WiFI Ranger Go2 indoor router, Elite outdoor router and Verizon USB U620L modem install + cell antenna

[porthole]

Verizon does not go into specifics.

WFR says it should work fine. But, they said that before they made changes to my jetpack.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you Duane. We're working hard on our house here in Virginia before we can list it and leave town.

A guy I know has the set up you are trying to get working and loves it. He is a network engineer if I recall correctly. If you'd like to pm me an email address, I'll try to get the three of us talking if he is willing.

I do recall from talking to him that the WLAN (wireless LAN, or WIFI) established by nodes 1 and 2 should be combinable into a higher-speed user network, and I believe this combination occurs at Node 1 in my drawing.

Does WFR say the Jetpack should tether automatically to the Go2? Does Verizon agree? As I said, this is one of the reasons I stayed away from the MIFI-like (i.e., Jetpack) solutions.

I'll watch your videos later and try to provide more. I've got a window before rain is supposed to start and I need to get some work done here at the RV, like fixing my living room slide :-(

Tim

 

[StrongJava]

What are the IP settings for each node?

What channels are the radios set set to for each node?

If I were troubleshooting directly, I would remove as many variables as possible and test the simplest configurations I could with each device.

Tim

 

[porthole]

What are the IP settings for each node?

What channels are the radios set set to for each node?

If I were troubleshooting directly, I would remove as many variables as possible and test the simplest configurations I could with each device.

Tim

Where do I look?

 

[StrongJava]

Usually information like this is available on a status page when you log into the device.

Please see my PM.

 

[porthole]

Sorry I didn't get back to you. Once we start at the rallies I seldom take the laptop out.

 

[porthole]

So after 5 weeks on the road I have determined that the wifi ranger stuff is not worth the time and effort trying to or staying connected. Way too much time wasted on something that should just work as advertised.

Of note, while at one location I made up an "interesting" guest user wifi access point. It had an impossible to guess password. But, since the guest access is through a browser, apparently there are those net savvy enough to easily back door the the connection and gain access. H'mmm at least she was only using it for some basic work access she was doing for the event we were at, so I was mostly OK with it.
But, I turned guest access off just the same.

Another thing I noticed, is that although I finally got the wireless modem to actually connect most of the time, there were periods of use that had huge usage, during mostly early hours (6 am or earlier).

We had a 15GB plan with two bonus GB.

4 days before my plan rolled over I was up to 17.2GB. Within the next day or two there was a total of 9GB overage (at $15 per).
Went to the Verizon store in Lake George and changed my plan to one of the newer plans.

Prior was 15 GB + 2GB bonus for $100
New is 24GB + 4GB bonus $110

New plan was back dated to August 20th so that it would cover my prior overages.
New plan also rolls over data for one month and does not charge for overages once you reach your limit, rather the network throttles and limits your access, that a bonus in of itself.

All is good.

2 days later I now have an additional 14GB of usage on my account and I am up to 42GB !

Calls to Verizon support have no idea why but consider it an anomaly with the new plans rolling out. I have a case number but still haven't had the $210 in overages reversed yet.

 

[LBR]

So after 5 weeks on the road I have determined that the wifi ranger stuff is not worth the time and effort trying to or staying connected. Way too much time wasted on something that should just work as advertised.

Of note, while at one location I made up an "interesting" guest user wifi access point. It had an impossible to guess password. But, since the guest access is through a browser, apparently there are those net savvy enough to easily back door the the connection and gain access. H'mmm at least she was only using it for some basic work access she was doing for the event we were at, so I was mostly OK with it.
But, I turned guest access off just the same.

Another thing I noticed, is that although I finally got the wireless modem to actually connect most of the time, there were periods of use that had huge usage, during mostly early hours (6 am or earlier).

We had a 15GB plan with two bonus GB.

4 days before my plan rolled over I was up to 17.2GB. Within the next day or two there was a total of 9GB overage (at $15 per).
Went to the Verizon store in Lake George and changed my plan to one of the newer plans.

