Personal High Powered RV Wi-Fi for Under $100 - Tutorial

[David Bott]

Hi All...

I have been asked if I would make a video showing how to configure an inexpensive personal secure Wi-Fi setup for an RV. This came after my video about how we do Wi-Fi in our motor coach and the cost was a little high for some based on the parts we use. So with a little setup time, how does under $100 sound?

I ordered some parts and took some time to make a complete setup video tutorial on how to use a high powered antenna to bring in the RV parks W-Fi into your motorhome and have a secure personal Wi-Fi network of your own for under $100 from parts you can purchase from Amazon. You can use this to connect to any Wi-Fi you are allowed to use or even your own MiFi, Jetpack, or Hotspot. Then you only need to connect all your wireless devices to one SSID, your own, with no need to change off of it.

Attached photo below of what you will end up with. A small yet powerful personal Wi-Fi system.
[ moderator edit ]


Enjoy!

[smiller]

I can't view the video from where I am right now but yep, there are a number of ways to construct an inexpensive and simple park wifi repeater system these days. Go on Amazon and buy an Engenius ENS202 (or the Ubiquiti equivalent) and place it back-to-back with an inexpensive WAP and you'll have a long-range two radio system (so you can have you local LAN on a different channel than park wifi, providing better throughput and security as well as being a better neighbor) for about $100 or so that will equal or exceed the performance of $400-$500 turnkey solutions from WiFi Ranger and others. The homebrew path is not an out-of-the-box turnkey solution like the prepackaged systems, but if you have the skills (or can use Google) you can save many hundreds of dollars.

Regardless of whether you homebrew or go turnkey (for many turnkey is a perfectly good albiet more expensive option) a good (preferably dual-radio) repeater system is a must if you want reliable park wifi... it will solve the vast majority of common problems.

[David Bott]

Yes, I did this video long after we did the video on setting up more of a turnkey solution like the Wi-Fi RogueWave as people asked for a less costly idea. Of course most could not understand how to setup a Nanostation etc, thus this walk though video with quick and easy simple AirGateway as the wireless router for a small, powerful, clean solution.

Here is a labeled image of the parts. (Can't edit the first post.)

[CountryFit]

awesome, thank you for sharing!!

[Chinewalker]

Thank you for posting!

I have been reading up on wifi antennas etc. since I use public wifi in our sticks and brick also.

I downloaded the video from Youtube and will be ordering the parts from Amazon.

I use a Macbook Pro, but I'm not sure about ethernet.

I use to love AVS!

Cheers,

/Jim

Edit: Just found the Ethernet - Thunderbolt adapter!

[David Bott]

Hi...On your MacBook Pro you should have an Ethernet port on the site. It looks like a phone jack...just a little larger. I would suggest watching the video at least once to get an idea of what you will be doing. I mention this because you mentioned not being sure about ethernet.

And how did you connect me with AVSForum?

[Chinewalker]

On my Macbook Pro with the Retina display there are no Ethernet ports.

Just two Thunderbolt ports. But Apple makes an adapter...

I found the reference to AVSForum on your website under the "about us" tab.

In the days of the Blu-ray HDDVD debates it was daily reading. That forum helped me choose my speakers, my amplifier etc. same as the posters on this forum helped me choose my RV!

[David Bott]

Ah. no port. You could use a USB to Ethernet more than likely for a lot less.

Like this for $18. I use one on my MacBook Air.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ah yes, the about us page. Just wondering for as you may guess, I am kinda known. LOL (And yes, the HDDVD vs Blu-ray war was fought on AVS. We kind were the battle ground.)

[gemini5362]

David,

Excellent presentation it is pretty close to what I do. If you do not mind I am going to add a bit of my experience to make a slight change. You can buy a Flag Pole for around 100.00 with a nice holder at the top which you can mount to your ladder on the back of your RV. The holder is a slide in holder and once mounted you do not have to climb back up the ladder to use it. Then you can just take Velcro and wrap around the bottom rung of the ladder to hold the pole. Without the nice holder at the top you can buy the same flag pole at harbor freight for 54.95. These are 20 ft telescoping flag poles that go down to about 4 ft long for storage. I have a tp-link version of the outdoor router you use. I mount the router to the top of the flag pole with Velcro cord holder strips. I put the router and flag pole up then just turn the router towards the antenna of the campground. As you showed the router attaches to the Lan router with an Ethernet cord. Rather than drill a hole for the outdoor router I just take the Lan router and set it in a compartment underneath that has a receptacle for power. The outdoor router is powered by a POE box through the Ethernet cord so I can power the POE box and the Lan Router inside the storage compartment run the Ethernet cord out under the storage compartment door ( they have a rubber gasket and the Ethernet cord just compresses the gasket around it) I now have my entire system in an underneath storage compartment with no cords in the living space area of the coach. The LAN wireless goes through the floor of the coach with no problem. Hook up is just like you described in your presentation.

