Hi I am looking for some input on which model to get. There are so many options I keep getting wrapped around the axle. Here are my needs:
must work for AT&T and Verizon (currently using 2 hotspots)
must be able to use campground wifi when no cell signal
must have 2 sim slots (again 1 for AT&T, 1 for Verizon)
failover between sims and wifi
I was looking at the transit duo…but do I need 2 modems? I believe there are licenses required if I wanted to get fancy and try channel bonding. I only need around 3mb/s…so it’s probably overkill. Are there other features that require licensing?
Max Transit Duo with Primecare - renewed annually. Free Solo license for Speedfusion - host at Vultr for $6/mo…
It has two active cellular radios. Bonding for bandwidth doesn’t work well, partly due to CPU being under-powered. It works for reliability - failover, very flexible configuration.
Wifi antennas serve both LAN duty and Wifi-as-WAN duty - just get an Access Point that plugs into the LAN port and offload Wifi-as-WAN job from the Wifi radio. Alternatively, get a Mikrotik Metal 52 to provide the additional WAN from external Wifi sources.
Easy choice but don’t expect bandwidth bonding to be very useful. Particularly since many websites and most streaming service won’t work through the Speedfusion VPN.
Hi Brent, my wife and I live full time in an RV working remotely while traveling. I purchased the MobileMustHave.com Ultimate Road Warrior package for our RV three months ago. It includes the Max Transit Duo.
I use dual pre-paid AT&T 100 GB sims for my primary, and dual 30 GB Verizon sims as backup. We also have ethernet while in our home park, but it’s somewhat intermittent. The cost for all 4 sims is $150 (since we have Verizon cell phone plans) and gives us pretty good coverage.
If you can get by with only a single sim per carrier, and don’t need fail-over between carriers, then a single modem may work for you.
Note that fail-over doesn’t occur if the primary just slows down a lot, it requires a total loss. I understand why this is the case, but wish I didn’t have to manually manage this sort of situation.
I’ve considered enabling bonding, but worry at this point about going through 2x the data. My setup has just about enough data for my use. I may look at that when affordable, higher data plans become available.
@ronl - Bonding doesn’t have to use double bandwidth! If you set up WAN smoothing then it duplicates the data. However, if you use bonding then it just bonds the available connections together as one higher capacity connection. FWIW, I seem to achieve about 80% of the two cellular connections … so 2 25Mb/s bonded togeher gives me about 40MB/s rather than the theoretical 50MB/s. Turn on FEC and you get a bit more protection from lost packets and it drops me to around 75% of theoretical maximum. I use WAN smoothing when I have 2 high capacity connections (e.g.FIOS and Spectrum) but never with cell as I find it its too expensive in bandwidth consumption. Let me know if you’d like some screenshots of my settings.
I am using the CAT-18 single modem MT (Max Transit 4GLTE)in my Motorhome with the Puma 401 antenna as I also have a T-Mobile (B71) 100GB per month SIM as well as ATT 100GB and Verizon 100 GB SIM. Plus a couple Mobley SIMs. I plug a Mikrotik Metal into the WAN port to use for WiFi as WAN while in Campgrounds that have great WiFi. My Puma is mounted on the Batwing antenna so it raises and lowers, staying level while driving or camping. We have been on the road for almost 5 months and the Max always has connectivity with one of the SIMs, AT&T is normally the highest bandwidth on the MAX and was similar in my MR1100 over the last 4 years.
I live & work out of my RV. I have been using the Peplink Max Transit CAT-18 since May of 2020. I use AT&T & Verizon SIMs. Have been very pleased with it. While I have an external antennae, I’ve yet to install it & the provided paddle antennas work just fine.
When I went through the decision on which Peplink device to acquire, I ruled out the Max Transit Duo as the additional cost of the product & annual Prime Care license could not justify the expenditure for my use.
If you have the applicable data plans from AT&T & Verizon, the setup is basically plug and play. I don’t believe the 5G model has been certified by AT&T & Verizon yet.
With regards to your point 2 above… Campground WIFI is notorious for being inadequate. I would venture to say if you can’t get a cellular signal from either AT&T or Verizon, the chances of finding a campground with decent WIFI is somewhat remote. At any rate, if a WIFI signal is available, the Peplink will find it & you can use that as a primary or a standby if you so choose.
A point of reference on fallover from SIM A to SIM B with the CAT-18. If you lose the signal from the carrier from SIM A, the CAT-18 will fallover to SIM B. It is not instantaneous as the single modem has to connect to the new carrier.
The Peplink UI is very intuitive.