Winegard Air 360+ question - Page 2

david_reaves · 03-14-2021, 05:43 PM

Ray, I agree with your analysis and I will probably spring for the Winegard Gateway. I already have an AT & T account and she has Verizon. I think I would start with AT & T data since we've been a few places where Verizon didn't have signal (That's why I have AT & T-- just so I could do a phone hotspot for her).

Thanks to all for the thoughts!

aray · 03-14-2021, 11:09 PM

David,

If you do decide to go with the Gateway, I strongly suggest you read the following thread before you try to install your Gateway: https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...bs-216631.html

It seems commonplace that the power-line fuse is blown, upon delivery of our new RVs. In my case I didn't know that was the cause, and I routed a special 12 V DC source over to my Gateway. Others found the location of the faulty fuse and got it replaced.

This may or may not apply to your rig. I have a Freedom Express 192RBS and I see you have a Forest River Windjammer 3001W. But as a precaution, if you try to hook up your Gateway only to discover it has no power, you might look to the thread above as the cause and hints to the solution in your own rig.

Best wishes,

Ray

dedobias · 03-16-2021, 06:23 AM

If you watched the video, the wifi of the gateway severely reduced the speed. It's software is clunky and won't permit you to agree to a user agreement on most campground wifi that have a pop up. It is just an antenna and that same capability for wifi can be used with another router not prone to those issues.

aray · 03-16-2021, 05:28 PM

I did watch the video. I agree the software is clunky and I gave several additional examples of that clunkiness that were not covered in the video.

However I have successfully connected to campgrounds that had user agreement pop-ups and it worked fine for me. It also caches passwords so that if the connection is lost or you come back on subsequent trips, it remembers how to auto-connect. (You can manage that cache in one of the sub-menus in their app.) As stated I haven't done that frequently, so maybe it works on some WiFi systems and not others, depending upon how the campground has their sign-on sequence and web portal configured, but all I can say is that portion worked every time I've tried it.

I can only speculate, but maybe others that complained about that feature did not upgrade to the latest version of the software? Dunno. All I can say is that as soon as I got my Gateway working, I immediately asked it to check for firmware upgrades, and it downloaded and installed a new version.

My analysis above allowed for the likelihood that bandwidth would be reduced in the use-case that the source signal is remote or weak. The system, router and software working together with the antenna hardware, is making a trade-off that prefers connection reliability over bandwidth. A trade-off to be sure, but often there's no free lunch. Now if it's still doing that in a strong WiFi signal, bad on Winegard. I haven't tested it in that situation. I did see the numbers he put up on the video, but I really don't know how far his camper was from the source, nor the power output from the router's antenna, how much the signal was attenuated by his building, other vehicles, etc. I think we agree that Winegard should back-off on their modem signal recovery software if in fact it always chews up bandwidth even in strong fields, but as I also said, in that use-case you don't even need the system. Just directly connect and bypass them. It's real value is reliability and grabbing weak and remote signals (WiFi or cellular).

I'd be delighted if someone else hooked up a better router than the Gateway to the Air 360+, but as David pointed out the Nighthawk router you were looking at doesn't support WiFi boost, according to him. I dunno since I don't own a Nighthawk and haven't researched them. Please let us know if you can get it to work; I think everyone would profit by your success!

Ray

david_reaves · 03-24-2021, 09:52 AM

I successfully completed the install of the Gateway for the 360+ antenna. Ray, as you suggested, I disconnected all sources of power before I tapped into the 12-volt power wire for the gateway. I installed the rocker switch a few inches away from the gateway in the ceiling.

The biggest problem I had was getting a SIM. The SIM shipped with the Gateway is for Windgard's resale of data and a different SIM from AT&T online both wouldn't work. I spent a couple of days trying to get to the right people online/ on the phone after the first AT&T store WOULDN'T help. I got nowhere. I finally called a different store, explained what I was trying to do, and they said, "Sure, come on in." They couldn't find anything in their in-store system, but the manager there looked at the online material for AT&T's Connected Car group (which includes RV gateways). Since the website (https://buyasession.att.com/sbd/Cust...uctInfo.action) immediately asks for a SIM, they tried an in-store full-sized SIM with my IEMI for the gateway-- it worked! I paid for the SIM and finished setting up the account.

