WifiRanger Converge

[creativepart]

Originally Posted by ClintH

So what gives? It is suppose to be a booster!!!!

Booster? Doesn't the WFR Everest simply place your Router and integrated Cellular Modems on the roof of your RV AND provide better antennas? I don't think it offers any kind of boosting. The WiFi Ranger website doesn't mention any boosting that I can see.

Depending on your phone - your phone may have cellular modems with greater capability and higher throughput and as many as 6 antennas in MiMo configurations.

Cellular reception, speed, network availability is highly variable. What works well with your phone at your home may have nothing to do with the performance of the Everest in a remote campground.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be disappointed, I'm just saying that perhaps you might be misunderstanding what the device is designed to do.

[docj]

Originally Posted by creativepart

Booster? Doesn't the WFR Everest simply place your Router and integrated Cellular Modems on the roof of your RV AND provide better antennas? I don't think it offers any kind of boosting. The WiFi Ranger website doesn't mention any boosting that I can see.

Depending on your phone - your phone may have cellular modems with greater capability and higher throughput and as many as 6 antennas in MiMo configurations.

Cellular reception, speed, network availability is highly variable. What works well with your phone at your home may have nothing to do with the performance of the Everest in a remote campground.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be disappointed, I'm just saying that perhaps you might be misunderstanding what the device is designed to do.

WiFiRanger does not claim that it provides cellular amplification. creativepart
is correct in that having the modem on the roof provides a positional advantage and avoids the 3-4 dB loss of having to penetrate the walls of the RV but no active amplification is provided.

WiFiRanger offers cellular modems of varying capability, including Category 12 modems offered in the Everest model. Some newer phones and hotspots may offer modems with even more advanced capabilities.

By comparison WiFiRanger does provide a rooftop mounted, high power WiFi transmitter with better antennas than most devices such as laptops and hotspots provide.

[creativepart]

By comparison WiFiRanger does provide a rooftop mounted, high power WiFi transmitter with better antennas than most devices such as laptops and hotspots provide.

This is exactly what I said. It puts the Router and the Cell phone modem on the roof. It's not a "booster' per se, in that it picks up a signal and then amplifies that signal. Moving the router and cellular modem to the roof and giving them hi-gain antennas is not "boosting" in the typical sense - not like a WeBoost that has an amplifier

[docj]

Originally Posted by creativepart

This is exactly what I said. It puts the Router and the Cell phone modem on the roof. It's not a "booster' per se, in that it picks up a signal and then amplifies that signal. Moving the router and cellular modem to the roof and giving them hi-gain antennas is not "boosting" in the typical sense - not like a WeBoost that has an amplifier

Not to quibble over definitions but if a Ranger rooftop router has a full watt or more of transmit power compared to the few milliwatts of your laptop, I don't see how that isn't amplification, in this case of the signal you send back to a WiFi access point (AP).

When you attempt to connect to an AP, quite often the problem is not receiving the AP's signal but having enough transmit power to break through the clutter and get the AP to recognize your signal. In this case the WiFiRanger does, indeed, amplify the signal sent from your networked devices back to the AP.

[creativepart]

Like you, not to quibble - but does the Ranger rooftop router pickup weak WiFi signals from farther away and "boost" them with an amplifier to make them usable in your RV? As say a Weboost booster attempts to do with cellular signals?

OR does it just offer a more powerful wifi transmit radio than most smaller devices?

I'm a wifi ranger user and have been for 5 or more years. I just bought my 3rd WFR router 2-weeks ago. I think they are a great product and serve a very useful purpose - I just don't see them as a "booster" and from what I read on the WFR website that term is not used to describe what they do.

Will a WiFiRanger improve my cellular signal?

Cellular networks and park WiFi are two different kinds of communications networks. The WiFiRanger’s amplification of an RV park’s wifi doesn’t improve your cellular signal, but several WiFiRanger products have, as an option, the ability to support integrated LTE (cellular) modems which may be more advanced than the modems in your phone or hotspot. Furthermore, rooftop mounting of a cellular modem can provide stronger signals in many cases.


Will a WiFiRanger let me connect to WiFi signals coming from sources miles away?

Customers often ask this question because some manufacturers feel that this is the most effective way to tout the superiority of their products. Under ideal conditions (clear skies, flat terrain, no trees, etc.) connections can be made by many amplifier systems at distances of several miles. But that’s not at all typical of the distances you will want to connect at in a campground, or, if you are parked outside a restaurant or store and want to access its WiFi. Purely for reference purposes, under ideal conditions, the outdoor WiFiRanger products can send and receive WiFi signals at the following maximum ranges: Teton at 1mi, Denali, at 1.5mi, and Everest at 2mi. These maximum ranges are not to be expected as the norm, but rather as the rare exception.

[brandss]

I am late to the party based on 6 pages of this post. If I understand it all correctly, and I am not sure I do, the router on the roof has no impact on the router on the inside of the RV. The only benefit of the outdoor router is to pick up free wifi from a campground or elsewhere, or, if you put a sim in it you have an advantage with that sim because it is on the roof and not inside the RV.

[docj]

I don't think we're in disagreement, but you are focusing on amplification of the received signal as the key indicator of whether or not a device "boosts" a WiFi signal. IMO boosting the received signal is only one of several ways that to increase overall WiFi performance.

I've already noted that transmit power is another key element to improving one's ability to connect to distant WiFi source. To conserve battery life, most phones, laptops, etc, have low-power WiFi transmitters which are further attenuated by being inside an RV. Having a high power, rooftop transmitter provides a significant improvement, as has already been noted.

