We travel/work in our RV about half the year and use a pepwave, but have been considering switching to one of these for 5g. Pro tip: instead of setting your router SSID to the same as home; create a specific one for your RV. Then you can set that SSID to 'low data mode' on your devices. Most hotspot-friendly data plans are only 50/100GB, and it disappears a lot faster than you expect. Another reason to use a custom SSID: you don't necessarily want your phone to auto connect for the same reason (and it already has it's own data connection). The only time we connect our phones to the RV hotspot is if we're casting to the TV. But we built a home server for the RV with Jellyfin, so we don't need that most of the time.
1:14 you have a great helper Chris. Something to think about is that T-mobile offers "backup" internet for $10 a month if you're a current customer. Limited to 130GB / month, but for an RV user who isn't permanently living in it, should be enough. Also Visible for $25 a month has unlimited hotspot albeit at 5mbps.
Bought this router over a year ago, good choice 😂. I use it as a backup for Comcast,which seems to go out while I’m working (remotely).. I had T-Mobile home internet as a backup, but that was $50/month, I’m using the T-Mobile BYOD plan for $10/month, it does have a limit of I believe 30GB/month, then it throttles the connection, but it’s perfect for the occasional backup use, and saves a lot on the cost of having a backup. I did get the better directional antenna for it, and pointed it at the nearest T-Mobile 5G site, works well 👍
I've been using this model with a Waveform QuadMini antenna at home for a few months now. I'm able to pull 500m down and 30 up through that modem, and it offers me a cheap, fast and relatively reliable backup internet connection.
Chris, excellent review! I've been considering the Spitz AX for some time but recently came across the newer Puli AX, which is only about $20 more as of November 2024. Both models seem impressive, but the Puli AX stands out with slightly faster Wi-Fi speeds and the added convenience of a built-in battery, which is particularly useful during power outages. If you ever get the chance, I would love to see your thoughts on it in a future review. I've been a big fan of your work for years-thank you for consistently providing such insightful content!
Great movie Chris. Since you have both the Spitz and the Berly, you could use them combined with the Spitz as router and the Berly in access point mode. Then you can take advantage of the external WiFi antennas as well
ordered one quiet a while ago, and installed it in my RV a few month ago. I love these little GL.inet routers. Also works awesome with Wireguard Site to Site with BGP to announce routes
Fellow Forest River owner here, we have a Rockwood. My primary ISP at home is T-Mobile with a Waveform directional like you showed, but since I'm in the boonies out here the best I can get down is 40mbps. I wish I could get those speeds you are getting! Thanks for showing that external antenna for wifi, I may get one of those for my RV also.
GLinet makes the most functional travel routers, the only drawback is that they are made in China and their openWRT is closed, so who knows what they did to the code.
I have owned the Spitz AX for about 9 months now. I bought it to use as a failover WAN connection after a series of sustained outages from my ISP. My SO works from home, so we needed a cellular connection fast enough for Microsoft Teams video calls. I bought a SIM from Tello mobile and I get 5 GB/mo for $10/mo on a data-only plan. Tello is a prepaid service, so if we experience another sustained internet outage, I can increase my data plan for one month and change it back the next!
I'm not sure if its in this video, put you had stated that if you activate your Starlink, let say, half way through the billing cycle, your will be charged the full month. Can you confirm this? Because I read differently from Starlink in which they charge prorata of remaining days of the cycle. Thus, for our example, 50% of total monthly cost.
Im planning on a trailer setup that will have WiFi as primary wan and starlink and secondary. Do you have any recommendations. Something else that I’m try to figure out. I have a unvr id like to have camera on the trailer that would record to the nvr in the house when connected to WiFi but also record to the trailers cloud key.
Can you use your iPhone hotspot for the wifi as WAN? Also what unlimited monthly (no contract) SIM options do you recommend? Going to start traveling with our camper more in 2025 and have the mobile Starlink so this seems like a great option.
Yes you can tether your phone to it. I have two SIMs, one is in a T-Mobile router before they started GPS tracking on them, and the other is an AT&T "unlimited" tablet plan. Note that after 22 gig AT&T says they have the right to start throttling you on busy towers, but I've never had them do this.
I have this for more than a year. I put a T-Mobile sim card in with 100GB per month. However, my IPTV will not stream HD channels using this router. Other then not streaming IPTV HD router works good. I can stream HD with YT. At my home right next to a cell tower it speed from 500MB to 800MB down with this router, but still cannot steam my HD IPTV channels.
Is this router just useful for RVs or is it also useful in a home setting? Can I use this router instead of or in conjunction with the all in one router/modem provided by my ISP, T-Mobile ?
There is a bigger brother of this router with a built-in battery called Puli AX which can run off its internal battery for approximately 9 hours, useful for on the go or home. It effectively has a built-in UPS for uninterrupted use.
