Wifi reception at rv parks

[vandave]

Probably a zillion post on this but I'm trying to get a few questions answered concerning improving wifi connection at your rv site. The KOA we stay at for a month in Minnesota is clean cut older and our site seems to be one of the furthest from the their rotour. I will be using an iPad for the Internet connection. The wifi booster; can it be placed inside the rv? What are the better wifi boosters out there and what else could I be looking at for improved wifi connection. Thanks so much for any help.

[joebedford]

Fortunately for us, many of the people at snowbird parks we frequent start to drift off to bed at 8:30pm. We usually get very good performance later in the evening.

[catkins]

In all of our travels we find very few strong/fast campground internet connections. Now primarily using personal phone hotspot or Verizon Mifi for the most part. Booster may increase your connection strength but too many people logging on or trying to stream video will grind that access to a halt. I always check the connection but usually end up not being able to use it happily. Good luck!!

[TyroneandGladys]

My 2cents worth we have a straightalk mobile hotspot that we are very pleased with. If the park has Wi-Fi I will use it. I will switch to the hotspot for faster speed or security..

[MnDuckBoatguy]

A good signal booster if you have usb. You may reach other connections or routers with better or le...

[Bill_Satellite]

vandave wrote:
Probably a zillion post on this but I'm trying to get a few questions answered concerning improving wifi connection at your rv site. The KOA we stay at for a month in Minnesota is clean cut older and our site seems to be one of the furthest from the their rotour. I will be using an iPad for the Internet connection. The wifi booster; can it be placed inside the rv? What are the better wifi boosters out there and what else could I be looking at for improved wifi connection. Thanks so much for any help.

Take a look here for a simple, effective and inexpensive Wifi amplifier. As mentioned above, this will not make the parks poor WiFi better but it will give you a better connection if the current connection is poor. If that's the case then the throughput may also be improved.
http://tiffinrvnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=68428&start=0

[Acampingwewillg]

I also always had poor reception on CG Wi-Fi, did some checking and purchased a "Rogue Wave", it's a bit less expensive than the "Ranger" Pak. For my purposes, it has worked well(mostly e-mail and some surfing of the net).

[JoeTampa]

The other issue that often plagues wifi at campgrounds is poor system design.

Wifi has two channel bands - 2.4ghz and 5ghz. 2.4 is the most commonly installed since it works with all WiFi devices, whereas not all equipment is capable of working on 5ghz.

2.4ghz has 11 channels - but only 3 are non-overlapping: 1, 6, and 11. What channel is used and the placement of the access points is crucial to avoid self-inflicted interference. I've seen campgrounds that used all channel 1 and had lots of access points, most of which could not only hear each other (and thus contended for the same airspace), but also had stations (campers) that would be in between them, exacerbating the problem. Other campgrounds used the overlapping channels - presumably not knowing that they conflict - and so you saw channels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 being used, which resulted in another mess. Most times when I've talked to the manager about it, I've gotten reactions ranging from blank stares and a comment about how they had some company come set it up and it just "works like that" to indignation that I would suggest that something might not be quite right.

As a result, I use my hotspot or cellular data much more often than I use campground WiFi.

Incidentally, if the problem is poor system design, a wifi "range enhancer" will actually hurt you more than help you, as you add yet another station to the mix that has to compete to be heard amongst the noise. Getting better SERVICE (as opposed to better SIGNAL) is not always possible no matter what you do. The problem is that figuring out what the problem is requires more knowledge of WiFi and how it works than 99% of Wifi uses would be expected to possess. So, the easy way out is to not use it if it doesn't live up to your expectations.

Amazingly, I've offered to help fix the problems at a campground we go to often for free and have never been taken up on it, even though the management readily concurs that they get lots of complaints from guests. It's not easy to provide high quality WiFi service in an outdoor area with lots of moving signal blockers (RVs); so the design is crucial.

[wa8yxm]

There are both boosters and improved antennas.. Neighbor just got what looks like a dang good USB connected Wi-Fi antenna.... Alas his I(ncomplete)-Pad does not have a USB port so he can not use it.. (Why I use complete comptuers and tablets).

Sorry I-folks.

But I use a Wireless game adapter modified for high gain and it is amazing how well it works.

now for someone like him

The WGA (linksys product) is a "Wi-Fi Modem" so my home router thinks it is a cable modem and treats it as such.

My laptops, Desktop, Tablet and phone, along with my ReplayTVs (Which do not use the internet but do use the intra-net (LAN). all connect to the router here in the RV.. Works great.

In some campgrounds in fact I have given others the pass key to connect because even though I'm over 1.5 Times as far from the router.. They get me strong, and the park not at all (And I make sure we are non-competing channel wise).

[paulcardoza]

Correct....... Just the vast majority of them are slow. 😞

Triker33 wrote:

So not all campground WiFi is slow.

[Triker33]

In my MH I use a WiFiRanger MiniPack Antenna is on the roof.
At a Free WiFi campground now. My latest speed test.

Speed Testhttp://www.speedtest.net/result/5370994203.png

So not all campground WiFi is slow. And the Mini picks up a signal good at all campgrounds, when others have problems.

[Sam_Spade]

vandave wrote:
What are the better wifi boosters out there and what else could I be looking at for improved wifi connection. Thanks so much for any help.

First you need to determine what the problem IS: Low signal strength or low bandwidth.

To do this, you need a device that shows the signal strength of the WiFi links that are available.
IF.....your basic signal strength is strong but it's still slow or hard to keep connected, a "booster" will be a waste of money. If you can't "see" the camps WiFi at all in your available list, a booster might not help there either.

[2oldman]

A few wifi antenna posts

[BB_TX]

A strong wifi signal does not mean fast internet. Even with a booster. I have been to numerous RV parks that had very good wifi signal. But the limited bandwidth they offer makes it so slow as to be almost unusable. Especially so in the evening when everyone starts connecting to the park server. Many times my phone cell signal works better than the park wifi. And that is without a hot spot.

Fortunately it does not bother me when I can't access the internet every time I want.

[Gulfcoast]

A Straight Talk (walmart) mifi will get you all the internet you need from ATT or Verizon towers. A $15 prepaid card (walmart) gets me 1GB of internet and that's all I need for a month when traveling. I think 2GB is $25 and so on.