You had me right up until pets, then I got lost. Is there like networking for dummies ? oh yea have to do fresh water tank, shock is in RV. Throw some in the hose and shoot it in to tank. Still have some time
Marcell and Waggle is a unique product for RVers, they are a cellular connected monitoring device the can notify you if the RV is getting too hot, too cold, or if you loose power. They use cell service from ATT or Verizon to accomplish that.
https://www.meetmarcell.com/https://mywaggle.com/
Both require monthly plans for service ranging from 12-20 a month, Marcell lets you pause for free, Waggle charges for stop/start. The peace of mind when away from the RV is worth it to some. I continually think about when the 400 loop lost power for hours mid summer in 2016 and thankfully due to the shade and Disney being fast with a solution we where repowered before it got over 78 in the RV. Had that happen elsewhere it could have been bad.
So with paying extra per month for just this service, and wanting some reliable internet on the road (not all campground Wi-Fi is created equally) I would need to Hotspot off my phone (creating a mini Wi-Fi network) or use a dedicated hotspot device like this one:
They are useful and portable, they require an extra charge/plan and I can get more into that later. The are however, low powered devices and only do Wi-Fi to cellular. Their Wi-Fi abilities are limited, most claim up to 16 Wi-Fi clients and my experience is after 2-3 they have performance issues. In addition they cannot be used to repeat park Wi-Fi and are only good if they get a cell signal.
The router I am testing is not the fastest out there for this, but its WAY more powerful then the MiFi, it will start to see a performance hit at about 15-20 clients and max out closer to 30-40. Now I do not plan to have that many clients attached to this device. However, its also powerful enough to repeat park Wi-Fi into the RV. So usually my house Wi-Fi is pretty weak in the RV, I can use it but its slow. Right now this little router is connected to my house Wi-Fi using its better antenna and radio then my phone and sending a strong signal in the RV. I used to get 4-8Mb/s on wifi in the RV, now I get 40-60Mb/s.
So what does all this mean. Well it means that if I can get a good park Wi-Fi connection maybe it will be usable for streaming Disney Plus on a rainy day, or allowing me to VPN into work so I can work on the road. This router also has a 4g cellular radio in it, so I can add a plan for it so it can use 4G data and those big external antenna to get a good signal to get on the internet if park Wi-Fi is slow or non existent. Again I will get into plans later, I am still learning what is out there for best bang for the buck when it comes to 4G or even 5G hotspot data. The last thing this can do is also USB connect to my iPhone and 'tether' over the USB connection to use the 60G of hotspot data that comes with my phone plan. Tethering is just using USB instead of Wi-Fi to use data off your phone.
So if I have dedicated internet, what does it get me? Well now I can use my TV to stream, my laptop to work, have an Alexa speaker in the RV, and even use RV Wisper.
https://hughesautoformers.com/rv-whisperhttps://rvwhisper.com/
RV Wisper is an IoT (Internet of Things) gateway allowing you to monitor things in the RV like Temperature, 120V power, 12v Power, even propane levels. It does this though bluetooth enabled/compatible devices that talk to the gateway and send the data to a server on the internet (AKA the cloud.) From there you have a phone app that you can use to check on things and even set thresholds of when the server should send a notification (temp, power, etc.) Basically the same thing the Marcell/Waggle can do and much much more.
I am an IT guy by trade, and I love the idea of all this stuff. But thats only if its in a reasonable budget. I am finding some very interesting ways to get unlimited or close to it 4G (enough data anyway) for around 30 a month. I have not tested them yet but one is T-Mobile based and one is Verizon based. Once I do some testing, I will report and explain all that too.
That help some?