In addition, as with cellular hardware, providing MIMO antennas is yet another way to improve the performance of a WiFi connection. We tend to focus on things like MIMO antennas a being important in newer cellular phones and hotspots, but the same is true for WiFi. For example, the WiFiRanger Everest model rooftop router provides a "dual chain" capability, which is essentially 2x2 MiMO. For those who aren't as familiar with "techno speak", 2x2 MIMO allows the device to maintain two separate communications links to the same access point using orthogonally polarized antennas.

Just as with cellular signals, boosting a weak signal is not always the best measure of capability if other technology enhancements (for example MIMO, 802.11ac, etc) are also being used to enhance performance.

[OnaWhim]

Our office recently changed how we connect to the servers remotely. We now connect via VPN but the Goac router will only let one of us through at a time while the other person gets a “port closed” message. Anyone have a solution as I might have to replace the Wifiranger? Something to consider if in this situation when selecting your equipment.

[docj]

Originally Posted by OnaWhim

Our office recently changed how we connect to the servers remotely. We now connect via VPN but the Goac router will only let one of us through at a time while the other person gets a “port closed” message. Anyone have a solution as I might have to replace the Wifiranger? Something to consider if in this situation when selecting your equipment.

From the little detail you have provided, WiFiRanger technical people figure you probably have a VPN on your computer that is permitting only one client at a time.

Their suggestion is "Can they configure a VPN router that the GoAC can connect too? That way all GoAC traffic is routed through the VPN.

Otherwise if you use individual computers with the same login credentials the source IP is the same as the GoAC WAN, hence the limitation of one per session. You need to place the GoAC inside the VPN as well."

I hope this gives you some ideas to work with.

[pdeinc]

I'm considering putting the WiFiRanger that came with our RV in use as a cellular hotspot. We have a ATT Nighthawk cabled to a rooftop 2x2 mimo and are currently traveling out west, finding considerable variability in cell service. From talking to campsite staff, it seems some areas have good Verizon, others ATT and so on. Is there a simple method to survey available cell signals in areas we like to visit to know what provider to use as a backup to our ATT?

[docj]

Originally Posted by pdeinc

Is there a simple method to survey available cell signals in areas we like to visit to know what provider to use as a backup to our ATT?

Despite the issuance of a 3-carrier coverage map recently by the government, I don't think there's anything that gets to the level of "will there be cell service over the next hill." I thnk the best bet is to have both Verizon and AT&T, and, if you can afford it, T-Mobile, also.

[jdb20]

Hey Docj
I usually talk thru my questions better than reading but so far no luck getting the ranger people to call and talk. We are trying to just enhance our connections at parks (like Lakewood in Myrtle beach for example) where their wifi is typically over loaded or just poor and the verizon signal at that location is also very poor. So poor we couldn't use the voip phone without dropping almost every call. We're not gamers so just need bare minimum to conduct business calls. Which product would you recommend? Also we like the company "Patriot Mobile" so were thinking of moving from verizon to them- any advise on that?
We currently use an iPhone Xr or newer as a hotspot to connect the office voip phone and mac laptop to access files.

[docj]

Originally Posted by jdb20

Hey Docj
I usually talk thru my questions better than reading but so far no luck getting the ranger people to call and talk. We are trying to just enhance our connections at parks (like Lakewood in Myrtle beach for example) where their wifi is typically over loaded or just poor and the verizon signal at that location is also very poor. So poor we couldn't use the voip phone without dropping almost every call. We're not gamers so just need bare minimum to conduct business calls. Which product would you recommend? Also we like the company "Patriot Mobile" so were thinking of moving from verizon to them- any advise on that?
We currently use an iPhone Xr or newer as a hotspot to connect the office voip phone and mac laptop to access files.

I apologize for you not being able to get a call back. Sometimes the response is better if you sent an email such as what you just wrote me.

As for your questions, you are probably aware that no device can make an overloaded WiFi into a good one. Be careful of anyone who tries to tell you differently.

As for not being able to get a decent Verizon signal at the beach, the best investment you can make iMO is to get an account with another major carrier. For most people with Verizon the second choice would be AT&T.

Getting a second carrier is often the most cost effective investment you can make. If the problem at the beach is a very, very weak signal then you may be helped by an amplifier such as a WeBoost, but I would bet that the problem isn't a weak signal, but, rather, an overloaded tower.

As far as Patriot Mobile is concerned, I know nothing about them. They are, no doubt, one of the many cellular resellers most of whom are here today and gone tomorrow.

I'm puzzled as to why you are using a hotspot to make VoIP calls when you have a Verizon phone. The only reason I could see for doing that would be if you are calling out of the US a lot. I would think that the quality of calls would be be better if you used Verizon directly.

As for the iPhone XR it's a decent, couple of year old phone. It doesn't have 5G support and I have no idea what category modem it has.

If I've misinterpreted some of your questions, feel free to rephrase them and try again.

[BCroteau]

I have a WFR system consisting of a Denali outdoor router & Aspen indoor router that has a Cat6 LTE modem installed. It's worked pretty well for almost two years. I had an AT&T SIM card installed for a data plan that is no longer available to me. We use Verizon for our cell phones and it's worked out well because when the Verizon signal is weak we can use WiFi calling through AT&T. We use the internet for work and stream YouTube TV so we need as much data as possible for the lowest cost. Can anyone suggest a carrier and data plan that will work for our needs and equipment? If we have to go with Verizon for the LTE modem we will even if we give up the WiFi calling capability