Wifi issues - full timer - Help appreciated

[jch2122]

So, I'm going to be living full time in an RV parked outside of my parents house for a few months, and I need to solve this wifi issue because it's driving me crazy. We are parked outside of the house on the opposite side of where the only wired connection is at, so we're about 80-100 feet away from the router that I set up. A wifi app that I have says we're getting about a 50% connection to that router, and the speeds/connection wasn't good at all so we bought an extender. We placed it right under the window on the side of the house we're parked at, so we're only about 15-20 feet away. Everything is in line of site, so even though it's long distances there aren't but one or two walls it's all going through. The connection from the router to the extender is showing 93%, and our connection while in the rv to the extender is about 90%, so we're getting good connections. The issue is that the connection is constantly dropping out, and when it is connected it's extremely laggy. We run the speeds and sometimes it's less than 2mbps, regardless of us getting a great connection. There's no way to run a wired connection to the camper conveniently. We've tried powerline extenders but the power we have running to the camper through the electrical box on the house doesn't seem to carry the connection and we can't get it to work. I've tried every available wifi channel. I've tried tin foil with the antenna to direct the signal. I've tried 5ghz and 2.4ghz. I've tried everything I can think of. We have the amazon firestick and the way it works is it connects to our wifi and somehow sets up a wifi connection from the remote to the stick using the same channel, so I thought that might be causing interference, but we connected that to 5ghz while we connected to 2.4ghz since that'd put it on different channels but it doesn't work any better. It's frustrating to the point where I'm ready to give up, but with the work I do I need internet access. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation and found a good solution? I'm willing to put money into it, but I don't know where to go. I've called the internet company and they said they could run a wire to the camper but they'd have to charge me another monthly fee for having another wired connection, which is crazy. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[jch2122]

jcpainter wrote:
What do you have in your RV to help with this?

Are you by chance in a good AT&T area? If so, you can get an unlimited Mobley for $20 a month.

I've never heard of that. Thanks for the info.

[jch2122]

wa8yxm wrote:
First. I just started using a NanoStation LocoM2 (The LocoM is even better and the company has some that make even it look like junk) My in-house Router (A Belkin) thinks the Nano-Station is a cable modem.. Configuration took a bit of effort and knowledge and may be beyond you as the docs were lacking but was old hat for me so I slogged through it the 1st time, now it is routing.

Much better connection

You said they have one wired connection.. I have never seen a single-connection router. Most have 4 or 5 (5 if it is just a router 4 if it is a modem/router)

Plug into one of the vacant ports and put a router closer to where you are parked.

Oh, another advantage of the nano station.

I have 100' of Cat-5 cable (new and in the box) and a slightly shorter cable (connected and in use) The max distance between the nano-station and mny router ism, as I recall 300'.. You can put the "Wi-Fi Adapter" closer to the house wi-fi router.

Thank you for the response. I'll look into that. What I meant with the one connection is that the house only has one wired port. The router has a few.

[wa8yxm]

First. I just started using a NanoStation LocoM2 (The LocoM is even better and the company has some that make even it look like junk) My in-house Router (A Belkin) thinks the Nano-Station is a cable modem.. Configuration took a bit of effort and knowledge and may be beyond you as the docs were lacking but was old hat for me so I slogged through it the 1st time, now it is routing.

Much better connection

You said they have one wired connection.. I have never seen a single-connection router. Most have 4 or 5 (5 if it is just a router 4 if it is a modem/router)

Plug into one of the vacant ports and put a router closer to where you are parked.

Oh, another advantage of the nano station.

I have 100' of Cat-5 cable (new and in the box) and a slightly shorter cable (connected and in use) The max distance between the nano-station and mny router ism, as I recall 300'.. You can put the "Wi-Fi Adapter" closer to the house wi-fi router.

[NMDriver]

What device are you trying to use. Samsung has a bad reputation for being able to get and hold wifi. My Samsung tablet will not let me watch netflix unless I am in the same room with the router and even then it buffers a lot. Our Samsung "smart" tv cannot run netflix when the wifi extender is 2 feet from the tv. I use my Dell computers, with the TV as the monitor, and a USB wifi antenna to stream netflix, amazon, etc through three walls without an extender in the room. My wife's Ipad will pick up the wifi through 5 walls in the bedroom and let her stream netflix while I am streaming the Dell in the living room.

The point is that it may not be the wifi signal it may be your devices wifi receiver and software.

[TheBearAK]

First, which WiFi router do you have? Newer duel bands have a longer range.

A lot of different factors can go into why you're getting drops.

- How many other WiFi networks are visible in your spot? If more than just you own, make sure the channels are different from your neighbors. Modern routers should do this automatically, but neighbors might not have them and they can overlap and cause issues.

- Microwaves can interfere, specially in the 2.4 Ghz range. 2.4 Ghz is also widely used and other devices like land-line telephones (wireless kind) can interfere.

- Metal boxes, such as a motorhome can shield signals.


As for range extenders, I've never really had much luck with them. I've gotten them to work, but they were often slow and added a lot of lag.

naturist has a point, if you can just run a long ethernet cable around the house, that would be the best way of extending the network. Even if you just ran the ethernet cable from one side to the other and connected the extender. WiFi extenders usually have an ethernet port so you can use them as an Access Point.

[Bill_Satellite]

This should do it for you.
http://www.outsideourbubble.com/secure-private-rv-wi-fi-and-making-a-better-park-connection-for-unde...

[jcpainter]

What do you have in your RV to help with this?

Are you by chance in a good AT&T area? If so, you can get an unlimited Mobley for $20 a month.

[Lantley]

naturist wrote:
As I understand it, an extender cuts network speed in half. Is there some reason you can't run an Ethernet cable? There's nothing magical about hiding it inside walls. It's temporary, so what's wrong about it being visible?

That was my thought just get some cable and run it exposed like an extension cord. Assuming it's only temporary no need to do anything too elaborate.

[Sam_Spade]

naturist wrote:
As I understand it, an extender cuts network speed in half. Is there some reason you can't run an Ethernet cable? There's nothing magical about hiding it inside walls. It's temporary, so what's wrong about it being visible?

This. To put it another way, run the existing ethernet cable down to the wall nearest to the trailer and put the WIFI router there.

OR.....does this router/WIFI device not have any additional ethernet cable ports on it? If so, forget WIFI and cable one of those ports all the way out to the trailer.

[naturist]

As I understand it, an extender cuts network speed in half. Is there some reason you can't run an Ethernet cable? There's nothing magical about hiding it inside walls. It's temporary, so what's wrong about it being visible?