WiFi

[Barry_J]

We are in a campground that has crappy WiFi. Our park model stays at this campground. What would you recommend for a WiFi booster that we can use to increase the strength of the WiFi.
Thank you Barry

[wa8yxm]

One more thing. There is a company (Unbiquiti if I recall correctly) I bought there Nano Station Loco M2. as I recall (two models M and M2 I got the smaller)

THe original wi-fi Ranger I understand used this module. I suggest the larger for better performance. ONLY issue I have is the Security at some campgrounds if is the older one.. IT will not connect. Only connects to the new one

About 5 Times the signal strength

I put it on a flagpole

Now of course I just use my own cellular data to the Nano Station is in the basement... Conncted to my Spring Mi-Fi From FMCA

[Tom_M1]

Check out Visible.com. It's a Verizon owned company. Price is $40/month for unlimited everything which includes hotspot use. This can be reduced to $25/month by joining a Party Pay plan. I've been using it since June of last year and it has worked out great. I've used as much as 300 GB of data in one month. You can use your existing phone if it's compatible or you could trade in your phone and get a free one.

[jpmyers]

Ok, so with all of this in mind, I would rather get my own means of connecting to tth internet. Most park connections that I've seen are not secure. And they offer little in the way of bandwidth. I understand this is a feasability issue as many parks are small operations with low budgets.

I need to get my own system but my budget is limited as well. I also need to find a solution for television beyond the UFO on the roof. We are full timing so internet and TV are somewhat important. Internet being the one essential here for a number of reasons.

Any budget friendly suggestions?

[rlw999]

travisc wrote:
Campground WiFi is throttled so you can’t used it like you own it, it a convenience for travelers for basic connectivity, if you want real internet get your own service

If only that were true, campground wifi might be better -- most parks allow you to use as much bandwidth as their connection allows, which means someone watching a 4K youtube video is going to suck up their whole internet connect - and you get a half dozen people all doing the same thing so everyone's competing with everyone else (often without even knowing it, like their computer will try to download a 2GB system update in the background) and the guy trying to read his email barely gets any bandwidth at all.


I'd rather that they throttled everyone to 5mbit, maybe even 1mbit to try to preserve bandwidth for everyone.

Plus many parks set all of their Wifi nodes to the same channel, even the backhauls for repeaters, so the radio noise further degrades the connections and then you start to get retransmissions as packets are dropped which consumes even more bandwidth.

I wish more parks offered paid internet, I don't mind paying for bandwidth, I have a hotspot, but a well managed Wifi network is usually better (faster, lower latency) than a cellular connection.

[jpmyers]

I can see this issue is going to require a lot more research. I may move my rig back to Houston. Most of the parks there have acceptable Wi-Fi available to all spaces eliminating the need for any supplementl devices. It's all still up in the air at this point.

[George441]

Which router do you use? How about Netgear nighthawk.
Hope this article might help you

[MrWizard]

You want a Repeater/amplifier
Not a wifi router
You want to increase the signal going each way
A Repeater does not 'connect'/talk to the campground wifi access point, it just increases the signal level, communication is handled by your pc/ device's
There are routers, repeaters, and Bridges

If you use a router you must input wifi password data for the campground into router if it is going to be connecting to the wifi, then you have a different password access for your router

I'm not an expert on this, but i have used wifi repeaters and have an old one stored under the bed

[jpmyers]

The WI-Fi signal in this park, as with most, is weak but useable. I bought a booster which will connect. The problem is that though it connects, it does not have an internet connection. The local provider is mostly unreachable by phone, text, e-mail or smoke signal. So I am unable to ascertain if I have a device incompatibility issue or something else.

What is the best, budget friendly, way to get my own internet access?

[AllegroD]

If you are using the internal (wifi)air card, it may be your location. The internal aircards are usually very weak, so they do not reach back to the source. Do others near you have the same problem? If not, you may need an external repeater or router to boost relay the signal.

[wa8yxm]

If it is a park model this means it does not often move. XIFINITY is blathereing about a 30/month gigibit plan Get park's permiossion to put it in .

Be nice, share (use a router with a guest connection)

Option 2 is a Jet Pack or Mi-Fi Cellular device. if you have a good Cell connection.. FMCA Tech Connect (SPRINT now merged with T-Mobile legally but towers are still different) 50/month+50 one time unlimited I've hit 100Mbps but not often.

Check speed before you buy

[travisc]

Campground WiFi is throttled so you can’t used it like you own it, it a convenience for travelers for basic connectivity, if you want real internet get your own service

[RickLight]

The experts are at
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/

[time2roll]

You probably need a cellular hot spot.
Although sometimes you may have some luck in the clubhouse. Ask where the antenna is.

[lap527]

We just had fiber optics installed at our seasonal site in NC. The slow internet speed was a killer and we stream alot. So frustrating as someone said too many pigs at the trough. LOL! Now we only have one hog...and it pays the bill. We also can put it on vacay mode for up to 6 months. I don't know if that is an option but to us it's worth it.