Wifi Boosters - do they actually work at typical campgrounds?

[evofxdwg]

We just returned from a 6 week trip and stayed in more than 12 different campgrounds. We noted that in many, the wifi connection was strong, but internet access bandwidth was near useless. This included most of the better (e.g.: more expensive) campgrounds we stayed at. We were not playing videos for the most part (occasional attempt to play a short youtube or embedded one and many times froze while loading). Most of the time, we were trying to look at email, facebook, a forum (text loads), or searching for a business or map location. And we noted that the more campers were there, the worse it got, as expected. Some campgrounds were near empty a few nights and internet access was still crappy on their wifi. We estimate that 80% of the time, we gave up and used our cell phone bandwidth to access internet. (either as a hotspot for the laptop or directly surfing on the smartphone). It was particularly frustrating when we were ready to pull out and trying to select a map route for our days driving, sometimes needing to find an RV-friendly fuel station along the route.

We haven't invested in a Wifi booster, but with these symptoms, I speculate it would not help in most places. Change my mind.

Has anyone actually tested internet speed with and without a wifi booster at the same campground/location?

Would we be better off to spend the money on a cell signal booster with external antenna and buy the extra Megabytes from our cell carrier?

[sdennislee]

They will boost the signal but not the bandwidth, so if bandwidth is bad you will just be improving your connection to bad bandwidth. Mine is laying on the closet floor, replaced it with a JetPack from Verizon much happier now.

[LJowdy]

I've never conducted the test as you asked but, I have a Wineguard ConnectT on the roof of my coach and the repeater inside my coach. If I power down the Wineguard the signal inside my coach is only 1 bar, with the unit powered on, I get 4 bars of wifi strength. I've only tested it at one RV park but it really works.

[weredoingit]

Originally Posted by evofxdwg

We just returned from a 6 week trip and stayed in more than 12 different campgrounds. We noted that in many, the wifi connection was strong, but internet access bandwidth was near useless. This included most of the better (e.g.: more expensive) campgrounds we stayed at. We were not playing videos for the most part (occasional attempt to play a short youtube or embedded one and many times froze while loading). Most of the time, we were trying to look at email, facebook, a forum (text loads), or searching for a business or map location. And we noted that the more campers were there, the worse it got, as expected. Some campgrounds were near empty a few nights and internet access was still crappy on their wifi. We estimate that 80% of the time, we gave up and used our cell phone bandwidth to access internet. (either as a hotspot for the laptop or directly surfing on the smartphone). It was particularly frustrating when we were ready to pull out and trying to select a map route for our days driving, sometimes needing to find an RV-friendly fuel station along the route.

We haven't invested in a Wifi booster, but with these symptoms, I speculate it would not help in most places. Change my mind.

Has anyone actually tested internet speed with and without a wifi booster at the same campground/location?

Would we be better off to spend the money on a cell signal booster with external antenna and buy the extra Megabytes from our cell carrier?

I can't answer your question. But having had the same problem so many times is why I bought an I-Pad with it's own phone number. Yes I know I have to use our data, but I leave my lap-top home now when we're traveling, it was way to frustrating trying to use it with campground wi-fi. like you said looking at maps or checking out our next place to stay. Plus we use it to watch movies on the TV from Net Flix & Amazon prime I don't know, I'm not the smartest person with computers but the I pad made our traveling a whole lot easier. Even with only one bar I can surf the net, check and receive emails. We had a "Park model trailer in the gold country in Ca. that we used as a vacation home. The Wi-Fi was horrible, one year they raised our yearly dues. One of the main reasons for the price increase was because the park installed a completely new Wi-Fi system. It was as weak as ever, after complaining to the park in writing we received a letter explaining that they were sorry but the reason our trailer was receiving such a weak signal, was because a 100 year old oak tree was blocking the signal. That was the "Straw that broke the camel's back" We pulled the trailer out after being there for 30+ years.

[aether_one]

Originally Posted by evofxdwg

We haven't invested in a Wifi booster, but with these symptoms, I speculate it would not help in most places.

You are correct.

Originally Posted by evofxdwg

Would we be better off to spend the money on a cell signal booster with external antenna and buy the extra Megabytes from our cell carrier?

