wifi repeater ???

[jevanb]

not much in the forum here about this, so here it goes.. we just booked 12 days in july camping. I or my wife do not have smart phones (too cheap) but we do have 2 nexus10`s, 2 kindle fires, xbox and some times 2 laptops. most of the time we can not get the campgrounds wifi signal unless we walk up to the store and then spend time downloading a movie for the kids or checking the tiger`s game (huge fan my wife is) I just chill with a beer all day, so what is the cheapest extender that works good and does not take much tech knowledge to set up??

[wrvond]

Here ya go:
http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...day-55024.html

[PhoneDude 8289]

We use the radiolabs wifi router, repeater, wijacker router along with the wave RV - Marine XL antenna. The antenna is attached to our ladder, USB from antenna plugs into the router repeater that sits on the table and wirelessly xmit & recv to ipads & computers anywhere in the RV. Never a problem getting a signal from anywhere in the park. If there is signal within a mile or two it will pick those up too. pick your signal, input password if necessary and surf away. Has not dropped signals. The repeater is smaller than a deck of cards.

[jevanb]

Originally Posted by presley01

We use the 1: radiolabs wifi router, 2:repeater, 3:wijacker router along with the 4:wave RV - Marine XL antenna.

this sounds complicated 4 things to pick up a signal and I can see 500.00 out the door

[DAISY BOYKIN]

I use a NANO STATION 2, works up to 10 miles in flat country. It is a directional system. You point it at the wifi, and it will amplify the incoming and out going signal. The cost is about $80.00.

NanoStation | Ubiquiti Networks, Inc.

[PhoneDude 8289]

Just two things, the outside non directional antenna and the repeater/router. The repeater /router are all one small compact item called the wijacker, about the size of a deck of cards and nowhere near the $500. jevanb was thinking.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by presley01

We use the radiolabs wifi router, repeater, wijacker router along with the wave RV - Marine XL antenna. The antenna is attached to our ladder, USB from antenna plugs into the router repeater that sits on the table and wirelessly xmit & recv to ipads & computers anywhere in the RV. Never a problem getting a signal from anywhere in the park. If there is signal within a mile or two it will pick those up too. pick your signal, input password if necessary and surf away. Has not dropped signals. The repeater is smaller than a deck of cards.

Presley, do you have links to the items that you use? I work from my camper and would like to build a better setup for picking up wifi when it is available.

[clange]

Originally Posted by DAISY BOYKIN

I use a NANO STATION 2, works up to 10 miles in flat country. It is a directional system. You point it at the wifi, and it will amplify the incoming and out going signal. The cost is about $80.00.

NanoStation | Ubiquiti Networks, Inc.

X2 on the NanoStation. It is a very configurable, multipurpose system.

[getastro]

I vote for the nanostation also. Get product, it just works..

[PhoneDude 8289]

Originally Posted by ependydad

Presley, do you have links to the items that you use? I work from my camper and would like to build a better setup for picking up wifi when it is available.

radiolabs.com It's called the wijacker repeter, works for us.

[DutchF]

Personally, I chose the cheap (and relatively simple) route.

Bought a used Cisco Linsys WRT54GS V4 off ebay for about $30 (shipped). Downloaded DD-WRT (free open source firmware) and followed the simple instructions to create this:

Park wifi (open) <--> my DD-WRT router configured as a wireless client / a SECURE bridged wireless AP <--> 3 laptops (1 running a Plex media server), 2 Android tablets, 3 Android smart phones, a wireless 5-in-one printer, 2 smart TV's, a DirecTV HD reciever, a Google Chromecast and a Roku XS HD.

And besides the cost benefit and the security benefit (repeaters have only the same security as what they repeat - NONE), we can connect numerous devices, securely and only appear as a single connection to the park. Why is that important? some parks provide a password / access key and only allow 1 or 2 devices before they charge for more devices. We make a single connection and all our devices are hidden behind it.
(NAT and SPI firewall).

Cost = about $30
Time to configure = about 30 minutes (one time operation) to load the router firmware and about 5 minutes to configure it for any park we go to.

