Does "free WiFi" ever work?

Farm Camp wrote:
...This time around we'll be staying at the same two KOAs again, but it will be during the week. I'll be interested to see if we have the same experience on the way home during the week as we did on the way down here during the weekend...

If they are not very full, ask for a site close to one of the access points/repeaters. If they are repeaters, there is a speed loss with every retransmission of the signal so being closer to the original source will give a better wifi experience.

Thanks for the replies so far. We're here at Disney's Fort Wilderness for the next week, and then we'll be returning home the same way we came. This time around we'll be staying at the same two KOAs again, but it will be during the week. I'll be interested to see if we have the same experience on the way home during the week as we did on the way down here during the weekend.

This happened several years ago when WIFI was pretty new. I was at Cabela's flagship store in Sidney, NE. The CG where I parked asked if I used WIFI, and when I told him "yes" he put me in a site near the office. The RV park was long and narrow. That was fine by me, but I wondered why, so I asked. He told me that a salesman stopped in and sold him the WIFI system. But people complained when they couldn't get connected. His CG needed repeaters. So I drove my toad around the park trying to connect with my laptop and there was a definite point when access was no longer available. So until he was able to get the proper repeaters, he asked campers if they wanted WIFI before he gave them a site.
At least I get asked now at most RV parks that advertise WIFI.

Too many users will drink up the signal. The signals go both ways. From you to wife and from wifi to you.
Sometimes you can see but not send. then about midnight or later everyone except the kids if it is a weekend goes to bed and you can actually get your mail.
All those kids streaming video really tie up wifi. Not sure how many wifi a campground needs per number of campers but very few have enough.

Work - yes.
How efficient and how much bandwidth is available varies.

Farm Camp wrote:
Just visited two different KOAs, two days, in a row, both offered "free" WiFi... I hate to say it like a complaint because it's not exactly something I'm going to loose sleep about... I'm just wondering what others experiences are/have been, not naming parks specifically, just generally, does it work for you generally, or are you generally better off just sticking to your own connections like a Hotspot (as I'm doing now.). Sorry, not wanting to start a rant fest, just taking a gauge of others experiences..

we keep our expectations low. for us, the park wifi usually works ok. if you're trying to stream video then you will be disappointed. some parks have taken to throttling your download speed when ANY streaming is detected and that would include audio, youtube videos and even software updates. remember, you're not home using your broadband connection. you're sharing a connection with dozens of others. if you restrict yourself to e-mail and light browsing you should be fine. anything more than that you should bring your own hotspot with you.

I am not a techie by any means but we do get around a lot. My feeling is that the "FREE" WiFi has improved in the last 5 years as more and more campers use and demand it.

We had a favorite campground that had sporadic at best OTA TV reception and the county decided to "improve", read as RUINED, everything. The first problem they had was letting their bean counters decide what system to use. Not enough bandwidth and everyone streaming movies. This seems to be the problems most everywhere.

Money controls the quality of the WiFi but as I said it is steadily improving everywhere.

We rely on our Verizon MiFi, which has never let us down. But in an attempt to save some of our monthly G usage we do try most CG's free WiFi. We have found it rarely will work, or if it does work it is sooooo slooooow it is not worth even trying it.

Once in a while we will stay in a RV park that has Wifi included with the cost of our daily rate. Once the lady at the check-in counter told us that we may not have a good connection in the evening hours. Half the park was full of semi-permanent folks and college kids walking around with their hand held units. I could sure see why the finite signal strength was taxed.

So far this season we have very good wifi in the parks we've stayed at. The one we are now in its almost good as what we have at home, but there are a lot of vacant spots. Here for the next month. The week end will be a real good test.