Mobile Broadband (MiFi) for domestic (Holiday Caravan Rental) use?

stockhausen

stockhausen

stockhausen

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Does anyone here have any experience of Mobile Broadband for domestic use?
I believe that this consists of a box of some sort which contains a SIM card and plugs into a mains socket.
This is of particular interest to someone I know who rents out a static caravan where a landline is not possible.
 
If you want to do it properly then;

Mikrotik SXT LTE6 - pretty fast and ~100-ish
Mikrotik LHGG LTE6 - as fast as the SXT LTE6 but better in low signal strength areas and ~£150-ish
Mikrotik Chateau LTE12 - potentially double the speed of the others but internal antenna and ~200-ish

Personally I’d go with the SXT LTE6.
 
My honest dvice is don’t. They are liable for what guests do/use and if you advertise the facility and haven’t got unlimited data, sooner or later somebody will use the obscene amount you thought you had and the the next guests turn up to a suspended account and a guaranteed complaint. Also ideally you want them out and about rather then sat in the van. That also ignores the obvious issues with rows of aluminium boxes not being a particularly great environment for mobile/WiFi signals. If they do want to do this start with the obvious, does the site have WiFi facilities? If not, then I wouldn’t bother.
 
Avalon said:
My honest dvice is don’t. They are liable for what guests do/use and if you advertise the facility and haven’t got unlimited data, sooner or later somebody will use the obscene amount you thought you had and the the next guests turn up to a suspended account and a guaranteed complaint. Also ideally you want them out and about rather then sat in the van. That also ignores the obvious issues with rows of aluminium boxes not being a particularly great environment for mobile/WiFi signals. If they do want to do this start with the obvious, does the site have WiFi facilities? If not, then I wouldn’t bother.
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Have you been smoking crack, or do you normally talk a load of ****

Mobile broadband will be fine in you caravan, you can get unlimited broadband for about £20, I was getting 1mb down with BT landline, and get 3mb with Three
 
Haze said:
Have you been smoking crack, or do you normally talk a load of ****

Mobile broadband will be fine in you caravan, you can get unlimited broadband for about £20, I was getting 1mb down with BT landline, and get 3mb with Three
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@Avalon is quite correct - you obviously missed the bit about the caravan being rented out like I did?
 
Whats that got to do with anything? he needs mobile broadband just for his personal use, not the whole caravan park
 
Haze said:
Whats that got to do with anything? he needs mobile broadband just for his personal use, not the whole caravan park
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Because the person who owns the caravan is renting it out, and that’s the point @Avalon was addressing. Read what he wrote, both about the GDPR implications, the RIPA implications and the data usage implications and actually, he’s not wrong in the least. The hardware is fine, no issues, and with the right software setup you could probably control it but actually it’s going to be real pain to make it work legitimately. (And I use that word in the legal sense).
 
WJA96 said:
If you want to do it properly then;

Mikrotik SXT LTE6 - pretty fast and ~100-ish
Mikrotik LHGG LTE6 - as fast as the SXT LTE6 but better in low signal strength areas and ~£150-ish
Mikrotik Chateau LTE12 - potentially double the speed of the others but internal antenna and ~200-ish

Personally I’d go with the SXT LTE6.
Click to expand...
Sounds interesting, you presumably have some experience of the Mikrotik product range, may I ask in what connection and further to that, what reasonably priced very reliable "Unlimited data" SIM would you recommend?

I hadn't considered any GDPR and RIPA considerations and clearly the Static Caravan owner would have details of the paying guests but it is something she should consider. Surely these legal issues also apply (and are satisfactorily addressed) in Libraries, Cafes, Pubs, etc. where the service user is more or less untraceable?


To clarify for @Avalon and @Haze, the lady in question owns and rents out a Cottage in Pembrokeshire and a more recently acquired Static Caravan in the same area.
The Cottage has a landline and WiFi, the Static Caravan does not.
The feedback she gets from guests of the Static Caravan is that they love the area and the Caravan is great but they would not rebook because there is no Internet access.
She asked me if there was any way that she could provide WiFi to just the Static Caravan.
Hence my question(s) - I should probably have been clearer.
 