After installing, I tested connectivity with both WiFi and 4G. The gateway was able to see all the WiFi networks in the entire neighborhood. I believe the claim of up to 1/2 mile range. For connection speed, the Gateway (which is a repeater) did reduce the available bandwidth by 50%. That is normal and expected for any WiFi extender. The key was that there was still plenty of speed for normal work and even enough to stream. On my network, through the Gateway I still had a respectable 20 Mbits/s. That's twice the speed of the original ethernet wired network and more than enough for 2 or 3 people-- for anything other than graphics intensive gaming or large file downloads.

For 4G, the gateway actually exceeded the speed available directly to my phone inside the camper. My phone was only able to download about 6 Mbits/s while the Gateway was able to produce twice that at 12 Mbits/sec. Again, that's enough for normal computer use and some streaming.

I don't have any "real world" use for the Gateway, though we will test when we go to Port Aransas in a few weeks. A caveat to my speed results is that the camper is actually under a metal carport with short sidewalls-- so the antenna is impeded by sheet metal wrapped around the camper below the roof line. Once I'm not under the roof the results may be better!

aray · 03-24-2021, 11:10 AM

David,

Thanks for letting us know about your experience. I'm glad it's working out for you and it looks like it will meet your wife's CPA business needs based on your observations to date.

I'm not surprised that you saw a whole bunch of new WiFi networks across your neighborhood. I had a similar experience as well; it was shocking how many WiFi networks the Winegard Air 360+ antenna can see and pull in, compared to the tiny antennas you tend to find on phones or other small devices.

AT&T Connected Car group. Good to know in case I ever need to go back to a store again. Given how I use my Gateway, i.e. I turn my plan on & off to save money, given the difficulty of finding the right informed AT&T folks and getting the right sort of SIM is why I never let my plan completely expire. I just buy one month of "bridge" data over the non-camping winter to keep the plan active, but otherwise buy no data on the months I'm not camping. To me, that's worth an extra $25 bridge once a year to avoid having to go back into a store and start the process all over again.

Do you mind if I ask what plan you selected from AT&T? Did you go with the annual plan, or did you select one of the data-by-the-month plans initially just to kick the tires?

BTW I'll be pulling my own camper out of storage in a few weeks to dewinterize it, do some upgrades/mods, e.g. install a Micro-Air EasyStart 360 for the AC, and maybe add a weBoost cell phone signal booster for yet another way to pull in remote & weak signals.

All of that to get ready for my first truly long-range trip: a 2,000 mile round-trip from the Baltimore area to Tampa Florida, with multi-day stops in Charleston SC and Tallahassee FL, with a few boondocking overnight stops along the way.

Another thing I'll probably do on the quick prep & upgrade visit with the camper is to add in a portable Blu-ray player to my unit, as my TV has a spare HDMI port on the back. Like you, I'm frustrated that RV manufacturers don't include these as standard now, and instead put in older format DVD players. Any brands you recommend or have experience with?

Ray

david_reaves · 03-24-2021, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aray

David,

Do you mind if I ask what plan you selected from AT&T? Did you go with the annual plan, or did you select one of the data-by-the-month plans initially just to kick the tires?

Ray

I would have bought the 20GB per month annual plan, but that isn't available. The next best thing was a 100MB 12-month plan for $325. As I read it, that gives me 12 months to use 100 GB of data (prepaid). That should tie in well with the availability of WiFi and use of hotspot data on phone plans when it is accessible. The external 4G antenna is a fall-back if we can't get a decent signal inside on AT&T (my phone has 30GB hotspot data monthly) or Verizon (her phone has 10GB data monthly). Between all four sources we should be able to stay connected most of the time.