Yes

[av8tor2]

I put both the Winegard Connect wifi booster and Smoothtalker cell booster on our coach. Does not help much with park wifi, mostly that still sucks. However, if there is any cell signal at all, the Smoothtalker boosts that significantly, I then create a HotSpot with the phone and tune the Winegard to that to establish wifi, now that gives me super wifi thruout the coach. Now if I knew how to crack other wifi network pass codes, the Winegard pulls in lots and lots of wifi networks, all most all of which are password protected. Not much use.

[Finance]

Digital radio basically either works, or it doesn't, just like you see on digital TV. Yes, a booster or external rooftop antenna can get a signal where an interior device fails to, but that's not your issue.

We have the WiFi Ranger system that has an internal and external antenna routers (2 separate devices) so at a glance I can compare the signal strength between the two for the same WiFi source. Nearby high quality sources the difference is irrelevant. For distant weak sources absolutely the SNR falls faster on the internal antenna. And the external antenna picks up distant weak signals that are not found at all by the internal unit.

Thing is, those weak signals are almost never the CG. It's campers with a jetpack or neighboring businesses or homes. Which are rarely open. It's a rare situation where the signal is weak, and open/unsecured, and has any usable bandwidth.

Hope that helps. I'd spend the money on more cellular bandwidth.

[Gary RVRoamer]

All good advice above. An external wifi antenna will get you pretty much all the improvement to be had for campground wifi. The primary problem in most campground systems is a low-capacity internet connection at the campground server, resulting is limited connectivity and poor or non-existent performance. There ain't no fixing it when 20 campers try to get online in the evening and the campground internet only has capacity for maybe 2-3 users.


We always carried a Crane Super USB Wifi antenna for use in those campgrounds that actually had decent wifi service. It would bring in any available signal, often including some outside the park (but few of those can be used without passwords). More often we used our Verizon Myfi cell modem/hotspot, which worked adequately in most places. We also used a Weboost cell booster (external antenna & amp) for a few years when we spent a lot of time in a mountainous area where cell signals were often weak. It was expensive but it saved the day several times.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by sdennislee

They will boost the signal but not the bandwidth, so if bandwidth is bad you will just be improving your connection to bad bandwidth. Mine is laying on the closet floor, replaced it with a JetPack from Verizon much happier now.

X2!

[ElvistheKing]

I’ve got both, WiFi booster and a WiFi connected to a load balancing router, if one goes down or gets too slow the other takes over.

The directional WiFi one’s can be useful as they can grab a signal from such a long way away, if the bandwidth is bad in the campsite you may be able to get WiFi from the coffee shop a bit down the road, but you have to hunt for it.

Luckily here in the UK mobile data prices are not too bad, I get 200Gb a month for about £30.

[vito.a]

Is it worth it to spend $600+ on a Wilson WeBoost 4g booster when 5g is just around the corner?

Quote form Verizon:
Verizon has turned on the world’s first commercial 5G network in Sacramento, Houston, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis.

[ElvistheKing]

Originally Posted by vito.a

Is it worth it to spend $600+ on a Wilson WeBoost 4g booster when 5g is just around the corner?

Quote form Verizon:
Verizon has turned on the world’s first commercial 5G network in Sacramento, Houston, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis.

Really depends how quickly it will roll out, only now is it becoming unusual to see 3G rather than 4G and how long has 4G been around?

[Brad2018]

Originally Posted by vito.a

Is it worth it to spend $600+ on a Wilson WeBoost 4g booster when 5g is just around the corner?

Quote form Verizon:
Verizon has turned on the world’s first commercial 5G network in Sacramento, Houston, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis.

It's my understanding that the 5G that you referenced is meant to compete with home Internet service. This is not the same service as 5G cellular service.

Mobile 5G is supposed to start rolling out next year but I suspect that it will be similar to the 4G rollout which took almost two years to get to my area. 5G is supposedly built off of existing LTE networks so maybe it will come quicker.

[vito.a]

Originally Posted by Brad2018

It's my understanding that the 5G that you referenced is meant to compete with home Internet service. This is not the same service as 5G cellular service.

Actually, that's good news as that's what we RV folks are looking for.
Thanks