WIFI

I use my own personal hotspot because I don't want the campground manager/wifi administrator seeing which porn sites i visit.

With the smart phone the internet is iffy .I been is the mountains with no signal phone .No signal phone no internet.

Looking at this strictly from the point of view of the user, WiFi is one of the amenities advertised by the campground. If your site doesn't get WiFi they have not provided what they advertised.

If someone parks an airstream between you and the source which prevents you getting WiFi at yor site, then they have failed to provide the service they advertised. An inadequate layout of the WiFi system isn't the users problem. It would be like providing a water hookup which was only a trickle and then saying that they can't help it because too many users are showering.

Maybe when you call them for reservations or check in you should ask them about the actaul WiFi quality and availability. They should be honest(and I believe most would be) about the WiFi and maybe offer a site to you which is likely to have good WiFi.

I do sympathize with campgrounds as most of the older, small ones are probably not making a large amount of money and can't spend too much on WiFi upgrades. Some of them are in the process of upgrading old electrical systems to accommodate todays Rvs which use a lot more electricity than 30-40 years ago.

I agree that not allowing streaming video downloads is reasonable. Unfortunately the honor system works best and some people feel since they likely won't get caught doing this they don't have aproblem with it.

Steve

You folks that don't think you need a fast Internet connection to use the Internet for "only simple browsing" need to try out the boondocking (or certain other) section(s) of these very forums.

Certain of these topic areas contain a lot of photos. You can hardly get around to enjoying these with a sluggish connection. By the way, I can't even get into my banks with sluggish connections.

For unlimited hotspot 3G/4G service, sign up with these guys on the Unlimited Plan. I believe they have a way for you to turn it on or off to use just for RV trips too ... so you don't have to pay the fee every month even when you are not using your RV:

http://millenicom.com/

bukhrn wrote:
X-2, I don't understand that there are this many folks worried about whether or not a CG even has WIFI, is that really why you go camping, is that the number one priority for a CG, to have WIFI,(working or not).
We've only ever taken a lap top with us twice, & that was only to play a DVD when we wouldn't have elec hook up, & one of those times we didn't use it. :S

I don't do the movies while camping, but I need my laptop. I do web design on the side and in an emergency, I need to log in and fix something, so I need my personal email. For my day job, I don't actively check in, but if there is an extreme emergency, someone will call me, and I can log in.

I depend on WIFI while camping, but am not horribly disappointed when it doesn't work at the campsite. I can find a restaurant somewhere and check in once a day.

TOMMY47 wrote:
Why are folks downloading movies? I've never done it and don't understand how seeing a movie, especially current ones, immediately is necessary.
I go online for email, bank accounts, minor research. Puzzling to me.

X-2, I don't understand that there are this many folks worried about whether or not a CG even has WIFI, is that really why you go camping, is that the number one priority for a CG, to have WIFI,(working or not).
We've only ever taken a lap top with us twice, & that was only to play a DVD when we wouldn't have elec hook up, & one of those times we didn't use it. :S

I don't think a lot of Wifi users understand, that in addition to creating additional traffic (i.e. interference) on a channel, wifi adapters/personal hotspots/repeaters often reduce the bandwidth available to the user by as much as 50% because if they are a single radio device, they can not transmit and receive at the same time. Take a marginal speed connection, reduce it by 50% and you may have a strong, but basically useless connection.

Ron3rd wrote:
Welcome to your first lesson in WIFI. WIFI can be good or bad depending on how much bandwidth (the size of the pipeline) the cg is willing to pay for. The cheap campgrounds pay for a very little pipeline. Everybody then logs on to Netflix and it comes to a dribble. Big pipeline, very expensive, little pipeline, much cheaper. Both qualify as "WIFI".

And that big pipeline is not always available to a given campground at any price.

Welcome to your first lesson in WIFI. WIFI can be good or bad depending on how much bandwidth (the size of the pipeline) the cg is willing to pay for. The cheap campgrounds pay for a very little pipeline. Everybody then logs on to Netflix and it comes to a dribble. Big pipeline, very expensive, little pipeline, much cheaper. Both qualify as "WIFI".

seguin wrote:
I am really frustrated with ALL camping guides. They say the campground has WIFI but when you get there it only works at a few of the sites and if it does work at your site it is very slow. Am I alone on this? I feel that guide such as Trailer Life Directory should change their rating system to reflect whether the WIFI really works. Comments?

Seguin, I have found that you can't necessarily rely on the ratings from these guides 100%. We have used a few of the camping guides in the past and found some of the listings were misleading. That's why we should make it a point to let these guides know our experiences so they can investigate or make note in their publications.