Prior was 15 GB + 2GB bonus for $100
New is 24GB + 4GB bonus $110

New plan was back dated to August 20th so that it would cover my prior overages.
New plan also rolls over data for one month and does not charge for overages once you reach your limit, rather the network throttles and limits your access, that a bonus in of itself.

All is good.

2 days later I now have an additional 14GB of usage on my account and I am up to 42GB !

Calls to Verizon support have no idea why but consider it an anomaly with the new plans rolling out. I have a case number but still haven't had the $210 in overages reversed yet.

Wow...Christmas came early for you!

 

[porthole]

Something I noticed while watching my data use. My MiFi consumed 5GB of data one morning at 5am. Only thing connected to it was the WFR Go2. And at 5am none of devices were being used.

 

[StrongJava]

I too had some very weird issues when I first started using my Cradlepoint.

It sounds, in general, like you still aren't happy with the WiFi Ranger. Too bad, as I'm sick of Cradlepoint throwing up roadblocks (making open features licensable. Charging an annual service fee just to talk to them. Dropping support for expensive products) and it is very unlikely I will ever purchase from them again, or recommend them. The one advantage they have is they allow for both wifi over wan and cellular/modem configuration from the same device, with load sharing and fallback. But, with the poor condition of wifi in most RV parks, I find I still use data 95% of the time.

If you decide to get rid of your WiFi Ranger, let me know. I'm thinking about trying to pick up a used one for testing.

Tim

 

[Miltp920]

So, we thought wifi ranger elite was a solid system. After reading your posts Porthole, I am thinking you wish you had gone another route. Also, cradlepoint does not seem to live up to anothers expectations. What "system" is working well for someone out there. Which one should I look for to replace what would have been wifi ranger Go2 Elite?

 

[danemayer]

So, we thought wifi ranger elite was a solid system. After reading your posts Porthole, I am thinking you wish you had gone another route. Also, cradlepoint does not seem to live up to anothers expectations. What "system" is working well for someone out there. Which one should I look for to replace what would have been wifi ranger Go2 Elite?

Depends on what you're trying to do. If you just want a good connection to campground WiFi, that's one thing. If you want a failover to a cell data device, that's another. Some devices support external antennas or signal boosters, others don't. Some support older B/N/G protocols while others also support the newer AC protocol.

So exactly what capabilities are important?

 

[Miltp920]

That was wierd, I double posted. Went in to try to edit the duplicate post, and it would not let me, said something about invalid post.
We are not to techno, but we want to use computer, tablet, and a few smart phones to access a wifi in the RV. We want to do this over the CG or free internet in the area. We will also have a dataplan for our phones when we are not in the RV, but would like the phones to use the wifi when in RV to save off dataplan $$. We have a few netgear wifi security cameras in our S&B, that we would like to take or duplicate in the RV. We would like to be able to use apple TV to access movies, netflix. We are not running a business, just want to duplicate what we are used to in the S&B, as much as we can, without breaking the bank.

 

[danemayer]

That was wierd, I double posted. Went in to try to edit the duplicate post, and it would not let me, said something about invalid post.
We are not to techno, but we want to use computer, tablet, and a few smart phones to access a wifi in the RV. We want to do this over the CG or free internet in the area. We will also have a dataplan for our phones when we are not in the RV, but would like the phones to use the wifi when in RV to save off dataplan $$. We have a few netgear wifi security cameras in our S&B, that we would like to take or duplicate in the RV. We would like to be able to use apple TV to access movies, netflix. We are not running a business, just want to duplicate what we are used to in the S&B, as much as we can, without breaking the bank.

Except for movies, all that can be done with an inexpensive WISP router. Movies use a lot of data and most campgrounds don't have the capability.

