compare wifi components---wifi ranger-Jefa-Hawking and Techno

[etcmss]

so we are going to Florida for the winter and this started a question of which devices are best to have for good wifi signals and use ?
that led to a WiFi Ranger or something else. but there are other products, so in doing homework I was surprised that several other products are about $200 where the WiFi Ranger is $500-600.
So who can explain the differences of these and why the price difference for what seem to be somewhat similar results?

• WiF ranger
• Jefa technology antenna & repeater $170 uses a repeater
• Techno Rv antenna and repeater
• Hawking repeater

I tried to add the links but was unsuccessful.
This is intended to get some inputs to help many of us choose other than the phone hotspot method or the MiFi device ($per month).
Gary

 

[Garypowell]

Really can't explain the differences but there is a similar thread going on now talking of these issues.

Put Pepwave SOHO on your list to check out at the www.3gstore.com. Great price and their service has been excellent.

 

[firemedic97]

I use an app on my phone to make it a hotspot, no extra charge depending on what phone you have it works great, need to go to their web site and check to see if your phone is supported Foxfi its in the playstore

 

[Cjackg]

so we are going to Florida for the winter and this started a question of which devices are best to have for good wifi signals and use ?
that led to a WiFi Ranger or something else. but there are other products, so in doing homework I was surprised that several other products are about $200 where the WiFi Ranger is $500-600.
So who can explain the differences of these and why the price difference for what seem to be somewhat similar results?

• WiF ranger
• Jefa technology antenna & repeater $170 uses a repeater
• Techno Rv antenna and repeater
• Hawking repeater

I tried to add the links but was unsuccessful.
This is intended to get some inputs to help many of us choose other than the phone hotspot method or the MiFi device ($per month).
Gary

I have been looking into this same area recently and have been talking directly with JefaTech.com. They now have some newer UBIQUITI bridge & router Wifi equipment packaged up for RV use and it costs much less than the WiFi Ranger. I am finding that JefaTech offers a lot of customer assistance in configuring and installing a system whereas this kind of technical help is usually very hard to find. I will post some findings on the package when I get mine installed soon...

 

[lindaw]

I have been looking into this same area recently and have been talking directly with JefaTech.com. They now have some newer UBIQUITI bridge & router Wifi equipment packaged up for RV use and it costs much less than the WiFi Ranger. I am finding that JefaTech offers a lot of customer assistance in configuring and installing a system whereas this kind of technical help is usually very hard to find. I will post some findings on the package when I get mine installed soon...

In traveling a lot in the last year we have found that wifi in parks is not good so we now have a plan with ATT where our phones are personal hot spots, very fast, and we have unlimited talk, text, and 10 gbt of data and it works very well.
LindaW

 

[JanAndBill]

so we are going to Florida for the winter and this started a question of which devices are best to have for good wifi signals and use ?
that led to a WiFi Ranger or something else. but there are other products, so in doing homework I was surprised that several other products are about $200 where the WiFi Ranger is $500-600.
So who can explain the differences of these and why the price difference for what seem to be somewhat similar results?

• WiF ranger
• Jefa technology antenna & repeater $170 uses a repeater
• Techno Rv antenna and repeater
• Hawking repeater

I tried to add the links but was unsuccessful.
This is intended to get some inputs to help many of us choose other than the phone hotspot method or the MiFi device ($per month).
Gary

Several years ago I installed a Hawking bridge (this is the newer version http://www.amazon.com/Hawking-Technology-Hi-Gain-Wireless-300N-HWABN2/dp/B007B5PQBK ), in our MH. It was connected to an amplified directional antenna, allowing me to set up as needed to get the best WIF signal. When we traveled, I would take the wireless router from my home office, and connect it to the bridge via network cable, giving us a very secure wireless and a wired (if needed) internet connection. The whole thing was less then $75 in parts at the time, and I suspect the same system could be set up today for less than $100. While it worked great when you had a weak signal, it did nothing to compensate for an overloaded campground network. Now we just set up one of our phones as a hotspot, when the WIFI signal is weak or overloaded.

 

[etcmss]

installed the Alfa repeater and antenna and got it connected. ($200 vice 600 for ranger)
Attached dipole antenna to bat wing and ran wire through bath vent and through linen cabinet above toilet, repeater I above control panel. Connected and followed instructions (be careful with instructions, think and then do). Had some problems and couldn't access the unit so found the R36 manual on line and discovered the reset button the back. (needed it and it was not in the instructions).
Completed setup and still no service--realized that the antenna could not see the house source because of the antenna pole, after rotating the antenna I got a great signal.
So lesson learned is--make sure WiFi antenna can see the source signal. When we get to Florida I'm hoping it will do as promised. So far its great.

