Community Forums

MN_Traveler · 03-31-2022, 08:00 PM

Specifically with regard to the antennas...

I just bought a Pepwave Max Transit, and am getting acquainted with it. it has two WiFi connectors on it ..... it comes with two directly attached paddle antennas, and I have been able to get it working as WiFi as WAN by connecting to my home WiFi network.

My question is how do the antennas work when I go to configure it to use with a campground wifi signal. I believe I will be best off getting an *external* wifi antenna, and feeding it into the Max Transit inside my rig. That will take up one of the WiFi connectors. I presume I will still need to connect one of the paddle antennas to the box to supply the WiFi signal for the devices used inside the rig.

The question is - how does this "work" .... in the sense that one of the antennas is "connecting" to the campground WiFi, and the other (the paddle) is supplying the signal for my personal SSID inside the rig. ***how does the Max Transit "know" which antenna is which???****

Or, does the box treat each antenna essentially equally, with both antennas (in parallel???) used to communicate to the campground WiFi AND to supply the wifi signal for my personal SSID (which would mean I would also have that "personal" SSID available outside within reasonable range of teh external antenna.

Is that in fact how these things work .... or do I need to pay some particular attention to which connector (A or B) I connect the external wifi antenna to??? (the manual does not address this........)

vsheetz · 03-31-2022, 08:23 PM

I took a cursory look at the vendor web site. Appears the wifi is single wifi radio with 2x2 mimo. When configured for wifi as Wan the same antenna(s) are providing for both local WiLAN and WAN connectivity.

computerguy · 04-01-2022, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vsheetz

I took a cursory look at the vendor web site. Appears the wifi is single wifi radio with 2x2 mimo. When configured for wifi as Wan the same antenna(s) are providing for both local WiLAN and WAN connectivity.

Correct. And for the record Wifi as WAN on Pepwave "works" but not well. I have a Max Transit Cat 18. When I tested it throughput on Wifi as WAN was not good. Also, it dropped the connection consistently. Previously I had a WifiRanger. That product really did Wifi as WAN well. Pepwave does a lot of things well just not Wifi as WAN.

MN_Traveler · 04-01-2022, 08:28 AM

Ahh ... now i understand what "mimo" is. Thanks for the feedback.

Since, in my experience most campgrounds wifi is awful (often no bandwidth even when there is a reasonable signal, or just plain low signal) i dont expect to use wifi as wan often ... but occasionally there are situations where the wifi is somewhat reasonable, but the signal inside the rig is low. So just wanted to be prepared (we dont really need a lot of bandwidth for our usage patterns anyway)

Thanks again.

lemodrop9344 · 04-01-2022, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computerguy

Correct. And for the record Wifi as WAN on Pepwave "works" but not well. I have a Max Transit Cat 18. When I tested it throughput on Wifi as WAN was not good. Also, it dropped the connection consistently. Previously I had a WifiRanger. That product really did Wifi as WAN well. Pepwave does a lot of things well just not Wifi as WAN.

I am fortunate to be in a RV park with really good WiFi. I had a Peplink CAT-18 (now have BR1 Pro). I also had difficulty with the distribution of the RV park WiFi signals to the ROKU's & other WiFi devices when routed through the Peplink device (dropped connections).

What I discovered, in my case, was a lot signal interference within the RV. By moving the Peplink device to different locations, I was able to eliminate the issue of dropped conneections. I subsequently installed a Peplink Access Point & placed it so there was minimal interference from obstructions within the RV.

My WiFi problem appears to be solved.

johnhicks · 04-01-2022, 06:45 PM

My original BR-1 worked fine with wifi-as-wan, so maybe the experience depends a lot on interference. I had the wifi antenna on the roof. I did, however, learn that when running on LTE constant scanning for wifi seriously impacted throughput, so I made sure to completely disable wifi-as-wan when on LTE. Dropped connections were a rarity.

FloridaFlyer · 04-05-2022, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computerguy

Correct. And for the record Wifi as WAN on Pepwave "works" but not well. I have a Max Transit Cat 18. When I tested it throughput on Wifi as WAN was not good. Also, it dropped the connection consistently. Previously I had a WifiRanger. That product really did Wifi as WAN well. Pepwave does a lot of things well just not Wifi as WAN.

Were you using your Pepwave at home or in a park?

I tested my new Pepwave MAX BR1 5G Pro at home with WiFi-as-WAN over my home WLAN and it was solid.

I've only stayed in a couple of RV parks with the new MH, and neither had what I would call 'operational' WiFi. Sure, one could connect, but trying to do anything was an effort in failure.

Kelly

MN_Traveler · 04-05-2022, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FloridaFlyer

Were you using your Pepwave at home or in a park?

I tested my new Pepwave MAX BR1 5G Pro at home with WiFi-as-WAN over my home WLAN and it was solid.

I've only stayed in a couple of RV parks with the new MH, and neither had what I would call 'operational' WiFi. Sure, one could connect, but trying to do anything was an effort in failure.