I've used a Pepwave Surf-on-the-Go for a couple of years - about $100. One of the advantages is that you can attach it to an external signal booster antenna to improve performance if your rig is not very close to the WiFi access points in the campground. However, it only works with the older protocols, so it's also relatively susceptible to all the WiFi interference problems you find in crowded campgrounds. Pepwave is supposed to offer a new model soon that supports the new protocols, but it may be more expensive.

Recently I started using an Edimax BR-6478AC V2 router. About $60 on Amazon. It supports the new and old protocols, so if you are in a campground that has both, you can use the less crowded, wide channel 5 GHz connections. It doesn't support external antennas/boosters, but has good sensitivity. In the rare campground that has good bandwidth, you will be able to watch movies and have rock-solid performance.

Both of these routers also work well with Tengo Internet, which you'll find at many campgrounds. At campgrounds that limit you to one or two coupon codes, these routers let you share a single code across many devices. Once you set up these routers, you just make one connection to the internet and all of your computers, tablets, phones, Apple TV, printers, etc. all automatically connect to the router, sharing that one connection.

If you ever find yourself in a location where the WiFi doesn't work or is terrible, you can also choose to use your phone as a hotspot and both of these routers can share the phone as the connection to the internet.

 

[StrongJava]

Dan is right (no surprise, huh?).

I am a techie, and I love pushing the boundaries. I am one of those with the Cradlepoint, and I recently wrote up a more extensive review on Amazon after trying to get this to work well for about 15 months. To summarize, I don't believe it is worth the cost. As we all know, access to the Internet (which is commonly referred to as the wide area network, or WAN, for discussions like this. On the other side LAN, or local area network, is what we have inside our RVs) can be tricky and expensive for those of us RVers.

As a full-timer and technology consulting business owner, three capabilities (on top of solid, stable performance) are important to me: 1) WiFi as WAN; 2) LTE/4G as WAN; and 3) a wired connection to an internal router/access point (hereafter, AP).

Number 3 is important to me for both a security and a campground wifi performance perspective. A wired connection to an internal AP allows me to set the channel of the AP so it does not conflict with the channel used by the campground. All-to-often, people will slap up extenders and their own internal networks on the same channel as the campground. The interference caused by this reduces network performance for everyone. It should be avoided. While the Cradlepoint advertises meeting both #1 and #2 above, because it only has one radio, too many problems are likely when trying to use the one radio for both the WAN and LAN sides of the network. Having a separate AP for inside is better.

I rented a Verizon MiFi device from this RV park, and I connected the Cradlepoint MBR1400 to the wifi it provided. That set-up worked quite well, but it also had a very strong signal due to proximity. As best I can tell, the Cradlepoint does not handle lower signal quality well which implies to me the sensitivity of their radio is poor. I haven't researched it yet to try and prove this.

 

[porthole]

So exactly what capabilities are important?

Plug and play devices that actually work as advertised.


WiFI Ranger makes a lot claims both on their website and through tech support. But to the end-user and real world experience, especially for non network types - the equipment just does not work as advertised. Fall over is not automatic, Tengo internet is an exercise in futility, and the gear apparently just isn't as secure as one would hope (see above for my guest network hack)

 

[porthole]

So I get this email alert from WifiRanger. They are offering a special customer appreciation discount, 25% off.

25% off of the current price of $750 = $562, which is about what I paid for the EliteFM Go2 kit 18 months ago.

And, as an added incentive, they want you to remove your current hardware and return it for recycling!.

Although now they include the 12V DC to 24V DC adapter that is necessary to supply the rooftop router with sufficient power.
The 12-24 volt operating number in the specs is a bit misleading.

12 volts will run the Go2 indoor router but most likely will be insufficient to also run the rooftop router. The rooftop router is PoE, power over ethernet.

The antenna is now attached with a flexi mount. This is good, especially considering I broke my antenna off on the every first trip.



But I think the highlight of the newsletter is that a new firmware upgrade is forthcoming that promises to solve many issues with these devices.
The bad news is they also state this will be the last update for the older equipment.