Great video, thanks for sharing. For a permanent scenario that already has a UDM-SE, would you recommend using the failover of the UDM to cellular only on the Spitz AX, or just put everything coming into the Spitz AX (Starlink + cellular) and let it handle failover?
@@CrosstalkSolutions Yes, I actually have that with an external antenna and it works ok...but it's expensive to run for more than a couple of days. you are correct, it's just 4g. It'll run a POS system fine but the max data you can get is 20gig, and when the owner decides to stream netflix even though I told him not to...lol
You mean to tell me this guy can’t use the external WiFi antenna and just put an access point in the camper? I’m surprised he didn’t put 60ghz on so he can share his internet with his friends
Why in the world would anyone want a router that takes 3 SIM cards (3 different carriers) I have been here and no signal is no signal. You pay for 3 plans but are only using one at a time. Good grief I dislike Elon but Starlink is the way to go again I’m full time and I know. Go to the KOA in marble, NC and your fancy router won’t work among other places. Go off grid and yep it no works yet Starlink will and cheaper that this thing.
Crosstalk solutions how do I setup a site to site openvpn between a pfsense firewall and a edgerouterx I have watched a video and it failed well trying to configure it here is the the link to the video that I watched to get it setup th-cam.com/video/PdcCxWlNn_U/w-d-xo.htmlsi=kc2HZAb1bL1hWp2W can you please make a video on how to do this vpn please
We travel/work in our RV about half the year and use a pepwave, but have been considering switching to one of these for 5g. Pro tip: instead of setting your router SSID to the same as home; create a specific one for your RV. Then you can set that SSID to 'low data mode' on your devices. Most hotspot-friendly data plans are only 50/100GB, and it disappears a lot faster than you expect. Another reason to use a custom SSID: you don't necessarily want your phone to auto connect for the same reason (and it already has it's own data connection). The only time we connect our phones to the RV hotspot is if we're casting to the TV. But we built a home server for the RV with Jellyfin, so we don't need that most of the time.
Great tip!
I feel having the same SSID without being on the same subnet could cause some confusion if people were trying to game on the LAN over Wi-Fi...
1:14 you have a great helper Chris. Something to think about is that T-mobile offers "backup" internet for $10 a month if you're a current customer. Limited to 130GB / month, but for an RV user who isn't permanently living in it, should be enough. Also Visible for $25 a month has unlimited hotspot albeit at 5mbps.
Ive had this router for almost 8 months love it.❤
Bought this router over a year ago, good choice 😂. I use it as a backup for Comcast,which seems to go out while I’m working (remotely).. I had T-Mobile home internet as a backup, but that was $50/month, I’m using the T-Mobile BYOD plan for $10/month, it does have a limit of I believe 30GB/month, then it throttles the connection, but it’s perfect for the occasional backup use, and saves a lot on the cost of having a backup. I did get the better directional antenna for it, and pointed it at the nearest T-Mobile 5G site, works well 👍
I've been using this model with a Waveform QuadMini antenna at home for a few months now. I'm able to pull 500m down and 30 up through that modem, and it offers me a cheap, fast and relatively reliable backup internet connection.
Chris, excellent review! I've been considering the Spitz AX for some time but recently came across the newer Puli AX, which is only about $20 more as of November 2024.
Both models seem impressive, but the Puli AX stands out with slightly faster Wi-Fi speeds and the added convenience of a built-in battery, which is particularly useful during power outages. If you ever get the chance, I would love to see your thoughts on it in a future review.
I've been a big fan of your work for years-thank you for consistently providing such insightful content!
Great movie Chris. Since you have both the Spitz and the Berly, you could use them combined with the Spitz as router and the Berly in access point mode. Then you can take advantage of the external WiFi antennas as well
ordered one quiet a while ago, and installed it in my RV a few month ago. I love these little GL.inet routers. Also works awesome with Wireguard Site to Site with BGP to announce routes
Fellow Forest River owner here, we have a Rockwood. My primary ISP at home is T-Mobile with a Waveform directional like you showed, but since I'm in the boonies out here the best I can get down is 40mbps. I wish I could get those speeds you are getting! Thanks for showing that external antenna for wifi, I may get one of those for my RV also.
Wicked Video Chris, can't wait to get one my self !
GLinet makes the most functional travel routers, the only drawback is that they are made in China and their openWRT is closed, so who knows what they did to the code.
You do have the ability to access the full WRT interface.
@ the interface is irrelevant… it’s not OpenWRT, it’s based on OpenWRT. It’s their own closed source version.
I have owned the Spitz AX for about 9 months now. I bought it to use as a failover WAN connection after a series of sustained outages from my ISP. My SO works from home, so we needed a cellular connection fast enough for Microsoft Teams video calls. I bought a SIM from Tello mobile and I get 5 GB/mo for $10/mo on a data-only plan. Tello is a prepaid service, so if we experience another sustained internet outage, I can increase my data plan for one month and change it back the next!
