I am looking at various options and hardware for helping pick up wifi from poorly broadcast signals at many parks. I would like to connect an outdoor antenna to an indoor wireless router and be able to connect up to 4 or 5 devices wirelessly within the trailer.Has anyone tried the Radio Labs kit? http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/usb-repeater or some similar setup?I tried a similar kit from JefaTech that was a very poor performer and do not want to make that mistake again.I notice that the specs for antennas only refer to 802.11b and g. Is there any changes to the antenna to enable 802.11n reception or are antennas going to receive 802.11n signal ok?

802.11n can use either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. If the RV Park only has 802.11g, that is all you are going to get. 802.11b and 802.11g use 2.4GHz only.Your experience with the Jefatech may have been where it was being used and you wouldn't see any thing better with any other device. In most RV parks, you will only be able to minimally use WiFi.I work with it every day, mostly under ideal conditions and it is still iffy some times.

I'm not a big fan of RV parks WiFi. Usually even if they have a strong WiFi signal the Bandwidth of the "pipe" they use to connect their network to the internet just is not big enough to handle how mny devices want to connect through from the campground. I've been fortunate so far to use WiFi sparingly, and rely on my smartphome as a hotspot when I need to connect to work. Not in my RV - but for a few non-profits I work with I've set up EnGenuis Bridge from a WiFi point - to the EnGenius - to a Wifi Access Point. I've considered do this for RoadAbode. Just is not a priority for our RV Lifestyle right now because what we do - works. Maybe in the Future. Anyway here's the EnGenius I'm taking about EnGenius Technologies Long Range 11n 2.4GHz Wireless Bridge/Access Point (ENH202) Maybe that would help?

FYIMore and more parks are setting up various band-width limiting systems.Either they slow the IPs bandwidth when it exceeds a certain amount, or they shut down the IP.What this means is if you are reading e-mail or lite web-surfing you see great speed.If you are trying to download movies or TV series, you will not.Also some parks are also requiring that the IP that accesses their network "log" in. So a simple router will NOT work on this type of network.

Thanks for the replies guys,jhilley wrote:802.11n can use either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. If the RV Park only has 802.11g, that is all you are going to get. 802.11b and 802.11g use 2.4GHz only.....My antenna question was about parks or other wifi sources that use 802.11n. Will an antenna built to 802.11b and g specs still work? I suspect it will only allow 801.11 g speed at best.The JefaTech setup I tried would not pickup as many hotspots as my laptop! Even with the external antenna up on my roof batwing!n7bsn wrote:FYIAlso some parks are also requiring that the IP that accesses their network "log" in. So a simple router will NOT work on this type of network.The JefaTech help said this was entirely doable and only the router or cloned laptop mac address was necessary to make the park system think there was only one unit connected.

A lot of people do not realize that with external antenna solutions, their biggest problem is cable length. With the Jefatech solution it starts as a Linksys WRT54G, with stock antenna's that have a 2db gain. Take one of those away and add the 8db antenna, and that means you get a 6db improvement from the previous antenna that was on it. Moving the antenna to the roof can help a lot to get a clearer line of sight to the Wireless access point... however... what gets most people is the cable length. Cheap cable can have a signal loss of about 40db per 100 feet, even decent quality "low loss" RG58 or LRM200 have loss just under 20db per 100 feet. This means that if you put a 10 foot cable between the router and the antenna on the roof, you will loose about 4db with the cheap cable and 2db for the better cable. This means that you have lost 2/3 of your gain with the cheap cable and 1/3 with the better stuff. If you run 15' of the cheap stuff you have just lost all of the benefit of the antenna as it will have 6db of loss cancelling out the 6db of gain from the antenna. You can even run into situations where you will have worse signal strength than with the original antenna mounted directly to the router. Also if you use multiple connectors between the router and antenna you can lose about 1db per connector in addition to the cable loss.The key is if you are going to use an external antenna it is CRITICAL that you mount the router as close on the interior to the location that the antenna will be outside, so you can keep your cable length down.In my case the antenna is on the Batwing and is about 4' above the roof when extended and the hole is right below it, adding about a foot for a drip loop and for the antenna to turn. I put the router on a shelf at the ceiling right under the antenna and 6' RG58 cable barely covers it. This gives about 15' of height to clear most trailers between me an the access point and about 4-5db gain.

Wifi Repeater help | Good Sam Community

roy67ss
Explorer
Jan 10, 2015
Thanks for the replies guys,

jhilley wrote:
802.11n can use either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. If the RV Park only has 802.11g, that is all you are going to get. 802.11b and 802.11g use 2.4GHz only.

....

My antenna question was about parks or other wifi sources that use 802.11n. Will an antenna built to 802.11b and g specs still work? I suspect it will only allow 801.11 g speed at best.

The JefaTech setup I tried would not pickup as many hotspots as my laptop! Even with the external antenna up on my roof batwing!

n7bsn wrote:
FYI
Also some parks are also requiring that the IP that accesses their network "log" in. So a simple router will NOT work on this type of network.

The JefaTech help said this was entirely doable and only the router or cloned laptop mac address was necessary to make the park system think there was only one unit connected.
n7bsn
Explorer
Jan 10, 2015
FYI
More and more parks are setting up various band-width limiting systems.
Either they slow the IPs bandwidth when it exceeds a certain amount, or they shut down the IP.
What this means is if you are reading e-mail or lite web-surfing you see great speed.
If you are trying to download movies or TV series, you will not.

Also some parks are also requiring that the IP that accesses their network "log" in. So a simple router will NOT work on this type of network.
RoadAbode
Explorer
Jan 10, 2015
I'm not a big fan of RV parks WiFi. Usually even if they have a strong WiFi signal the Bandwidth of the "pipe" they use to connect their network to the internet just is not big enough to handle how mny devices want to connect through from the campground.
I've been fortunate so far to use WiFi sparingly, and rely on my smartphome as a hotspot when I need to connect to work.

Not in my RV - but for a few non-profits I work with I've set up EnGenuis Bridge from a WiFi point - to the EnGenius - to a Wifi Access Point. I've considered do this for RoadAbode. Just is not a priority for our RV Lifestyle right now because what we do - works. Maybe in the Future. Anyway here's the EnGenius I'm taking about EnGenius Technologies Long Range 11n 2.4GHz Wireless Bridge/Access Point (ENH202) Maybe that would help?
jhilley
Explorer
Jan 10, 2015
802.11n can use either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. If the RV Park only has 802.11g, that is all you are going to get. 802.11b and 802.11g use 2.4GHz only.

Your experience with the Jefatech may have been where it was being used and you wouldn't see any thing better with any other device. In most RV parks, you will only be able to minimally use WiFi.

I work with it every day, mostly under ideal conditions and it is still iffy some times.

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