David

dedobias · 04-07-2021, 06:56 AM

SOmeone did the conenction to 360+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyRSr8DkRKA

aray · 04-12-2021, 08:54 PM

Awesome video. Congrats to the guy who worked this out. And thanks for the link dedobias!

Ray

dedobias · 04-12-2021, 09:04 PM

I have someoen checking other mimo modems and devices to take this setup to next level. WHat the guy in the video is using is also dated. There are much higher level modems and devices available but they are like computer cards that need to be packaged. Trying to find someone that is a wizard in them.

billygc · 06-02-2021, 08:16 AM

I recently purchased a new rv and its equipped with the Winegard 360 antenna. Hooked up a tv to the coaxle, engaged the power button and ran the scan to pick up the channels. Only one channel ETV was picked up. To double check my location's access to channels I switched to a stick on flat antenna and placed it in the rv window. I picked up 14 channels with it. Something tells me there is something wrong with the installation of the Winegard or its just a piece of junk. Anyone experienced this? Is there a way to replace this Winegard with another brand. My previous rv, parked in the same location, was a non-directional antenna and it did a good job. Not getting any support from the dealer. Guess they think its a Winegard problem.

dedobias · 06-02-2021, 08:17 PM

The first time I used mine for an antenna it dis well. This last weekend not so much but I was in a small town
My friend had a directional antenna and had lots of channels. Next weekend Ill be in fringe area again so we will see.

NavyLCDR · 06-02-2021, 08:20 PM

Make sure all the coaxial cable connections behind the wall plate and at the antenna are tight. On my new trailer, none of them were tight.

dedobias · 06-02-2021, 08:51 PM

Tightened all of them from the TVs. Time to pull the wall plate and the ceiling plate and check those.

dedobias · 08-05-2021, 05:01 AM

I ended up using my Onstar in my truck and a wifi booster. I keep the truck plugged into the trailer and the battery on the truck stays charged. Only issue is the truck has to stay connected for wifi and if I go anywhere, everyone is shut off. So far have have had great signal strength and speed.

Still trying to find someone who hooked a nighthawk to the 360+

emm-dee · 08-05-2021, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dedobias

I ended up using my Onstar in my truck and a wifi booster. I keep the truck plugged into the trailer and the battery on the truck stays charged. Only issue is the truck has to stay connected for wifi and if I go anywhere, everyone is shut off. So far have have had great signal strength and speed.

Still trying to find someone who hooked a nighthawk to the 360+

Why hook a Nighthawk to the 360+ ? The 360 is not going to increase the strength or quality of the Nighthawk signal. I’ve found that hooking any router to a Nighthawk is going to lower the Nighthawk’s performance. You might get just a little more range but I’ve never seen a situation where the Nighthawk couldn’t cover the entire campsite, and I am not considering providing a connection for other campsites.

dedobias · 08-05-2021, 05:49 PM

360+ is a 4g antenna that can be hooked to the nighthawk\

emm-dee · 08-05-2021, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dedobias

360+ is a 4g antenna that can be hooked to the nighthawk\

Sounds like a lot of expense and effort to duplicate the function of the Netgear MIMO system. As long as I’m seeing speeds in the 30’s (not always but still common) I’ll stay with the MIMO.

dedobias · 08-05-2021, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emm-dee

Sounds like a lot of expense and effort to duplicate the function of the Netgear MIMO system. As long as I’m seeing speeds in the 30’s (not always but still common) I’ll stay with the MIMO.

Mr trailer came wiht 360+ whcih includes The Winegard Air360+ dome hides an HDTV antenna, and a Wi-Fi antenna, and two (2x2 MIMO) LTE antennas.

jeffrim · 02-24-2022, 10:18 AM

Ok, all you RV internet wifi gurus. I just upgraded to a 2021 FR3 30DS with the Winegard 360+ and a Gateway. I am trying to figure out how the wifi part of this works. The Gateway manual first says to turn on the power switch, which I cannot locate. Nothing on the wall and nothing on the ceiling Gateway. Help me get started on this and walk me thru the setups and operation, please. I have no idea how to proceed. Thanks.
Jeff

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