Wifi and park rules

[canoehenge]

OK, so I tried doing a search for any discussion about park rules for wifi use. A private rv park I am fixing to stay at has wifi available, but, does not allow repeaters. They claim to monitor wifi usage and will disconnect any repeaters found on the system. I am using a Ubiquiti NanoStation locoM2 as an access point for my internal rv network.
Has anyone experienced any problems running afoul of park rules using access points to gain internet service at rv parks?

[westernrvparkow]

wa8yxm wrote:
I have read of parks that have 5GHZ routers out doors. but reading the documentation for my new Chromebook (Which likes 5Ghz routers big time) I'm not sure that's legal.

I know I want one,, I toss major files about inside the RV (mostly via Cat-5 not Wi-Fi) but a nice high speed router would be nice.

How fast are 5 Ghz routers.. with a proper internet connection (Fiber optic I suspect)

Had a 3.7 Gig file to download. Well went to Denny's where they have a very good Internet connection

by the time I finished my "All American Slam".... I had two copies, one on my Chrome book, one on my Android phone.. Now all of them are on this Windows 10 box (I do not think it does 5GHZ) Oh and I did about 3 hours of Internetting on other "point and click" pages while I was downloading.. That sucker is FAST.

but I want 5GHZ for internal

My repeater is a cross channel job as well. I am currently (As I recall) listening to Chanel 1 or 11, and repeating on the other of those two.. I do my very best to avoid the park's router channel...

Fact: Same channel repeaters are "Store and forward" they download a packet, then transmiot it. Download the next and then transmit, so speed suffers.

But a Cross channel can rebroadcasst the 1st packet while it receives the 2nd and thus you take a very tiny PING hit but throughput is not affecrted at all.

The problem with 5G wireless is it is very much effected by obstructions to line of site. It won't punch thru trees, walls and RVs effectively. Even more problematic, your wireless device will have puny output compared to the wireless access point. Even if the provider can punch 5G signal to you, your tablet with an antenna the size of a dime, won't be able to communicate back to that access point, render the connection worthless.
Almost all standard routers will perform faster than the data streams that feed them. So the speed the router can process data is almost immaterial. The problems with Wifi are seldom at the router.

[wa8yxm]

I have read of parks that have 5GHZ routers out doors. but reading the documentation for my new Chromebook (Which likes 5Ghz routers big time) I'm not sure that's legal.

I know I want one,, I toss major files about inside the RV (mostly via Cat-5 not Wi-Fi) but a nice high speed router would be nice.

How fast are 5 Ghz routers.. with a proper internet connection (Fiber optic I suspect)

Had a 3.7 Gig file to download. Well went to Denny's where they have a very good Internet connection

by the time I finished my "All American Slam".... I had two copies, one on my Chrome book, one on my Android phone.. Now all of them are on this Windows 10 box (I do not think it does 5GHZ) Oh and I did about 3 hours of Internetting on other "point and click" pages while I was downloading.. That sucker is FAST.

but I want 5GHZ for internal

My repeater is a cross channel job as well. I am currently (As I recall) listening to Chanel 1 or 11, and repeating on the other of those two.. I do my very best to avoid the park's router channel...

Fact: Same channel repeaters are "Store and forward" they download a packet, then transmiot it. Download the next and then transmit, so speed suffers.

But a Cross channel can rebroadcasst the 1st packet while it receives the 2nd and thus you take a very tiny PING hit but throughput is not affecrted at all.

[Bill_Satellite]

Hotels do it because hotels are located where the infrastructure for high speed internet is readily available and relatively inexpensive. An RV park outside the city and away from such services will have a much more difficult time getting the same kind of service.

[westernrvparkow]

kohai wrote:
Hotels do it. It really is a cost issue, not a technology issue. The FCC fined Marriott for trying to block personal WAPs.

So you stay at a lot of hotels in the wilderness. Please let us know where these hotels with great Wifi are. The ones I know of in places like Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and the like have marginal internet at best and most have no wifi at all. Same with cell phone coverage. Hotels may cover an Acre or two at most, RV parks 10 times that. Of course you can get better wifi service at a hotel in a metro area. But that isn't because RV parks are all going cheap.

