wifi booster

A good wifi booster installed correctly (with an outside antenna) will possibly let you get a stronger signal with less signal dropouts. If the wifi speed at the park is slow, you will get a better connection to slow wifi. It cannot possibly make the speed any greater than the park speed, shared by all users.

Bottom line: Boosters boost the signal, but not the speed. Don't expect any miracles.

Hi,

I do have one that works. However, they must be configured to each and every park you visit.

My cellphone (Verizon plan) is it's own hotspot. I don't need to use the park's wifi to get to the internet.

azdryheat wrote:
My cellphone (Verizon plan) is it's own hotspot. I don't need to use the park's wifi to get to the internet.

We use the same carrier and the weakness being poor cellphone reception, like where we are in SC. Watching the signal bounce between one and two bars.
Of course three miles down the road service is outstanding.

Moved from General RVing

Hoffy,

If others say the WiFi sucks, then take that to be an understatement...

For many years now, campground WiFi systems have been both poorly implemented (the regular case with older) and overloaded (the case with most).

If you really need internet, your only hope is to bring your own in the form of either satellite ($$$-latency problems) or a cell signal hotspot (as mentioned above). If the campground is remote, a repeater or booster may be needed. Depending on where you are in the country, sometimes even that is just not enough.

Oh yeah, the carrier counts for a lot too. Do not believe the "We use XXX towers" line, I will not take the time to tell why here and now.

Good Luck.

Matt

Duplicate deleted.

I find signal boosting is rarely the issue in a campground. Complain to management about bandwidth...write negative reviews...consider a governmental report since you weren’t provided with what was promised and charged. Raise heck.

CG wifi? Fuggedaboutit...

In the beginning when were newbies, we bought an Alfa brand wifi booster. Waste of money and did NOT help. Ended up giving it away.

You will find out pretty quickly how bad CG wifi is. If many kids there, when they get up in the morning and start streaming, it kills the already BAD wifi. Many people have to go to a CG clubhouse where it's close to the antenna to get a better signal, but even then it can be a painful struggle.

We've been using a Verizon mifi hotspot for years now. Last year DW used her phone as a hotspot a few times. Depends on your data plan too since you can suck it dry pretty quickly depending on what you're doing on the internet. Sometimes the Verizon or DW's cellphone signal can be quite weak in some locations, like the Oregon coast for ex.

While I prefer using a Mobley or Jetpack to connect to the internet through a cell tower, there are a few places where a WiFi booster is the only way to connect from your site (Rio Grande Campground in Big Bend National Park, for example). The best WiFi boosting system I've used is a Ubiquiti Nanostation connected to an AirCube. The combination lets me connect to a WiFi station as much as a mile away.

As others have noted, if the campground WiFi is slow, the booster will rarely help.