wifiranger Converge - Do you like it?

[Dave5143]

I'm looking to add a wifi booster to my travel trailer in order to expand beyond the poor-to-fair wifi choices available at some RV parks. I am considering the WifiRanger Converge line-up of upgradeable rooftop boosters with an indoor wifi router.
Has anyone here used one of these setups? How do you like it? Did you add the LTE modem upgrade? Does it work with Verizon celluar? I'd sure like to hear from you if you have one.

[wa8yxm]

I use a "home brew" version of the Wi-Fi Ranger. From what I'm told the outdoor module is the same one they use with a different name on the box.

How it works?
Well. note that I might not have chosen the best outdoor module but it gives me RANGE more than anything else.. IF the signal is week inside it MAY increase throughput or not depending on many factors

Example.. one park I frequent the Wi-Fi is all but useless. Even sitting on the router (Within sight of it, direct line of site Same room) there are so many users DSL is faster.

On the other hand if it's not that crowded.. then if I've got a "Weak" signal on my laptop I can fire up my "Ranger" and the throughput goes up... WHY>

Each packet contains some self-check bits. if the packet fails the test then the computer asks for a repeat ... The weaker the signal.. the more repeats.

[HERKYRET]

Hi all, First post so cut me some slack.
Secondly, I don't have an RV BUT I am / was having the same internet issues that you guys have, and I have been lurking here hoping for someone to come up with a fix that I could use.
I (somewhere) found the answer and thought I would share it here and pay back a little for the info that I did get here.
My problem: My home has no availability for cable (TV from Dish and phone / internet from local phone company) so my DSL speed is a whopping 6 Mb/S. With that I can watch videos in lower resolution on one device while using e-mail type usage on one more device...and that's it.
In December I was listening to a podcast of the Clark Howard show (highy recommending that) and he spoke about a pay-as-you-go phone service called Visible. (Visible is owned by Verizon and uses their network)
They have service for $40/month for 1 phone, $35/month (each)for 2 phones, on down to $25/month (each) for 4 or more phones. That's it. no additional fees, taxes, nothing. Better yet you can tether those phones to a device and get full speed unlimited internet at about 40Mb/S.
I compared that to my wife's plan (Verizon Unlimited Senior Plan) that costs $75 per month with unlimited everything (including internet) however if you tether any device to it Verizon throttles the internet to 5 Mb/S.
As I said, I have been looking for a work around for the throttling issue, which is why I landed here,
I have found a company called ASUS that makes wireless routers that have built in USB tethering compatibility.
I bought a RT-AC68U model off Amazon for $135.00. I hooked it up to my Visible (free) phone (ZTE A7 Prime) and have been using it for a week as my only source if internet and it has worked well for me. Running the Speed Test Program shows my slowest internet speed to be 10 - 15 Mb/S. Normal speed seems to be 20 - 25 Mb/S and I have seen 40+ Mb/S occasionally.
I'm going to continue doing this for a month to see if things continue to work this well. If they do I will ditch my landline phone / internet services ($87.00 (ish) per month), and port over my home phone number to a new cell phone for me
I will also get the wife's phone ported over to Visible and continue on with the ZTE phone being used only for internet.
Total cost per month will be $90 so we will save $75 / month.
Hope someone finds this useful.

[TechWriter]

Dave5143 wrote:
I am considering the WifiRanger Converge line-up of upgradeable rooftop boosters with an indoor wifi router.
Has anyone here used one of these setups?

OP, don't you love it. Not one responder actually had any Convergence experience, but did it stop them from responding?

Try the MIRC Forums. You'll have to become a paying member to join, but you get what you pay for.

[philh]

I got OTR Mobile Cellular based hotspot. $60/month with reasonably fast DL

[Optimistic_Para]

I generally agree with the comments about RV park wifi bandwidth limitations as well as the ones about wifi security. I would never use public wifi to access my bank(s) and so forth.

On the other hand, if you dry camp in parking lots, you will often find that businesses that offer free public wifi don't bother to switch it off when they close.

If you park near such businesses, you often have that wifi connection to yourself after hours to download movies and play online games without using up your cell minutes.

[jjrbus]

I am not full timing, when I do travel I change my Cricket wireless plan to unlimited data and 15 GB hotspot for a month at $60. Breaks my cheap little heart to do it. With Cricket I can do it for one month and then switch back to my $30 month plan with no hotspot, works ok for me and the 15 GB is enough for what I want to do.

[DFord]

Think about it. The park has one internet feed it broadcasts parkwide. A few try to stream videos and use up most of the available bandwidth. A few like yourself try to read some email and browse the internet without much luck because the speeds so slow. Internet bandwidth is expensive and you can't blame the park for not delivering high speed connection everywhere all the time - it just isn't economically feasible. At the same time some nefarious hacker may be spoofing the park's WiFi so they can capture your personal information and login credentials to either sell them to a crook or use them to buy a bunch of stuff they can sell for a profit.

The bottom line for me as a retired computer network administrator is I will never use the park's WiFi. The cost of a cellular hotspot is cheap compared to the grief being hacked can cause. Using publicly accessible WiFi is asking for trouble these days. It simply isn't safe. You can't be too careful.

[Bill_Satellite]

I have never liked the WiFi Ranger products. Good luck!

[cooldavidt]

Extending the range on a congested wifi network will do nothing for your ability to download more data.
Using your phone for data also diminishes with the number of users

You need more bandwidth.
Not always available.
I signed up with the local telco.