Peplink antenna works great with the ax too
Its almost the perfect router for an RV. I wish it had a 12v input to power directly from the rv batteries. Very cool router though....I want one
The DC jack supports 9-36V input, it'll manage it's power. 3:04 timestamp in video of the power jack.
Fair enough..I missed that. Specs on the website said 24v. Would still be nice to not have to make an adapter yourself. @@niiiiiix
No matter where you travel!
Borneo Rain Forest, "Hold my beer."
You should test Teltonika routers
I'm not sure if its in this video, put you had stated that if you activate your Starlink, let say, half way through the billing cycle, your will be charged the full month. Can you confirm this? Because I read differently from Starlink in which they charge prorata of remaining days of the cycle. Thus, for our example, 50% of total monthly cost.
Im planning on a trailer setup that will have WiFi as primary wan and starlink and secondary. Do you have any recommendations.
Something else that I’m try to figure out. I have a unvr id like to have camera on the trailer that would record to the nvr in the house when connected to WiFi but also record to the trailers cloud key.
Would love to know if it allows you to tweak the cellular settings for TTL so that it uses cell data as opposed to hotspot tethering data
yes the Modem inside allows setting TTL. MTU, IMEI, band locking and so many other settings.
Does it work better than slate because slate works than disconnects while traveling
So, by using this option this would negate using Speedify, correct?
Can you use your iPhone hotspot for the wifi as WAN? Also what unlimited monthly (no contract) SIM options do you recommend? Going to start traveling with our camper more in 2025 and have the mobile Starlink so this seems like a great option.
Yes you can tether your phone to it. I have two SIMs, one is in a T-Mobile router before they started GPS tracking on them, and the other is an AT&T "unlimited" tablet plan. Note that after 22 gig AT&T says they have the right to start throttling you on busy towers, but I've never had them do this.
This looks to me like a cellular version of the Beryl AX😀
Yes - it's like the Beryl AX on steroids.
I have this for more than a year. I put a T-Mobile sim card in with 100GB per month. However, my IPTV will not stream HD channels using this router. Other then not streaming IPTV HD router works good. I can stream HD with YT. At my home right next to a cell tower it speed from 500MB to 800MB down with this router, but still cannot steam my HD IPTV channels.
Is this router just useful for RVs or is it also useful in a home setting? Can I use this router instead of or in conjunction with the all in one router/modem provided by my ISP, T-Mobile ?
There's no reason why you couldn't use this in a home setting.
Thanks
There is a bigger brother of this router with a built-in battery called Puli AX which can run off its internal battery for approximately 9 hours, useful for on the go or home. It effectively has a built-in UPS for uninterrupted use.
Thanks
Great video, thanks for sharing. For a permanent scenario that already has a UDM-SE, would you recommend using the failover of the UDM to cellular only on the Spitz AX, or just put everything coming into the Spitz AX (Starlink + cellular) and let it handle failover?
UniFi has an LTE failover device, but IIRC, it's just 4G. Regardless - if it's just for failover, then 4G is fine.
@@CrosstalkSolutions Yes, I actually have that with an external antenna and it works ok...but it's expensive to run for more than a couple of days. you are correct, it's just 4g. It'll run a POS system fine but the max data you can get is 20gig, and when the owner decides to stream netflix even though I told him not to...lol
Post your Cerro Gordo footage, Bents latest episode doesn’t do it justice I’m sure
Soon!
The Cudy P5 5g Router is better !!!! With the pepwave external antenna
what about does it work in Europe?
If you have SIM cards, Ethernet, and/or Wi-Fi - then yes it will work the same.
2.5GB WAN and 1GB LAN? what's the point
Why must I choose to connect external wifi antenna or not? 3:22
You mean to tell me this guy can’t use the external WiFi antenna and just put an access point in the camper? I’m surprised he didn’t put 60ghz on so he can share his internet with his friends
Love the exposed QR code
I should of known that was a rickroll on the back of his laptop.
What if you drive to a other time-zone
It'll still work.
Us homeless who live in our vehicles out of necessity could use that kind of money
It might work great but it looks like a menorah.
400.00 for a antenna what a f-ing joke
Why in the world would anyone want a router that takes 3 SIM cards (3 different carriers) I have been here and no signal is no signal. You pay for 3 plans but are only using one at a time. Good grief I dislike Elon but Starlink is the way to go again I’m full time and I know. Go to the KOA in marble, NC and your fancy router won’t work among other places. Go off grid and yep it no works yet Starlink will and cheaper that this thing.
first
Crosstalk solutions how do I setup a site to site openvpn between a pfsense firewall and a edgerouterx I have watched a video and it failed well trying to configure it here is the the link to the video that I watched to get it setup th-cam.com/video/PdcCxWlNn_U/w-d-xo.htmlsi=kc2HZAb1bL1hWp2W can you please make a video on how to do this vpn please