neighbor or best friend though. Thats for damn sure. I have watched you guys for years and I'll give you a thumbs up just because of your presentation. Great video. I think. 🙂
While most of this is far beyond me, I still enjoyed watching you cobble all of this together to fit your needs. I do like the 'Nerdy' stuff. I do some of our grunt IT work here (under the supervision of an IT company) and I agree that the EZ Connectors are the only way to go. Can't tell you how many times I have had a pair flip on me as as I was pushing them into the connector. It sure is nice to be able to double check them before crimping isn't it? You did a real nice job Chad. Thank for sharing it all with us.
Wow , I feel this amount of tech could throw me in the looney bin🤣 But i always enjoy watching your description and knowledge with everything you cover . Thank you Chad !
Mobile internet is not working for HULU + live TV; the streaming services that "check" your location (somehow my home router or home ISP gives that away?); How would I get my exact streaming that I'm used to getting at home given that HULU + live tv is checking for location. I can stream "on demand" stuff like netflix or movies or non-DVR non-live tv stuff from HULU, but anything that is a cloud recording of live tv or live tv streaming (like a specific sports event) is not allowed on my smart TV while I'm serving up internet from my mobile hotspot.
Hi Ron. There are a couple of things you can do to overcome the "location" issue from Hulu +. One of them is to set up a VPN server at your home location, then remote into that to pull your steaming. That's what I was using when I was working out of the country. The biggest drawback is that you're using your home internet to both upload and download the stream so if you're on ADSL you may get a lot of buffering. I had fiber in the house with matching upload/download speeds. About the smart TV, see if there's an option to stream over a metered connection. You may need to cast from your handheld device to your TV. That will bypass the mobile hotspot side of the device and just use mobile data. Some Android devices can even use your TV as a second monitor with a USB-C - HDMI adapter and extension cable.
Thanks for making all of these videos, they are very useful as we are going to start living full time in a RV we bought a few months ago! Would you recommend your NAS device? I, as a content creator and GoPro enthusiast, need a lot of hard drive storage, but I am skeptical about getting hard drives over solid state drives because they are more prone to fail, especially when on the road. Have you had any issues, and could you point me in the direction of your setup? Thanks a lot!
I assume your NAS is pure SSDs to minimize moving parts. Did you do anything special regarding fans or do you just keep spare on hand or shut it down while driving?
Good idea, taking a picture of the connections that will be hard to see later. I would probably print a copy and adhere it to the front of the device. Be easier than searching all your images on your phone in 6 months or in the event of a phone failure.
@@TheMhudlow just an FYI, in-case you don't know about it (if not an Apple user I don't know what Android has on this front) - if using Apple products you can also tag your photos and then just use the search. I used to keep many folders but now use the electronic means to find things as it is usually way quicker than scrolling timeline to find (as things are always way older than I remember) and or searching manually thru the camera role. Apple also has face detection so you can easily find photos of the person easier too.
We run a business out of our 5er which we travel in and live in full-time, and we get by with just Starlink, a simple 2 SIM (AT&T/ VERIZON) Skyus 160 hotspot with LTE/4G, a WeBoost external directional antenna and amplifier, and a "dumb" TP Link ethernet switch. Starlink and the Weboost antenna are on a permanently mounted telescopic pole attached to the ladder of the RV. Bonding is neat I guess, but the Skyus 160 web page is more than enough for switching SIMS or reading signal strength. It seems as though you're both retired. I fail to see the necessity for you guys to have all that, other than promoting for your sponsors. To each their own I guess. A tech nerd gonna tech nerd......but damn, the overkill here is insane!
Hi Chad, can you share how the SpeedFusion plans work and what the costs are with them. I am thinking along the lines of a BR1 Pro and getting a T-Mobile and Verizon Sim, I also have Starlink, and AT&T via my cell phones last resort.
@@ChangingLanes The plans are still confusing, for example, Protect Plan C 365 days for $40.00 seems fine. Reads like an Oracle contract. I understand when I buy a device (br1 pro for example) it will come with some level of Protect coverage for a period of time or data.
Is the WAN smoothing the equivalent of LiveU's FEC (Forward Error Correction) where missing packets are sent & resent as necessary to / from / thru the Speed Fusion Cloud service?
I have the max br1 mini cat 7, with no USB port. If I wanted to connect a small external hard drive, could I simply use a USB to Lan adapter? Or would I need a switch?
Thank you for the great information - Since you have the system hard-wired to 110 AC, and you spoke about having the bedroom Access Point close enough to your tow rig, when you're moving locations, do you power everything down since you're no longer shore-power-connected? If so, how do you use the AP in the truck?
Chad, you should consider doing RV tech consultations and system/equipment designs & part lists for folks. Make a questionnaire of what you need it for, potential budget and your hourly rate. Bonus points if you were able to network and provide a vendor to do the installation and testing as well. Folks would pay good for a service like that.
Your "lowest level" of internet connectivity is a cell phone as a hot spot. You said you lose your internet connection when you take your phone away from the RV. In our situation, I've got a LTE connected tablet that is used as our RV safe GPS on travel days. When we get into the RV for a trip I fire up the hotspot and the RV WiFi knows to connect to that first. That way we are constantly connected as long as we have cell coverage. All of our devices (except for my cell phone and that tablet) are configured to connect to the RV WiFi so my bride's tablet and our streaming devices are ready to go as soon as we turn them on. Awesome overview of your Internet 4.0! I'll never need anything that robust, but thanks for showing what's out there so I can pick and choose what will work best for me. Safe travels and maybe someday we'll see you out there.
Great Video Chad. What do you recommend for areas that have limited cell service. We live in KY and do a lot of camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Cades Cove Campground) or in the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky. Part of that is we go there to get away from cell service but with aging parents we want to be able to get some service.
Being a techie geek myself (degree in electronics and computer science, career in industrial automation) I found the video interesting. Bottom line is, I get adequate and usable service using our AT&T unlimited plan and the cell phone hotspot with the laptop. I've never had connection issues for phone or laptop use from coast to coast. Of course my usage does not involve large video uploads or space mission controls😉. To each his own according to his needs...
Great video, love the geek speak and you held a nice low level of lingo to keep it understandable by most people. Your wiring makes me happy, nice and neat, labeled, bundled properly, chaffing protected, all the things. Nice job man! I like how you used PoE to handle the APs and only needed the one cable instead of providing an additional power source cable. The way you compartmentalized the network really makes troubleshooting and hardware replacement so much smoother too. Future proof and clean setup
Great video and very thorough, well thought out as always! One comment on the hand made network cables, push through connectors are probably the easiest to make as long as long as you have the cut/crimp tool designed for those connectors like Chad used. That tool is expensive so many people will try to use a regular crimper and cut the wires off with regular wire cutters. If that happens there will be exposed metal at the end of the connector, it can touch other metal short out and damage things.
