WiFi Ranger Issue

[Seafish]

I have a 2919 Shamrock 23FL that has a Sky4 WiFi ranger installed. I have used this unit a number of times successfully. I also have an IT background so I understand the basic functions and operation of this unit.

My problem occurred last weekend while I was camping at a KOA that had an open/unsecured network. Very good signal, our phones connected to the network, and laptops connected without issue. So I had internet service for the weekend without any issues.

I did want to connect my WiFi Ranger just in case as more campers arrived the signal might not be as good. With the open network once you connected, it required you to accept terms of use by an accept button on a display page. This completed the handshake from your device to the network. Worked fine an the devices I listed above. However the Ranger was not able to complete this handshake as you had no way to acknowledge the accept terms of use the network was looking for.

I contacted customer/technical support at WiFi Ranger twice, spoke with two different support people. Neither were able to resolve the issue, one even connected to my laptop that was connected to WiFi Ranger control panel.

Have any other WiFi Ranger users experienced this issue and does anyone have a resolution for it? It seems that somewhere on the control panel of the Ranger one should be able to enter some type of script to respond to the request of the network.

[j02kennedy]

I use the wifi Camp Pro and also have run into this issue. After spending a couple of hours tweaking and trying different things I ended up unplugging and putting away to go be outside. Definitely would like to know how to get around the acknowledgement page issue as well.

[NJKris]

Don't even get me started about the WiFi Ranger, I started my own rant on another thread. On a positive note, if you already had a strong signal without it, using the Ranger would not benefit you, and the more users on the network there are, the slower things will be, but that should not diminish your signal.

[Bill and Gail]

Just a thought, can you spoof the MAC address of your laptop to the wifi ranger, then at the campground, authenticate with the laptop, shut it down, then connect the wifi ranger.

[Seafish]

Bill,
I didn't try that, I did ask the tech. support person about making some change to the mac address on the ranger but they offered nothing useful. But I do find you suggestion interesting and will have to investigate that some.
It happened that my son was at the same location with his camper that has a different brand of wifi extender, he also had the same problem as I did.

[stormer]

I pretty much gave up on the frustrations of “free wifi” at campgrounds. I just use my ipad or iphone as a hotspot. You can “self throttle” your device (with wifi ranger) so it doesn’t use up all your hotspot data too quickly.

[CA Fisherman]

I have tried a few procedures and have adopted the following, which works best for my system and me.

1. Using my iPad and browser I enter the WiFi Ranger "Control Panel" address (not the MAC address) which is in the format xx.xxx.xx.x

2. Once the WiFi Ranger control screen comes up, I select the external WiFi system I want to connect to and enter the necessary password (if any).

3. Using my iPhone, I select the Wifi Ranger network name I set up when I first installed the WiFi Ranger. If any acknowledgements are required by the WiFi system my WiFi Ranger is connected to, the prompts will show up on my iPhone and I can complete as required.

Attached is a screen shot of my recent WiFi Ranger control screen from our trip to Crystal Cove (El Moro) Campground (California) last week.