VW Carstick v eBay or trade Me options

Mark Masters · Jan 9, 2019

Hi all smart young technocrats :
We have a 2018 Ocean 4wd with all mod cons.inc Sat Nav and the latest audio system.
We live in N Z but the van is in Europe and we are coming over soon to use it for a ski holiday in Italy.
We have iPhones, iPads and iMacs and can use these wonderful things ,but we are not really very savvy with technology stuff .
The local NZ VW dealer has just quoted us $364 for a VW carsick which has to come from Germany .We can buy online for a fraction of this price ($100) a Huawei Stick( China) that looks exactly the same and reads as though it does all that the VW one does , but will it ?
We would put a prepay UK Sim in it when we get to Europe.( assuming that this is possible )
Global Roaming charges are horrendous and having internet in the van seems to be a good option.We will only be in Europe for 6 weeks this time but plan to return regularly.

Can any bright young technologically minded owner shed some light on this problem. ie Does one have to use a VW Carstick ??

WelshGas · Jan 9, 2019

Cheaper and easier.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0179F9FI6/?tag=unique09f-21

And one of these.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M3VJ2B2/?tag=unique09f-21

Data sim lasts for 24 months.

NO ROAMING charges within the EU + other countries including USA, Australia and NZ.

MiFi has 5 hr battery life so you can put it in your pocket when out of the van.
That’s what I’m using now on the Beach at Brighton le Sands near Sidney.

Ting Tong · Jan 9, 2019

The three data sim mentioned by welshgas is good and three and giffgaff companies both have good pay as you go and sim only deals which may suit better if you want calls as well. Look on their websites. At the moment uk providers are obliged to provide the same deal when roaming throughout the EU but that may change post Breixt. If you have an iPhone you could just put a sim with data into that and then tether laptops and iPads to that by enabling Personal Hotspot in iPhone settings. There are limits to tethering though especially when roaming. I wouldn’t bother with the vw dongle and just get the Huawei that wg suggested if you want something more dedicated than tethering.

kp64zl · Jan 9, 2019

Buying a prepaid SIM is very easy in the UK and the data/phone minutes will be valid across Europe with no extra charges.

There are SIM card vending machines in the airports for all the major phone providers -- so you can do this on arrival in UK.

(i'm assuming your first port of call will be UK of course)

s2bear · Jan 26, 2019

One thing to be aware of when using your Apple devices on a cellular WiFi hotspot using a dongle is this:

iPhones and IPads are aware you’re using cellular data when you connect them to the personal hotspot facility ON ANOTHER APPLE DEVICE, consequently, via the settings, they’re able NOT to auto back up your photos and videos to iCloud.

If you simply connect your iPhone or iPad to a WiFi dongle or router from the likes of Huawei, they assume that this is regular WiFi and will auto back up every photo and video, the latter of which can munch through the largest of data allowances really quickly if you’re sightseeing etc.

It IS possible to turn off the iCloud photo stream backup on your devices but it then wants to delete the photos stored locally on the handset etc which is a pain.

I was snowboarding over Christmas and turned off WiFi so that my ‘ithingies’ didn’t try and back up my GoPro footage. At the stroke of midnight, my iPad switched itself back onto the WiFi and munched 32Gb backing up, before breakfast.

Consequently I’m not going to use my Huawei dongle when I’m on hols taking lots of media, just for regular day to day stuff.

Sorry for the long post but hopefully it’s relevant and can save your data or a large bill. if anyone knows a ‘simple workaround’ I’d love to know.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

WelshGas · Jan 26, 2019

s2bear said:
One thing to be aware of when using your Apple devices on a cellular WiFi hotspot using a dongle is this:

iPhones and IPads are aware you’re using cellular data when you connect them to the personal hotspot facility ON ANOTHER APPLE DEVICE, consequently, via the settings, they’re able NOT to auto back up your photos and videos to iCloud.

If you simply connect your iPhone or iPad to a WiFi dongle or router from the likes of Huawei, they assume that this is regular WiFi and will auto back up every photo and video, the latter of which can munch through the largest of data allowances really quickly if you’re sightseeing etc.

It IS possible to turn off the iCloud photo stream backup on your devices but it then wants to delete the photos stored locally on the handset etc which is a pain.

I was snowboarding over Christmas and turned off WiFi so that my ‘ithingies’ didn’t try and back up my GoPro footage. At the stroke of midnight, my iPad switched itself back onto the WiFi and munched 32Gb backing up, before breakfast.

Consequently I’m not going to use my Huawei dongle when I’m on hols taking lots of media, just for regular day to day stuff.

Sorry for the long post but hopefully it’s relevant and can save your data or a large bill. if anyone knows a ‘simple workaround’ I’d love to know.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Safer not to use iCloud or similar at all. Not a fan of these Data Storage facilities, that aren’t under my control.