And if the park's wifi isn't good enough (fortunately it is, here), then we have the following options that I can connect the router to (wirelessly, of course)

3 T-Mobile 4G LTE devices (2 phones and a tablet, each with a separate data plan of 3GB, 3GB and 1.2GB before throttling)
1 AT&T 4G LTE phone with a 5GB before throttling plan
1 Verizon 4G LTE JetPack, with a 4GB before OVERAGE CHARGE plan.

Got Connectivity? (yep)

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by DutchF

Personally, I chose the cheap (and relatively simple) route.

Bought a used Cisco Linsys WRT54GS V4 off ebay for about $30 (shipped). Downloaded DD-WRT (free open source firmware) and followed the simple instructions to create this...

Got Connectivity? (yep)

Dutch, I really like that setup. But, I'm curious if it helps with range issues? I rarely am within the range of the campground's wireless access points.

[DutchF]

Absolutely. Two reasons. Because it is a good little wireless router (dual antennas and supports dual band, including separate antenna transmit / receive assignment), it will pick up signals as low as 9db and by creating a wireless WAP bridge, everything on my "private" WLAN sees a full power signal. Also, I can adjust the transmit power all the way up to 200mw (default is 71mw). Doing this can extend my private WLAN range out to around 200'.

Again, if there is no wifi for me to bridge to, I just turn on one of our other 5 sources (4G LTE) and bridge of that.

[ependydad]

Thanks, Dutch! Makes sense that it has a better antennas than any of the devices connecting to it. I knew the connections to it would see full power- just wasn't sure if it could reach further than they could. Makes sense that it does.

[Kampnnit]

This is what I ordered for the 3G Store.com

Qty. Products
1 ea. SureCall 9.5" Full Band Outdoor Omni 3G/4G Antenna - SC-288W $57.99
1 ea. N/Female to RP-SMA/Male Adapter $9.95
1 ea. 20' Black LMR400 Ultra-Low-Loss Cable (N/Male Connectors) $41.99
1 ea. Pepwave Surf On-The-Go 3G/4G Router w/ WiFi as WAN (Surf OTG) Version 2.0 $99.99

$209.92 Sub-Total
$4.99 UPS Ground [residential]:
$214.91 Total

Depending on where the antenna is mounted you may get away with a shorter cable. The cable is rather big, 3/8", but very good quality. A 3/4" hole will need to be drilled to get the cable from outside the RV to the inside. Hooked it up last night and was picking up the whole neighborhoods wifi setups.

[murf259]

I picked up the NETGEAR Trek N300 Travel Router and Range Extender (PR2000) from Amazon at around $40.00 and I have had great performance out of it. It will take the public WiFi signal and not only boost the signal, but allow you to great a private network that will allow you to surf and stream in safety. It supports WPA2 encryption.

You can use this and pull in weak WiFi. However, like any public hotspot, it will not increase bandwidth, so if lots of people are using the public hotspot you bandwidth will be congested. But, if you use it to set up your internal network, you can still stream movies and videos that you bring on your devices.

[Gcaughron]

I have used the Jefatech Repeater for two seasons and have not had any problems whatsoever. The system consists of a modified Cisco/Linksys router, 20 ft.Of cable that connects the external antenna that I have attached to the outside crank up TV antenna. Cost approximately 170.00

[LANShark42]

Tagging for interest...

[elind]

Originally Posted by Gcaughron

I have used the Jefatech Repeater for two seasons and have not had any problems whatsoever. The system consists of a modified Cisco/Linksys router, 20 ft.Of cable that connects the external antenna that I have attached to the outside crank up TV antenna. Cost approximately 170.00

I have the Jafatech for 3 seasons on two different RVs. Just love it.

[Evereddie]

Originally Posted by elind

I have the Jafatech for 3 seasons on two different RVs. Just love it.

I also have the Jafratech and it works very well. However without trying any other ones it's hard to tell if it is the best, as good as, or others could do better. Will be trying it more this season. Unfortunately we stay in State and COE Parks which pretty much don't have WIFI and are too far from other possible WIFI systems. We bite the bullet and use the Verizon hotspot. WE set our Roku box to low rez (standard TV rez, not high def) and that is a lot easier on the bandwidth when watching movies.