Forum Discussion

Crambo's avatar
Crambo
Explorer
Apr 14, 2016

Wifi booster for TT

I saw some mention of a wifi extender to use on travel trailers. It seems like the parks where we stay have weak signal when you get to your spot. What's the best and most cost affordable solution? I saw one that had a usb to plug into a laptop but we use a tablet with no usb. We don't spend much time surfing when we camp but it is nice to be able to pull up maps or things to do and my son likes to watch a cartoon before bed on the tablet.
  • If you have the money to spend, or you fulltime, I would do it up right with something from WiFi Ranger.

    Though there are certainly cheaper solutions, if you are tech savvy you can do this kind of stuff with cheap off the shelf routers with DD-WRT firmware and external antennas, though it's not quite as elegant.
  • I live in the country and didn't have WiFi available, I bought a used Cradle point MBR1000 router from a fellow that was getting out of RVing and added a Verizon air card. Now I can take the router and air card with me where ever I go. (I bought the 12 volt adapter from Cradlepoint)

    Now I can drive down the road or camp with full internet ability, and don't have to look for a hot spot.
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    The VERIZON MIFI does that for us when camping... Gives me a monthly 3GB dataplan for $27.

    I use my secure MIFI unit sitting in a WILSON SLEEK Cradle which has an outside antenna and this give us a good Verizon Internet signal connection. We have a 100 feet or so of hot spot coverage around our camp site and inside the trailer using up to five devices like computers and tablets on the internet etc... all at the same using the MIFI unit. With the WILSON SLEEK CRADLE in the truck we get great internet connections from VERIZON driving down the roads. Great for the tablets doing this...

    This is great for paying bills, keeping in touch with the kids, and some surfing on the internet. The dataplan is not big enough to do any downstreaming of TV or Videos. You need a min of 20GB a months for that. I think those things eat up around 1GB an hour when being used...

    I am always leary of logging into the various open WIFI places that show up on my units.

    We never had much luck depending on the camp ground WIFI. It depends mostly on how full the camp ground is. It really gets bad when everyone gets on it in the evening...

    Roy Ken
  • We use the Verizon Jet pack both at home and camping. It's small and convenient. It gets 4G depending on the Verizon signal strength.
  • I have the Hawking Technology wifi amplifier & router. Works good with weak signals..
  • I have a home made setup similar to the WiFi Ranger. Biggest issue with parks is lack of bandwidth for the amount of people. And, with most parks using a repeater system, every repeat cuts the bandwidth in half.
  • I have had good luck with a Verizon hot spot. But there are a few spots where nothing short of a satellite link would work.

    The iron range in MN and in some of the canyons in AZ and UT come to mind.
  • I gave up on public wifi. I either just use my Iphone or use it as a hotspot for my Ipad. Linking the two was really easy and works very well. Just mind your usage.

    Norm