WiFi problems. Need recommendations.

After staying in too many parks with WiFi and getting poor connections or none at all, I’m going to try an exterior wireless “booster” or (in more correct geekspeak) “repeater.”

Failing that, I may splurge on a mobile hotspot like MyFi. Ouch!

Poor connectivity, I’m told, comes from either parking too far from the router or too many campers on the net at the same time. I’ve even heard Prevosts and Wanderlodges, because of their all-metal skin, make bad WiFi access points. Huh?

Any thoughts out there?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tommybahama

After staying in too many parks with WiFi and getting poor connections or none at all, I’m going to try an exterior wireless “booster” or (in more correct geekspeak) “repeater.”

Failing that, I may splurge on a mobile hotspot like MyFi. Ouch!

Poor connectivity, I’m told, comes from either parking too far from the router or too many campers on the net at the same time. I’ve even heard Prevosts and Wanderlodges, because of their all-metal skin, make bad WiFi access points. Huh?

Any thoughts out there?

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Don't bother. A booster won't help with logging on to inadequate campground WiFi system, and it won't do anything for speed even if you succeed in getting on. Invest in a Verizon or competitors' 4G Wifi module. You plug it in or use it on its own batteries. You can put it anywhere in the coach and wirelessly (and quickly, I might add) connect to the internet, with several computers at once. You use an internal password on your computer(s), used to connect to the unit, and that's it, no one else should be able to connect through your unit (sometimes we have connected inadvertently to someone else's Wifi nearby because evidently they weren't protected). Use a top rated internet security software suite (my recommendation, but many people don't use one). Ours cost about $50 a month, but you can opt off for periods (monthly), usually very fast and trouble free.

My two cents.

It kind of depends on the problem you are trying to solve .. If the problem is "radio connectivity" inside your rig from margional coverage areas. Then a booster or just an external antenna can make a big difference. The symptoms of this will be drop outs and reassociations on the radio side of the network .. If whatever your using as a computer shows "bars" or signal strength these will be low and fluxuate. You may also get reassociation errors or lost connectoin errors from the driver. (this won't show up in the web browser, but in the computers driver itself .. Console on the mac, system monitor on windows, syslog on %nix boxes)

More than likely, you are dealing with crappy service at the camps (I've had quit a bit of frustration with this myself, and I do know my sh*t when it comes to this) A lot of the sites appear to be poorly designed and have overlapping radios and other interference problems, along with very choked IP uplinks) Also anything with the tengo systems appear to be chock full of bugs .. as I've seen their access points wedge and stop responding under loads. This will be seen inside the browser which will result in slow page loads, unreachable errors, etc. Sometimes on the more modern operating systems (Windows 7/Macosx) you'll get a pop up saying you are no longer connected to the internet when this happens. The *only* viable solution here is getting another internet .. A MIFI or other 4g/LTE modem or hotspot is about for terrestrial service. If you've got big-bucks then DataStorm or similar will work too.

I used my Verizon MiFi hub that will connect up to 10 devices while on my 2 week trip to Michigan's UP. It is a 4G LTE device and works spectacularly well when there is a 4G signal, less well with 3G and pretty pitifully when on the "O" system. Spendy, but worth it for me.

I have had problems with the Wi-Fi wireless link that I overcome many times with a repeater. The repeater I use is used inside the coach without any external antenna. While travelling in Canada I was unwilling to pay VZ's foreign data charges. As others have stated, a repeater can't fix a problem with the campground's internet access.

I also use a VZ 4G phone with Mi-Fi capabilities. It works well in 4G areas, but my wife's 3G version of the same phone works MUCH better in 3G areas. I even changed my phone out and the results in 3G areas is the same.

I use Autonet it is designed for over the road wifi service you can subscribe for a year or go month to.
Month. I use a 110 volt to 12 volt adapter and take it with me anywhere. I have several bases for it.

Unless things have changed, Autonet is an MVNO and uses the sprint network for transport.

I am not sure what it uses for the network I did go coast to coast this summer and had very few areas with no signal. I thought it used several services. Just another option