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Old 07-25-2019, 09:10 PM   #1
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WiFi booster

So who has used a WiFi booster and what was you experience and which did you use. I tried the alpha camp pro 2 and it was faster to login to the slow campground WiFi. I’m currently looking at the WiFi ranger sky pro pack 4 any input would be appreciated

Thanks
Steve
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Old 07-25-2019, 10:20 PM   #2
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I have a WiFiRanger. In the 2 1/2 years of fulltiming that I had it installed to the roof, I can count on 1 hand the times that it was helpful to connect to campground WiFi. Generally speaking, the issue isn't getting a connection, it's the crappy slow speed of that connection. And even more specifically, it isn't about the connection, it's the crappy slow internet source that the campground has coming to it.

The way to test it is to go to the source of the WiFi with a laptop or phone and connect. Do a speed test - if it's slow, nothing will fix that. If it's fast, but it's slow when you're inside of your RV, then a WiFi booster will help.

I require decent internet as I work fulltime from my rig. For me, I carry 2 different truly unlimited hotspots; one on AT&T and one on Verizon. My cellular bills are some of the highest monthly bills that we have. But, my situation isn't the same as everyone else.

Now, I do like the WiFi ranger for giving me a network backbone in the RV. I connect all of my devices to it and I'm able to change their internet source in one fell swoop. Plus for things like serving media to the TVs or printing, it's much faster than relying on the mobile hotspots (plus, with 2 of them- I'm never on the right network!).
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Old 07-26-2019, 03:23 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by syeager View Post
So who has used a WiFi booster and what was you experience and which did you use. I tried the alpha camp pro 2 and it was faster to login to the slow campground WiFi. I’m currently looking at the WiFi ranger sky pro pack 4 any input would be appreciated

Thanks
Steve

We have the Ranger Sky 4 and it works well as the backbone for our network. We connect through our Mobley (unlimited plan) and have multiple devices connected, both wired and wireless in our network. Never had a problem with the Ranger. Never use the campground WI-fi; too many issues and usually very slow.
Our Ranger is LTE ready , so we could go that route for our uplink by inserting the SIM card.
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Old 07-27-2019, 07:07 AM   #4
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I agree with everything the two previous posters mentioned. One thing I did not see mentioned was that every Wifi hop will reduce the speed. If you are connecting to the booster by wireless, that will introduce some speed reduction. Also, some Wifi systems limit the band width to each user. In some campgrounds with longer term residents, the residents will have cable Wifi like Xfinity that broadcasts a public access Wifi signal. I have had good success connecting to these, but they are generally throttled to 6MBS.

I use a Ubiquiti Nanostation as a Wifi booster. It connects directly to the computer or a Wifi Ranger router by ethernet cable. If using the router, I connect the computers by ethernet cable to limit the number of Wifi hops. It has a directional antenna so some knowledge of where the access points are is needed. Depending on how the campground Wifi system is setup, the speed of the multiple access points may be different if the signal is being repeated. If each access point has its own source, the one with the least users may have the fastest speed. I always try every access point in a system to find the fastest one. I can usually get a good enough connection to retrieve email or surf the web. Streaming not so much. For streaming, I use cellular. I tether the cellular device to the router and connect everything that can to the router by ethernet cable.

Hope this helps!
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