 

[Bohemian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXWgMmkvzek

 

[JanAndBill]

In addition to the setup I posted on below, I built an exterior external directional antenna using a Pringles can it worked but I got lazy and bought an amplified antenna that I used inside and required very little setup. Here's another directional antenna for the DIY types out there that's pretty simple to build and cheap. http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html

 

[Bohemian]

This should get you strong reliable park wifi for one computer hooked directly to this device.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ETA5K2/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2LM6ZPY06LT1N

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=wifi+yagi


Add this and broadcast park wifi to all your computes and other devices.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZF0I3U/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2LM6ZPY06LT1N

 

[Bohemian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-utKUeQKtv4&index=7&list=PLBn0T22m2v52VaUXFP5n81Oxj1piDokp8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppaCkB6ELWk&index=5&list=PLBn0T22m2v52VaUXFP5n81Oxj1piDokp8

 

[SeattleLion]

We found parks either had no wifi or horrible wifi. We got an ATT Unite Pro. It provides really good wifi for up to 15 devices. ATT has a great deal right now. We get 30GB of broadband, plus our two phones with unlimited talk and messages for under $200/month. We started with their 10GB plan but moved up with this new deal.

 

[Bohemian]

We found parks either had no wifi or horrible wifi. We got an ATT Unite Pro. It provides really good wifi for up to 15 devices. ATT has a great deal right now. We get 30GB of broadband, plus our two phones with unlimited talk and messages for under $200/month. We started with their 10GB plan but moved up with this new deal.

Yes, MiFi is another way to go. It's not an exclusive choice.

 

[etcmss]

This should get you strong reliable park wifi for one computer hooked directly to this device.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005ETA5K2/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2LM6ZPY06LT1N

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=wifi+yagi


Add this and broadcast park wifi to all your computes and other devices.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZF0I3U/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2LM6ZPY06LT1N

this is the repeater I installed. an R36 Alfa unit.

I also have the desktop Alfa that plugs in directly---works ok

 

[Bohemian]

this is the repeater I installed. an R36 Alfa unit.

Did you use a yagi directional antenna?

 

[etcmss]

http://www.technorv.com/RV_External_WiFi_Booster_Kit_p/wfb-lcexternal.htm

used this one--believe it to be line of sight and it originally did not see
WiFi source--TV pole blocked line of sight--could also raise antenna tip to be few inches above the pole

 

[Bohemian]

http://www.technorv.com/RV_External_WiFi_Booster_Kit_p/wfb-lcexternal.htm

used this one--believe it to be line of sight and it originally did not see
WiFi source--TV pole blocked line of sight--could also raise antenna tip to be few inches above the pole

That' a booster. Omnidirectional. It will not work as well as a yagi unidirectional antenna, but does not need to be aimed.

 

[porthole]

Who has a solution for campgrounds that actually have a decent wifi signal but poor wifi service?

Last two campgrounds we were at we were very close to the repeater antennas, phones showed good reception yet it was far faster to just turn off the wifi and use the 3/4G.

 

[danemayer]

Who has a solution for campgrounds that actually have a decent wifi signal but poor wifi service?

Last two campgrounds we were at we were very close to the repeater antennas, phones showed good reception yet it was far faster to just turn off the wifi and use the 3/4G.

Duane,

I've been working with Tengo Internet for most of the summer to solve that problem at our seasonal site. The problem at many parks is that there is not enough incoming bandwidth to support the number of visitors and what they're doing. The existing equipment is probably also insufficient. With so many people watching short videos on Facebook and other sites, bandwidth consumption has escalated dramatically. And of course there are many RV'ers who try to watch Netflix or Hulu or HBOGo over the internet.

Our park has 50 Mb/sec spread across 376 sites. It's just not enough for today's users. And usage is growing at a pretty dramatic rate each year.

We looked at upgrading the park infrastructure to handle streaming video and increasing the incoming pipe to 200 - 300 Mb/sec. Equipment upgrade was quoted at about $50K and monthly costs for 200 Mb/sec pipe are around $2,000. Add to that another $800/month admin cost. The upgrades were projected to be effective for perhaps 3 - 4 years before growing usage would again overwhelm the system. Amortizing the equipment cost over 4 years, that puts the annual cost of equipment and service at about $46K. How many parks can afford that?

For the moment we've put in place rigorous bandwidth usage controls. As users consume an increasing amount of data in a day, their data speed is reduced step-by-step. Above 800 MB, speed is reduced to 100 Kb/sec. That effectively constrains each device to a max of 1 GB of data per day. That sounds like a lot, but there are quite a few users using that much data each day.

At peak periods, with 300 or more devices trying to use the internet, those controls are only partially effective.

There's more to the story and we're hoping that in the next 12-18 months competitive offerings will bring down the cost of getting more bandwidth. There's also some reason to hope that there may be other solutions to the $50K equipment upgrade.

It's a tough problem.

 

[porthole]

I get all that Dan. But in the last park we were in (Bath Rally), by the time Monday night rolled around I would estimate that less then 10% of all the sites had trailers on them. And of that 10% maybe half had people on site.

I'm still trying to come up with the best solution for us.
Campground or cable wifi where available (we are cablevision subscribers) AND sufficient and supplemented by OTA, using our existing verzion account.

I'm ok with limiting bandwidth hogs with regards to netflix or hulu etc. I just want to be able to open an email and then an embedded internet link within a reasonable amount of time.