Kelly

That unfortunately tends to be the rule. Occasionally …. *very* occasionally …. There is a park with reasonable Wi-Fi. Another thing I have noticed is that park Wi-Fi tends to be somewhat better early in the morning, before much bandwidth is taken up by other people. The problem is usually bandwidth, not signal strength

johnhicks · 04-05-2022, 09:48 AM

And I long ago gave up on park wifi, paid or not

Aquaadverse · 04-05-2022, 04:13 PM

I have a Transit Duo with an external Husky 7-in-1. I have a TP-Link router hooked into the Transit via ethernet I use for my internal wifi network. When I use wifi as wan, which is rare, the internal Peplink wifi radio is only interacting with the external wifi source and the router. The Transit series doesn't seem to work as well doing double duty across multiple devices and the inside reception from the roof antenna is less than ideal.

lemodrop9344 · 04-06-2022, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquaadverse

I have a Transit Duo with an external Husky 7-in-1. I have a TP-Link router hooked into the Transit via ethernet I use for my internal wifi network. When I use wifi as wan, which is rare, the internal Peplink wifi radio is only interacting with the external wifi source and the router. The Transit series doesn't seem to work as well doing double duty across multiple devices and the inside reception from the roof antenna is less than ideal.

I am not trying to be argumentative. But, I suspect you might have a piece or two of your LAN missing & possibly there are some spots where you could be encountering signal degradation. Let me pose the following questions:
1. Does the external antenna require a ground plane?
2. How long is the cable run & does the cable length offset any gain provided by the external antenna?
3. The Transit DUO is a cellular router/modem. Is the TP-Link configured as a switch or a router?
4. If the WiFi signal being distributed by the external antenna or the paddle antennas on the Transit DUO or the TP-Link device?

5. Assuming you are streaming to a TV (a demanding application), have you tried by passing your LAN with a direct connection to the RV park WiFi to see if that improves the reception? If the signal is not good to begin with, chances are it's not going to get better with the additional hops when routed through your LAN?

Please understand, I'm trying to help you isolate possible issues. I have no doubt what you are saying is factual, I'm just not ready to accept the issues can be completely attributed to the Peplink hardware based on some of the signal distribution issues I had with my Peplink device.

Aquaadverse · 04-06-2022, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemodrop9344

I am not trying to be argumentative. But, I suspect you might have a piece or two of your LAN missing & possibly there are some spots where you could be encountering signal degradation. Let me pose the following questions:
1. Does the external antenna require a ground plane?
No, but I used one anyway.

2. How long is the cable run & does the cable length offset any gain provided by the external antenna?
15' and no.

3. The Transit DUO is a cellular router/modem. Is the TP-Link configured as a switch or a router?
router.

4. If the WiFi signal being distributed by the external antenna or the paddle antennas on the Transit DUO or the TP-Link device?

I've done it both ways.

5. Assuming you are streaming to a TV (a demanding application), have you tried by passing your LAN with a direct connection to the RV park WiFi to see if that improves the reception? If the signal is not good to begin with, chances are it's not going to get better with the additional hops when routed through your LAN?

Please understand, I'm trying to help you isolate possible issues. I have no doubt what you are saying is factual, I'm just not ready to accept the issues can be completely attributed to the Peplink hardware based on some of the signal distribution issues I had with my Peplink device.

No offense taken. But I'm not having any issues. The radio and paddle antennas in TP Link work better in my rig as the wifi LAN. Better radio and performance than the internal Transit one. And it's not a reception/signal strength issue, it' a matter of dedicating a second radio to deal with multiple device traffic. Using wifi-as-wan puts a heavier load on the Peplink since you are using it as a Wan source as well as the local area network. On a couple of occasions I used both 2.4GHz and 5GHz park wifi simultaneously as Wan input. I'm just choosing to use the Transit as a WAN source only. The TP-Link has it's own separate subnet.

lemodrop9344 · 04-06-2022, 05:13 PM

Hmmm,
Have a better understanding of your LAN now. On the surface it would appear you are using WiFi distribution much more than I do.
I tend to connect with Ethernet unless there is no other reasonable option.

Safe travels!

MN_Traveler · 04-06-2022, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquaadverse

No offense taken. But I'm not having any issues. The radio and paddle antennas in TP Link work better in my rig as the wifi LAN. Better radio and performance than the internal Transit one. And it's not a reception/signal strength issue, it' a matter of dedicating a second radio to deal with multiple device traffic. Using wifi-as-wan puts a heavier load on the Peplink since you are using it as a Wan source as well as the local area network. On a couple of occasions I used both 2.4GHz and 5GHz park wifi simultaneously as Wan input. I'm just choosing to use the Transit as a WAN source only. The TP-Link has it's own separate subnet.

Its interesting to hear you give that information. I mean, the whole *point* of MIMO antennas/radios is to be *able* to handle those multiple streams of traffic. I'll have to keep an eye on the performance of my peplink wifi LAN performance (not that we really have a lot of load on it). No real reason a separate access point can not be hard wired into it (will need a separate SSID though of course.....)