[MSHappyCampers]

Great info!

[David Bott]

Nice way to put the NanoStation in the air outside and surely much better if you can. I did mention it could go outside if someone wanted to...All that is needed is a longer network cable and a poll like you mentioned. (I still suggest shielded network cable.) DO NOT put the POE Injector OUTSIDE.

I use went to Lowes and got a long aluminum painters poll that expands to 18 feet via 3 twist sections. Less cost.

Remember, some people do not have back ladders. In that case, I strap the poll to the power post or use large squeeze clamps and just attach it to the slide out. I put the poll inside the corner of the slide and clamp it to the outside edge. (The poll is between the side out side wall and the end of the outer wall..thus touching the side wall.) I use three clamps and start at the bottom and then reach up as far as I can to get the next one and then add a middle one. This is only because I did not take the time to get a step stool out.

[BFlinn181]

David, nice tutorial and I'm glad you are sharing. Only issue is the use of the word 'Personal' in the title. You are just using a better antenna and signal booster to hook up to the park, public local free and/or unlocked WiFi signal. If you are trying to stream a video or other heavy bandwidth use you might be overtaxing the WiFi signal for others. In addition, in the link you title it, 'Secure.' Any connection in a campground or other public, unlocked, WiFi source is not something I'd call secure. Not really criticizing, just making folks aware there are security and also sharing considerations to be conscious of in any wireless internet connection.

[David Bott]

Hi Bob...

Thanks for the heads up just in case.

"Personal" is correctly used as we talk about setting up your own Wi-Fi network inside your RV. So it is not just a better antenna, it is a personal Wi-Fi setup. Even if you are not connected to the Internet via the antenna, you can still print to your wireless printer or share files between computer or other connected devices as you are on your own Wi-Fi network.

As far as "Secure". Your own Wi-Fi network is more secure than just using a parks open Wi-Fi or even if the park has password protected Wi-Fi. This is because it puts a firewall between you and the network you are connecting to for Internet access. (Actually two in this case as the Nanostation is acting as a NAT'ed router and then so is the AirGateway.) As such, other users of the parks Wi-Fi network can not "see" your connected devices and try to connect to them.

Also using an open network can be secure if you are using HTTPS sites. That is because the data is encrypted from YOUR device all the way to the site you are using and back again as long as they are running SSL and thus HTTP's'. Here is a section from one of my videos taking about it..

http://youtu.be/HRRYzUMZT3I?t=6m34s

Of course if someone is running a "Man In The Middle" fake Wi-Fi access point that you connected to, then all bets are off. But the chances of that are very small and even banks now have ways to protect from it. That type of data logging is also usually done in airports, hotels, or busy cafe's.

As mentioned in the above video link segment, a common mistake people make, only because people do not understand, is that even if an RV Park gives you a password to connect to the parks access point, that only allows you on their network and only the connection from you to the AP is encrypted. After the AP, it is not encrypted unless you are accessing an HTTPS site.

You are right about streaming etc as sure it uses more bandwidth and thus can reduce speeds for others in the park. Unless a park blocks it, then people will do it. Streaming is here and now and no longer the future. It has actually now surpassed broadcast TV in viewers.

Oh, just a reminder along the same thought, as stated in the blog entry and in the video, a good connection to the park does not mean you will have good Internet as that all depends on the Internet bandwidth the park has coming in and the number of users using it and how. The park can also throttle and or limit data use. (I know as I have set them up for parks.)

Hope this helps clear it up.

[gfs1943]

Thanks a million for sharing your info. So many RV parks say they have WiFi but I've found that many will not provide a consistent signal to all RV spaces. I'm gonna buy the Ubiquiti components and put this together before next year's long trip. We appreciate you for sharing this!