Haze said:
Have you been smoking crack, or do you normally talk a load of ****

Mobile broadband will be fine in you caravan, you can get unlimited broadband for about £20, I was getting 1mb down with BT landline, and get 3mb with Three
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Did somebody not get what he wanted from the big fellas sack or has the sherry gone to your head? Just so we’re clear here, you own/manage or have owned/managed how many vans on how many large sites?
 
Avalon said:
Did somebody not get what he wanted from the big fellas sack or has the sherry gone to your head? Just so we’re clear here, you own/manage or have owned/managed how many vans on how many large sites?
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Oh oh... He woke up... :)
 
stockhausen said:
Sounds interesting, you presumably have some experience of the Mikrotik product range, may I ask in what connection and further to that, what reasonably priced very reliable "Unlimited data" SIM would you recommend?
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I sell and (infrequently) install them in domestic and small business settings. A lot of our customers live in the boonies for privacy reasons and want either decent internet speed or failover if their main connection fails.

It’s not possible to recommend a SIM card until you’ve surveyed the location. What is great in central Manchester might well be useless in Pembrokeshire. All the companies have unlimited deals now and on something like this the difference between £20 per month for a 3 SIM that got you 10Mbps and £32/month for a Vodafone SIM that got you 75Mbps may or may not be worth taking into account. I just go to Tesco and nab a selection of SIMs as I go through the till. Then I test them all out and book a contract with the best one.

stockhausen said:
I hadn't considered any GDPR and RIPA considerations and clearly the Static Caravan owner would have details of the paying guests but it is something she should consider. Surely these legal issues also apply (and are satisfactorily addressed) in Libraries, Cafes, Pubs, etc. where the service user is more or less untraceable?
.
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As I understand it (and I’m known for not always being right) it is the legal responsibility of the service supplier to ensure they know who is using their service. This is usually achieved via a portal page where you have to enter some information. If I recall correctly, we normally use a 2-factor challenge with the Microsoft Authenticator app so you have to enter your phone number to access our portals. I believe we stole the idea from Starbucks (it might have been Costa). In my local library you have to enter your library user account number. The danger with a static caravan is you could inadvertently rent it out to terrorists who use your equipment to plan or execute an attack and if you can’t prove you followed the letter of the law then you’re potentially an accomplice (probably not but you get my drift). And then once you’ve captured all these unique identifiers you have to store them securely so that’s a GDPR issue to resolve. Again, not insurmountable but not that straightforward.

You could get the person renting the caravan to sign a legally binding document so they couldn’t give the access details out to anyone else at which point the portal issue isn’t so bad but you still have GDPR (but you have that as a landlord anyway).
 
WJA96 said:
Oh oh... He woke up... :)
Click to expand...

Literally... I must have overdone it on the crack pipe last night :D

stockhausen said:
Sounds interesting, you presumably have some experience of the Mikrotik product range, may I ask in what connection and further to that, what reasonably priced very reliable "Unlimited data" SIM would you recommend?

I hadn't considered any GDPR and RIPA considerations and clearly the Static Caravan owner would have details of the paying guests but it is something she should consider. Surely these legal issues also apply (and are satisfactorily addressed) in Libraries, Cafes, Pubs, etc. where the service user is more or less untraceable?

To clarify for @Avalon and @Haze, the lady in question owns and rents out a Cottage in Pembrokeshire and a more recently acquired Static Caravan in the same area.
The Cottage has a landline and WiFi, the Static Caravan does not.
The feedback she gets from guests of the Static Caravan is that they love the area and the Caravan is great but they would not rebook because there is no Internet access.
She asked me if there was any way that she could provide WiFi to just the Static Caravan.
Hence my question(s) - I should probably have been clearer.
Click to expand...

