Possible to use Omni-Directional Antenna to boost WiFi?

[jesruiz]

I'm looking to boost my Wi-Fi signal on a budget. On top of my travel trailer I already have a Magnadyne Omni-Directional Amplified AM/FM TV Antenna.

http://www.magnadyne.com/catalog/part.cfm?PID=729937&CID=25919

I'm wondering if I can somehow take that incoming signal and run it to a router antenna input in my TT. Not sure if that would work or not but its easier then mounting a separate wifi booster to the roof or my flag pole which is my next option.

Thanks,
Jesse

[pauldub]

Wifi Ranger probably does what you want.

[cpaulsen]

rrupert wrote:

cpaulsen wrote:
I use the Wilson Trucker antenna.....about 50 bucks. Mounted it to an adjustable pole which is mounted to my rear ladder. I do not remove the antenna when going down the road.....just lower the adjustable mast. It boosted my signal a lot.

The OP is wanting to boost the wifi signal not the cell phone signal.

Well...I use Verizon for my phone and Wi-Fi. My Jetpack sits in my Wilson Sleek cradle with the trucker antennae connected to that. That is my Wi-Fi!

[toolguy1964]

Those cellphone boosters for RV's are God Awful pricey! YIKES!

[rrupert]

cpaulsen wrote:
I use the Wilson Trucker antenna.....about 50 bucks. Mounted it to an adjustable pole which is mounted to my rear ladder. I do not remove the antenna when going down the road.....just lower the adjustable mast. It boosted my signal a lot.

The OP is wanting to boost the wifi signal not the cell phone signal.

[cpaulsen]

I use the Wilson Trucker antenna.....about 50 bucks. Mounted it to an adjustable pole which is mounted to my rear ladder. I do not remove the antenna when going down the road.....just lower the adjustable mast. It boosted my signal a lot.

[harley-dave]

Good morning, This is what we use. Sits on the table or in the window and works excellent. Connects to our USB port and is somewhat cheaper than some others. Works well for us.

Dave

[rwbradley]

jesruiz wrote:
Yes I understand that it all depends on the parks ISP and how many people are connected to it. I've also been to places where you need to walk to the front office to connect and I'd like to target those wifi connections.

I was thinking about doing something where I would have a router in bridge mode near my tv with an antenna run to the roof of my TT. So then I would only have to log in to my router once and update it with the park wifi. My kids tablets and our phones would already have my TT network preloaded so no need to go device to device updating them with the park wifi.

One thing I'm not sure of is if the park is using guest access wifi how the bridged router can connect if it requires me to enter the password in a browser window.

Take a look at my previous post. It sounds exactly like what you are looking for. For any CG that has a "portal page" where you promise to be good, enter a password etc. it will automatically connect you to it as soon as the router boots up, and then the first time a device that is connected to your router tries to surf it passes the portal page thru, you promise to be good or put in the password on that first device and then all the other devices connected to the router automatically start working.

[jesruiz]

Yes I understand that it all depends on the parks ISP and how many people are connected to it. I've also been to places where you need to walk to the front office to connect and I'd like to target those wifi connections.

I was thinking about doing something where I would have a router in bridge mode near my tv with an antenna run to the roof of my TT. So then I would only have to log in to my router once and update it with the park wifi. My kids tablets and our phones would already have my TT network preloaded so no need to go device to device updating them with the park wifi.

One thing I'm not sure of is if the park is using guest access wifi how the bridged router can connect if it requires me to enter the password in a browser window.

[CA_Traveler]

n7bsn wrote:

ereed52 wrote:
Remember your wifi still depends on the campgrounds service provider.....

What he said.

No signal booster is going to make the campground wifi "faster"

But it can make your access to their WiFi faster/better.

[n7bsn]

ereed52 wrote:
Remember your wifi still depends on the campgrounds service provider.....

What he said.

No signal booster is going to make the campground wifi "faster"

[ereed52]

Remember your wifi still depends on the campgrounds service provider.

This past summer while using my Netgear N300 Wi-Fi Range extender I was getting 5 bars, but everything was very slow and I couldn't stream any videos. The campground now has a new service provider, everything working good and I'm stream videos without buffering. We'll see what happen when campground fills up for the Halloween Weekends.

[rwbradley]

jesruiz wrote:
Yeah that makes sense. Thanks for you quick helpful replies!

I will start shopping around for a wifi booster. I was going to do a NanoStation Loco M2 on my flag pole but being that we're more of a weekend trip family I'd like to not add one more thing I have to setup and take down. I'm going to look into something I can permanently mount on the roof and hopefully fish down through where the Omni Antenna is mounted.

Here is one option that I did. It is a permanent setup. The write up also includes adding a cell amp as well, I just decided if doing one why not do both
Link

[CA_Traveler]

The Loco M2 is in the $100 range with WiFi and you can go up the Ubiquiti food chain from there. One option is a short vertical antenna and bullet amplifier and WiFi.

I've been considering a batwing mounted Yagi and bullet amplifier. This would result in a very high gain setup but very directional. It's involves setup in the sense of raising/rotating the batwing. Flagpole mounting would be a option but with even more setup involved.

[rrupert]

You could try a wifi adapter that plugs into a USB port if you are using a laptop and that will give you an external rubber ducky antenna which will have much better gain than the internal antenna.