Winegard Gateway and data plans

[Javi]

I've got them on the ropes, a couple more body shots and they're going down. ��

[Camping family]

Originally Posted by Javi

I've got them on the ropes, a couple more body shots and they're going down. ��

Keep me updated I’m still trying to get a straight answer from them kids at att. Don’t see what the big issue is. I have unlimited data on my plan just want a sim for the router and use my current plan.

[Javi]

Originally Posted by Camping family

Keep me updated I’m still trying to get a straight answer from them kids at att. Don’t see what the big issue is. I have unlimited data on my plan just want a sim for the router and use my current plan.

Annnnnnnnnnnddddd the WINNER by KNOCKOUT


Forget the children at the AT&T store.... dial 611 and talk to them..

It took maybe 20 minutes

With the plan I've been on for about 10 years I could have gotten the hotspot for $10 but it would have shared the same data as the phones... not what I was looking for...

I asked what I could do to get more data for the hotspot... $80 for unlimited hotspot data...

OR....

For about $50 I could have unlimited data on both phones and the hotspot....

Done deal...

All done on the phone and sim on its way, should have it Tuesday.


If I had already been on unlimited it would have been $20

[Butters]

Originally Posted by Javi

Annnnnnnnnnnddddd the WINNER by KNOCKOUT


Forget the children at the AT&T store.... dial 611 and talk to them..

It took maybe 20 minutes

With the plan I've been on for about 10 years I could have gotten the hotspot for $10 but it would have shared the same data as the phones... not what I was looking for...

I asked what I could do to get more data for the hotspot... $80 for unlimited hotspot data...

OR....

For about $50 I could have unlimited data on both phones and the hotspot....

Done deal...

All done on the phone and sim on its way, should have it Tuesday.


If I had already been on unlimited it would have been $20

I wonder if I can’t get the kids and barely English speaking teens at Verizon to understand the same damn thing. Like “I want to give you money… give me the card!”

[behrmr]

Originally Posted by kheintz

Did Verizon charge you $10 per month for the router as an additional device?

Yes. It’s just like another phone on my existing plan. I suspend service on it in the winter.

[behrmr]

Originally Posted by behrmr

I bought the Winegard GW-1000 Gateway 4G LTE WiFi Router for my 5W Cougar and set it up. I have 1 trip in with it.

Installation was super easy and just took a couple of wire nuts and 4 screws. There's no pre-made connector for power but there's a 12VDC harness that is right there bundled with the harness for the unit inside the cutout behind their little plate. Remove the plate, pull the harness down, cut your battery power. Then cut the 12vdc harness (green is positive on mine) and then wire nut it all back together. Pull their wiress through the hole in the bracket, connect it together, then secure the bracket so the hole is centered over the hole in the ceiling. Put 4 new screws through the bracket into the ceiling to secure the bracket. Insert your SIM and snap the router into the bracket.

Follow the instructions to configure the router using your mobile device and their free Connected app.

I already have a VZW plan with unlimited shared data so I called them and gave them the IMEI for the router and they shipped me a pre-configured SIM card. You put the SIM card in it and then use the app to switch the internet source to "4G" and it links up to VZW automatically.

I set it all up in my driveway where I get very good VZW signal to test. The router itself works fine and gave me a strong signal even when inside of my house through the garage door/walls/etc. It also allows you to have a "guest" SSID which is nice.

You can switch the internet source to "WiFi" and then scan for a wireless network and link to that. The router will then use that for internet instead of 4G. That also worked well at my house.

When we went camping this past trip we were in a known very fringe VZW area. People with VZW phones were getting no data signal. My Winegard, however, was connecting. It was in and out but more usable than just using cellular data on my phone. I forgot to take the Winegard provided SIM with me this trip or I would have activated it and tried it as I believe the carrier behind it is AT&T.

I also hooked it up to the campground's WiFi but their WiFi was worse than the VZW signal and we were directly under their repeater tower. I don't know how campgrounds WiFi can be so bad... The Winegard unit claims it can work with a captive WiFi at a campground but the place we stayed was just "open".

A big benefit is that you can configure all of your devices to connect to YOUR private router instead of the campground's WiFi. Then you don't have to change it again when you move to the next campground. AND it firewalls you off from the rest of the campground.

This is not a very technical review but more of a working use case from my one experience.

It will require a few more trips to know if it was worth it but I figured with the amount of money we spend on camping, $275 is a drop in the bucket. If it doesn't work out I'll try another solution and just use the existing holes where the Winegard unit is for new antennas.

Last season I had about 4 trips and the Winegard router worked great linked to my existing VZW plan.

This season when I pulled the RV from the storage lot and brought it home, the Winegard Router had reset itself to factory settings. It wasn't a big deal because configuration with the app takes less than 10 minutes. After the trip, I parked the RV and disconnected the battery. On the next trip, the same thing happened. I haven't done much research to see if it's a problem with the router or not.

Other than having to configure it each trip it's continued to work great and all our connected devices work well.

[Javi]

If I had to guess... turning ALL the power off for an extended period probably won't keep the memory alive.