She can, but she really needs to consider if she should and if she does how she will manage users. Wifi with a LoS would work, 4G would likely work (coverage permitting), but she will need a way to verify users and log details of who is doing what including filtering etc. The problem with holiday lets (as an owner) is user verification, most of the time you have very limited details about the lead booker and whatever they tell you about other guests, that's all. While as long as you've told them obvious things like maximum occupancy and got signed T&C's back, that's generally enough to comply with your legal/insurance obligations, it's likely not enough if a rights holder comes knocking over a dodgy download or worse, the bare minimum would be some sort of email/text verification system, while easily bypassed it at least shows a reasonable effort to verify users. For example if re-sharing the cottage wifi, how does she plan on differentiating between the cottage and van guests in the event of an issue?
 
WJA96 said:
. . .
It’s not possible to recommend a SIM card until you’ve surveyed the location. . . . I just go to Tesco and nab a selection of SIMs as I go through the till. Then I test them all out and book a contract with the best one.. . .
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I had never thought of that but it makes complete sense, I will suggest it to her.


As to the observations thta you and @Avalon make about GDPR, RIPA, Privacy, etc. I will pass that on as well, she can work out how to handle it.

I do know that when I have used WiFi in cafes they often (but not always) ask for an email address but I also notice that if you give something "random" it doesn't seem to stop you using their WiFi.
 
I think the term for it is due diligence. If you ask for an e-mail address and they supply a false one, then you have at least asked for an e-mail address. If you get an e-mail address or a phone number and check it works by requiring clicking on an authentication link then you’ve definitely got a due diligence defence. You can set this up in the portal within UniFi if you go that way for WiFi. With Mikrotik you use hotspot and edit the landing page.

If you have strong 4G signal then you may be able to use consumer type equipment with indoor antennae and get Wireless Lan as well. The TP-Link MR range is very good. Just make sure you buy the LTE6 (300Mbps) variant.
 
WJA96 said:
I think the term for it is due diligence. If you ask for an e-mail address and they supply a false one, then you have at least asked for an e-mail address. If you get an e-mail address or a phone number and check it works by requiring clicking on an authentication link then you’ve definitely got a due diligence defence. You can set this up in the portal within UniFi if you go that way for WiFi. With Mikrotik you use hotspot and edit the landing page. . . .
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To be honest, I suspect that knowing who the paying "Guest" is, having their Bank Account or Credit Card details, email address, mobile number and an address which is used for correspondence purposes pretty much sorts out due diligence on "Identity". I will certainly suggest that something should be added to the Ts&Cs and the welcome pack advising the guest that they should not disclose the WiFi password to anyone else; this should also be done in the case of the Cottage - thanks for that.

WJA96 said:
. . . If you have strong 4G signal then you may be able to use consumer type equipment with indoor antennae and get Wireless LAN as well. The TP-Link MR range is very good. Just make sure you buy the LTE6 (300Mbps) variant.
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I'm not with you here - i.e. I am lost - sorry.


@Caged - I am DEFINITELY lost here and I suspect that all of this is going way beyond what she wants to get involved with - which is just providing WiFi for a Holiday let.


@Avalon - I take your point about "wanting people out and about rather then sat indoors"- there's nowt as queer as folk ;)
 
@WJA96 @Caged @Avalon and possibly others, do you have any experience of the Huawei B535 MiFi box?

I ask because she ended up doing nothing due to Covid but is about to start letting out her caravan and has asked me about a "3" deal for £17 per month for a two year Unlimited Internet access contract that includes a Huawei B535 Modem/Router.

The Microtik Chateau LTE12 costs over £200 and there would be extra charges for a SIM card on top of that.
 
Huawei kit is generally excellent. Whether 3 gets a good signal inside the caravan will be absolutely critical to how well the whole thing works.
 
Well, that was a whole lot of wasted effort - she has agreed to split the costs and share WiFi with a neighbouring caravan that already has some sort of Internet connection :mad:
 
stockhausen said:
Well, that was a whole lot of wasted effort - she has agreed to split the costs and share WiFi with a neighbouring caravan that already has some sort of Internet connection :mad:
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Well, now you're a lot more knowledgeable about it all for next time she asks.
 
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