[kohai]

Hotels do it. It really is a cost issue, not a technology issue. The FCC fined Marriott for trying to block personal WAPs.

[muskrat49]

As a retired IT professional, I use a Nanostation Loco M2 to pick up the park wifi, which is always in the 2.4Ghz band. As a post above said, although there are 11 channels available, only three (1,6,11) don't overlap. Then I use an internal Netgear router to broadcast my own internal wifi in the 5Ghz range.

The 5Ghz signals don't like to go through walls and have a shorter range than 2.4Ghz, so it is perfect for an internal network. Also, using 5Ghz guarantees you won't interfere with the park's wifi. It's too bad more people don't do it this way.

I use an app called "Wifi Analyzer" on my Android smart phone to look at channel usage when I pull into a new park. The typical park has the park access points all on the same channel, then the campers have repeaters all over the 2.4G band, causing all sorts of interference. The 5G band, on the other hand, is usually empty or mostly empty.

If the wifi or the Internet connection it connects to is bad enough, I just turn my phone into a hotspot and bypass it completely.

[mlts22]

I wouldn't be surprised if the network status was looked at if people were complaining about bandwidth.

Of course, there is always using a repeater that uses the 5GHz spectrum is arguably the best course, since you have 22 channels that do not overlap.

[canoehenge]

So, one question that occurs to me is whether parks that do monitor their network look at devices using the network or do they look at devices that are using unusual amount of bandwidth?

[GordonThree]

Good to hear I'm not the only one with an Internet addiction.

[Dennis_M_M]

As "westernrvparkowner" stated it is frustrating for the park owners to invest more and more money in providing 'free" WiFi only to have the bandwidth hogs slow down the system creating constant complaints from other campers.

I know of one park where the provider threatened to cut off service because someone in the park was downloading bootleg movies! In an attempt to placate the provider they required all devices signing onto the system to be registered, with a limit of two devices per space.

Think about the loads we are thoughtlessly putting on park WiFi - Netflix, FaceTime, etc. Just between the two of us my wife and I have 8 WiFi enabled devices! Laptops, iPhones, iPads, Kindles.

Those of us who use park WiFi need to have some courtesy and take some responsibility and stop hogging bandwidth. As others have noted, if you want a lot of access set up your own. Leave the park WiFi to the occasional e-mailer.

[westernrvparkow]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
I was in a park with similar rules and their explanation was that your router/amp/ranger extender must use one of the limited number of channels available on the WiFi Networks (Channels 1-11) and would cause interference with their networks so none of these devices were allow. This included WiFi type devices as they also use the same channels to broadcast a connection to the devices inside your coach.
The RV park has every right do exclude anything they like (i.e. we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason).
Failure to abide by the park rules would lead to eviction and that particular rule was very well advertised in the office as well as with yard signs throughout the park.

And those 11 frequencies overlap each other in a way that there is really only three distinct bands. However, this is yet another problem many of us park owners lump into the "we put out the wifi service, what and your fellow RVers do degrade the system for everyone is not our problem." management style. I gave up long ago trying to keep the channels free of interference, right along side keeping the bandwidth hogs at bay.

[Bill_Satellite]

I was in a park with similar rules and their explanation was that your router/amp/ranger extender must use one of the limited number of channels available on the WiFi Networks (Channels 1-11) and would cause interference with their networks so none of these devices were allow. This included WiFi type devices as they also use the same channels to broadcast a connection to the devices inside your coach.
The RV park has every right do exclude anything they like (i.e. we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason).
Failure to abide by the park rules would lead to eviction and that particular rule was very well advertised in the office as well as with yard signs throughout the park.

[3oaks]

Sam Spade wrote:

Rolin wrote:

So the park can tell if you have a router connected.

A router is not necessarily a repeater.

If the parks rules concern you, discuss your specific equipment with park management. If there is a problem, go elsewhere.

X2

[Johno02]

One thing is that most repeaters all try to use the same hard-wired IP address, and on any network, that can create havoc and deny useage to everyone. Use your on private internet connection.