 

[danemayer]

So I get this email alert from WifiRanger. They are offering a special customer appreciation discount, 25% off.

25% off of the current price of $750 = $562, which is about what I paid for the EliteFM Go2 kit 18 months ago.

And, as an added incentive, they want you to remove your current hardware and return it for recycling!.

Although now they include the 12V DC to 24V DC adapter that is necessary to supply the rooftop router with sufficient power.
The 12-24 volt operating number in the specs is a bit misleading.

12 volts will run the Go2 indoor router but most likely will be insufficient to also run the rooftop router. The rooftop router is PoE, power over ethernet.

The antenna is now attached with a flexi mount. This is good, especially considering I broke my antenna off on the every first trip.

View attachment 49332

But I think the highlight of the newsletter is that a new firmware upgrade is forthcoming that promises to solve many issues with these devices.
The bad news is they also state this will be the last update for the older equipment.

Duane,

I briefly considered WiFi Ranger a few years ago but balked at the price. I started with a $100 CradleNet which worked but was hard to use and a bit flaky. I switched to a $100 Pepwave which worked very well, but needed a little handholding. In 2016 I needed to get 5 GHz support. Now I have a $55 Edimax that works better than either of its predecessors, has great reception, handles 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz concurrently, and is easier to use. And if you email Edimax for tech support, they actually work on the problem. $55. Go figure.

 

[esscobra]

As far as the cradlepoints- the 1600 and above are the ones to use- I have sold many of these units all over south texas-( and they have been used all over the us) 1 large construction customer has 12 - I in every job site trailer - and the site boses love them- they are really designed to use the cellular data network- with the current 4g lte we are seeing in metro areas anywhere from 30-50mb/s and in outer areas 10 20- in the middle of nascar track we were getting 25mb/s - and that was with the stock antennae's- the offer many external one that can make a significant difference as well as using maps to find the cell tower and orienting the units on that side can mean the difference in 2mb/s or 15mb/s

 

[StrongJava]

Regarding the Cradlepoints, I have the MBR1400 and I can endorse the system for its ability to connect to the cellular service. However, it is tricky to get the wifi over WAN to work well (obviously these problems are compounded by normally poor wifi at RV parks), and the interface of the device is flaky, slow and confusing. But, paired with my MobileMark antenna, I get great Internet speeds when on cellular.

I'm still searching for the ideal. I recently saw a new product Pepware MAX BR1 Mini that I track for a bit. I'm not ready to spend money on a new system thought.

Esscobra, are you using two modems with each 1600?

Tim

As far as the cradlepoints- the 1600 and above are the ones to use- I have sold many of these units all over south texas-( and they have been used all over the us) 1 large construction customer has 12 - I in every job site trailer - and the site boses love them- they are really designed to use the cellular data network- with the current 4g lte we are seeing in metro areas anywhere from 30-50mb/s and in outer areas 10 20- in the middle of nascar track we were getting 25mb/s - and that was with the stock antennae's- the offer many external one that can make a significant difference as well as using maps to find the cell tower and orienting the units on that side can mean the difference in 2mb/s or 15mb/s

 

[danemayer]

After Cradlepoint and Pepwave, I just decided that having a single device to connect to either the Cell network or WiFi was too expensive, too limiting when you want to update to the newest protocols, and too problematic from a usability standpoint. Most of the time I'm using the Edimax to get WiFi over WAN at campgrounds. When the campground service is lousy, I turn on the Verizon MiFi and use my cell data.

Btw, the project I worked on at Tiger Run Resort for high performance WiFi is working very well. We've got dozens of people using between 1 and 12 Gigabytes of data on a daily basis. Over Christmas break, the aggregate data consumption for the resort was about 2,400 Gigabytes per week. That's roughly equivalent to over 2,000 hours of video streaming. This summer I expect we'll probably triple that usage. It'll take a few years for these types of deployments to become commonplace, but it's starting to happen.