Community Forums

Revfred · 07-18-2019, 01:24 PM

Need some techie nerd help. The RV park we stay at most of the time has a weak wifi signal (like most RV parks) I also have a Verizon jetpack. I watch most TV through a Firestick. The Verizon jetpack shows a stronger signal but it doesn't stream as well as the weak park service. Can you explain this to me and advise what I need to purchase to receive a better signal through either?

paisleytime · 07-18-2019, 02:05 PM

Are you over the cap (25GB?) for the month? Otherwise an oversubscribed tower maybe. Have you tried tethering to your phone to compare?

A32Deuce · 07-18-2019, 04:04 PM

Phone/Jet Pac is the same radio signal to a tower.

Finance · 07-18-2019, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A32Deuce

Phone/Jet Pac is the same radio signal to a tower.

Same signal, but different data plans don’t perform the same due to throttling or network congestion management.

OP, I’d start by doing some speed testing on each network to see how they compare. Speed test is more relevant than signal strength with digital radio.

If the park WiFi is plenty fast but you’re having problems staying connected due to a weak signal then an external antenna could help.

Cellular that is okay sometimes and slow sometimes is usually because of other users competing for bandwidth; nothing you can do about that. Same is true for park WiFi.

If your cellular is always slow then a better antenna or signal booster OR a different data plan can be a solution.

docj · 07-18-2019, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revfred

The Verizon jetpack shows a stronger signal but it doesn't stream as well as the weak park service.

There's no direct relationship between the strength of a signal and the speed of the connection. Furthermore, you're looking at "comparative" measures of two totally different types of signals and expecting them to relate to how the signals will perform. The bottom line is what you're looking at is essentially meaningless with respect to predicting the relative download speeds you will achieve.

SkiSmuggs · 07-19-2019, 06:04 AM

RV Park Wi-Fi is often poor because the internet pipe is not big enough for the traffic. Cellular internet can vary based on location, tower traffic, the equipment, etc. I tried a VZW 7730L hot spot that worked well on the road but not at home, so I suspended that as I couldn't get my money's worth. Then I tried a cheaper AT&T plan with a Huawei B310-518 hot spot with dual external antennas. It gets a stronger signal than my phone and decent internet speed from home. So changes in location and equipment can have an impact on performance.

paisleytime · 07-19-2019, 12:29 PM

Have you made any progress Revfred? FINANCE was right, you have to test your down/up performance to get usable metrics.

Have you tried tethering to your phone to compare performance yet? Turn on the personal hotspot feature on your phone and connect with a laptop or ipad, then run speedtest at (https://www.speedtest.net/). Then connect that device back to your Jetpack and share the results for speedtest.. same? An iphone XS or Galaxy s9 with x20 modems and 4x4 MIMO will run circles around a Verizon 7730 Jetpack for example, so may be worth trying.

But please also check your data usage for the month at the Verizon portal, can you login to check? If you're over the cap, you're getting throttled and nothing with Verizon will be "fast".

With answers to the questions above, we can make more suggestions to help you. They all involve an investment of some type, but there are options.

Revfred · 07-19-2019, 01:00 PM

Thanks, everyone for the feedback. I did speed tests on both. The Verizon was much faster than the park wifi. I rarely use the jetpack b/c of laggy performance on my computer and tv, so I don't think I'm being throttled. I have the jetpack connected to the antenna that you stick on a window. (sry don't remember the model) I think this park is in a bad cellular location which may be the jetpack problem. I'll be going on the road in a month and I will try it at a different location. My goal is to get better streaming on my firestick b/c we don't have a dish. I hope I'm communcating what I need plus understanding what you guys are saying.

ClassAboater · 07-19-2019, 01:17 PM

The Jetpack will show you how much data you have used per month. It is easy to look at in the menu.

I have not tried to stream my Fire TV through the Jetpack, so can't help you much with that, except to say that you will max out your 'unlimited' plan pretty fast with streaming through the Jetpack and likely will get throttled back if the cell tower has other un-throttled traffic on it.

Revfred · 07-20-2019, 11:51 AM

Thanks again for all the help. Found out my Jetpack is reaching its limit real fast, even though I'm not using it. I have been leaving it turned on. Verizon store employee said I should keep it turned off. I could bump up to more gigs but for what I want to use it for (streaming) the extra gigs won't make much difference. I have 15gigs on the jetpack and on my wife's and my phone. So, I can use the jetpack and then switch and use each cellphone's hotspot. I will see how this works. Thanks again.

Revfred · 07-20-2019, 01:48 PM

I found out the real problem that you guys will like to know. I had unlimited data for my mobile hotspot. The Verizon store employer was going to bump us up from 15g to 22g but I said no because the amount of data isn't the problem because my phone had only used 5g this month. I called Verizon tech support. The young lady, who was very helpful, said that, yes, I did have unlimited data but "not high speed data". I switched my phone to the Beyond plan ($10 more/month) and that did the trick. So tell others that there is a difference in the speed of the data usage on the Verizon plans.

creativepart · 07-20-2019, 01:57 PM

Revfred, we pretty much all know this already. Sorry that you are just know learning this.

You have 22 gigs of 4g service from your plan on your phone and 15g of 4g service on your Jetpack. The reason they call it "unlimited" is that your service doesn't cut off at those limits. They simply slow it down to unusable speeds.

Streaming TV will use up 15 gigs in 2 to 3 days or less depending on how much you watch.

Join www.rvmobileinternet.com and start learning about plans, speeds, equipment, etc.

Revfred · 07-21-2019, 11:38 AM

I said from the onset that I was a noob. I shared it because even the Verizon employee wasn't aware of this.

The Verizon "Go" plan at 15 gigs is at regular data speeds. The "Beyond" plan at 22 gigs has a higher speed data, not just more gigs. At least that is what was explained to me when I called tech support. When I bumped my cell up to the "Beyond" plan I began to stream without any lagging or buffering which was not possible on the "Go" plan.

waterman480 · 07-21-2019, 11:50 AM

If your cell tower is congested, it will be slower. If you get the truly unlimited Verizon plan, you are one of the first people to get slowed down when the tower is busy. The Go plan you are on gets deprioritized less until you reach the limit, but there are no guarantees. If the tower is busy, it is still busy and everyone suffers.

For example, my truly unlimited Verizon hotspot is virtually totally useless at Fort Lauderdale airport. Yet in Galveston, where the load is lighter, I can stream all the time unless a cruise ship is coming into or out of the port and 4000 people are suddenly trying to use the tower I am on.

The park wifi may be hardwired to a high speed provider with sufficient bandwidth.