I made my own version of the motorhome wifi iBoost - basically two back-to-back wifi routers. The external one talks to the remote hotspot, FON spot, whatever. The internal one creates a local hotspot to which you connect your devices.

2 x Tablets, and 2 x Phones.

Yes, it pulls in LOADS more than just a phone - I can often pick up several hotspots when the phone sees none. I have had it work anything up to about 2 miles away, though a lot depends on the terrain, and how good the remote hotspot is at 'listening'.

The one huge advantage is that for things like site wi fi on a campsite, the login is for a single device. I log in via the long range aerial, and then all 4 devices share the connection.

I wouldn't be without it.

Cost me about £70 to make, but you need to know a LOT about LANS, NAT, DHCP & Routing.

Buying a Motorhome wifi one would be much easier, as Addie has done all the hard stuff for you.

Morph

 

I was recently staying at the Dunnet Bay Caravan Club site and had no 3G and no wifi on site. I put up my external wifi amplifier and pretty soon located several SSID's that hadn't been visible before - they were over half a mile away. One of them was BTwithFon so I was able to connect. It isn't that common to find unsecured signals so I mostly rely on picking up BTwithFon or reaching campsite wifi signals that can sometimes be too far away. Another recent example was on another site in Scotland with no wifi and no 3G but with the amplifier I was able to pick up a secured wifi address from a hotel across the loch. I drove round,went in and had a drink asked for the wifi code - I was then able to use it from the van for the next 3 days that we were there.

 

I can usually find a BT Fon signal in the UK.
In Europe France has a similar set up to Fon which works quite well. In Portugal I struggled except on campsites where most of their WiFi is free and l could use it from the motorhome and not have to sit in reception.

 

In the past I've spent far too long with my long range wi-fi aerial trying to find an unlocked signal when in Europe, mainly because campsites often have trees around that seem to deflect the signal.

These days I don't bother with the thing, and choose to use the free signal provided in French Tourist Offices when I need to, or the campsite signal when offered free elsewhere. On stellplatz or similar, I don't bother with the net all.