Newbie Question on wi-fi

ccjack wrote:

brholt wrote:

ccjack wrote:
I am new to RVing and have a question on wi-fi. Our new TT came with a Winegard air 360+. My understanding is it is a HD TV antenna but also has wi-fi router capability. We would need to purchase an additional gaetway router that installs inside the RV for $300. My question is what does this do? The air360+ pulls a wifi signal from the campground (as an example - the campground would provide log in info?) and then the $300 router serves as a booster for the area around our individual TT? Can't you just use the campground wifi without a router?

This is unrelated to any co-ax cable connectors on the outside of the TT, correct? The Winegard is not connected to any coax cable in the TT correct?

I am a bit confused as to what we should buy or not.

thanks.

We have the Air360+ and the Gateway modem. The Gateway unit adds additional antennas for both wifi and cellular signals. Our experience is that:

- TV reception is not pretty good but do not expect it to compete with directional antennas.

- WiFi is able to pull in signals our iPhones can not but most campground wifi isn’t very good.

- We have been impressed with the ability to grab cell signals. As an example, we were at a harvest host farm who claimed they had not been able to get cell service but we were able to get AT&T. This has repeatedly been our experience. I attribute it to the multiple antennas and the rooftop location. Note that I believe the Gateway is only a cat4 modem so it is never supper fast. WiFi Ranger sells their Osprey unit to go with the Air360+ which can be obtained as cat6 or cat12 units so they may be much faster though I don’t know if the Osprey adds antennas like the Gateway does.

Overall we have been pleased with the unit and it has given us data in a wide variety of place our phones have not been able to.

thank you all for the responses, they are helpful. One question about the Osprey vs. Gateway. My understanding is the antennas are already in the Air360+ and they are just not active unless you add the gateway. So is it possible the Osprey would offer faster wifi plus utilize the wifi antennas already in the 360+ I am not sure of the wiring and hookup for the Osprey... thanks.

WiFi Ranger Osprey offers 5Ghz Wifi along with 2.4ghz WiFi.

GW-1000 gateway only offers 2.4Ghz WiFi..

5Ghz WiFi offers slightly more speed than 2.4Ghze WiFi but at the cost of distance. 5Ghz is shorter range WiFi, 2.4Ghz will get you longer distance.

Generally speaking, you won't see much if any speed increase on 5Ghz unless you are directly under the antenna and even then a slight increase.

Not all devices have 5Ghz Wifi capability, only newer devices will have that so if you have an older laptop, tablet, cellphone you might only have 2.4Ghz radio card..

The downside to 2.4Ghz WiFi is congestion, BT and many other devices use that band and not to mention pretty much all WiFi capable devices will have it which can slow your WiFi..

5Ghz WiFi, less congestion, gets you away from BT devices and not as much channel congestion for now..

The WiFi ranger has a wired Ethernet port, but it is only a 10/100 connection and not 1GB connection so no real speed advantage there if you wanted a hardwired option.

HERE is a 2.4Ghz vs 5Ghz primer.

To put some of this into perspective:

2.4 Ghz WiFi can reach speeds of up to 600 Mbps (802.11n spec).

5Ghz WiFi can offer up to 1300 Mbps (802.11ac spec).

But just because they can offer up that speed, does not mean you will always get that speed nor will it "improve" the speed from the max speed of your internet source.

Both WiFi (2.4 and 5) band radios will auto-negotiate the connection speed based on signal strength and noise in the signal. If it is junk you are getting into your router then junk you will get out of your router..