Wifi Repeater

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peer oliver schmidt

New member
Feb 10, 2014
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Hello everybody,

it has been quite some time since this thread was active, and I'd like
to put it to an end, after the travel experience we had last summer.

I tried wifi repeating, but the Internet access in the camp grounds we
had been in, was absolutely unusable.

We did end up using the mifi only all the time. It wasn't perfect, but
it was working for what we wanted it to do. So, I won't do more work on
this, and will find other usage for the Raspberry Pi with its 7" display.
[..]

> For now, my plan is to have a small touch screen available which
>
> * lists currently available wifi networks
> * have the ability to click on one to select it for usage inside the coach
> * have some default wifi networks that are selectable regardless of the
> ability to see them atm (for example my UMTS router's wifi)
> * record and show usage (transferred volume) of selected wifi networks.
> * create an internal wifi network in the coach which is used by all
> devices in the coach to connect to
> * have a VPN to my home server (using OpenVPN) to be less prone to
> eavesdroppers over open wifi networks.

--
Best regards

Peer Oliver Schmidt
PGP Key ID: 0x83E1C2EA

'76a Eleganza II, VA
 
> Hello everybody,
>
> it has been quite some time since this thread was active, and I'd like
> to put it to an end, after the travel experience we had last summer.
>
> I tried wifi repeating, but the Internet access in the camp grounds we
> had been in, was absolutely unusable.
>
> We did end up using the mifi only all the time. It wasn't perfect, but
> it was working for what we wanted it to do. So, I won't do more work on
> this, and will find other usage for the Raspberry Pi with its 7" display.
> [..]
> --
> Best regards
>
> Peer Oliver Schmidt
> PGP Key ID: 0x83E1C2EA
> '76a Eleganza II, VA

Peer,

I am sorry your project didn't pan out, but I have to say that I am not at all surprised. For many years, I have carried an Alfa high powered Wifi
modem. They have a very good receiver, a transmitter that is often an order of magnitude more power and choices of antenna systems to make the ERP
(effective radiated power) a much bigger number than any built in wifi. I have worked open access points at amazing distances. But, in campgrounds
it is useless. There is always some Bozo streaming a movie. That is pretty much it for the band width.....

Matt
--
Matt & Mary Colie - Members GMCMI, GMCGL, GMCES
'73 Glacier 23 - Still Loving OE Rear Drum Brake with Applied Control Arms
Now with both true Keyless and remote entry
SE Michigan - Twixt A2 and Detroit
 
I've got a setup on my coach comprising a Ubiquity Pico connected to an antenna on the roof. I connect the pico to my laptop, but it could also be
connected to a wireless router to distribute to more devices. It's not real easy to set up for the average person, but I help run a wireless network
and we use many Ubiquity units, so I'm familiar with them, and it connects well. BUT, the wifi in most rv parks is so abysmal, even of all you want
is email, that I hardly ever use it. I tend to set up my cell phone as a Verizon hotspot and connect to it instead.
--
Jack Christensen - K6ROW,
'76 Glenbrook/Clasco - "The Silver Bullet",
Sebastopol, CA
 
Using WiFi in an RV park is a crap shoot. Some are excellent and some are totally unusable. My guess is 35% to 40% have good service.

The biggest reason they fail is the RV park has no idea what they are doing and they contract with some bozo who also has no idea what he is doing.
When the BoZo is done he tells them they now have service and the RV park is happy. The result is the end users have mediocre or no service. A good
site survey is a prerequisite to installing any service. Then a capacity study to determine the total bandwidth requirement for the park in the
busiest hour is required. The park needs to determine if they are going to allow video streaming or limit access to email an web browsing. Most of
the time this is not done and you see the poor results.

I have seen times where the access points are all on the same channel and all have the same SSID. That really confuses the end users WiFi card and
the cards continually hop from AP to AP with dismal results.

Then there is the simple lack of coverage issue. A site survey during the design phase would have found this.

The upstream connection to the internet is another issue. The bandwith and latency requirements of that connection needs to be determined during the
design phase.

We have had a few rallys at parks and fairgrounds with excellent coverage and service. A the others were simply terrible. I use to offer to help
them while we were there. I gave up, as most of them were not interested in an outsider giving them advice. So now I figure that we are only there
for a week so just keep quiet and let them be.

One time I stayed in a hotel in Utah and the WIFI was terrible. I went down to the desk and complained to the owner. He said "How do I fix it? He
had the administrative user ids and passwords. So I explained the problem, and reconfigured his access points. It took less than 15 minutes and
everything was fine. In the morning when I checked out my bill was $00.00 and a thank you note was attached to my bill.

I really do not want to get into that work any more, but I have a friend who is still working in network design and implementation. So I send people
to him. He did one KOA this year that I sent to him.

So it all boils down to getting the right people to design and set it up and having a client that really wants to have the good service available. An
RV park that has lots of year round of full time or full time seasonal residents is more likely to have good WiFi service.
--
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
 
Just to be clear: I explicitly wrote "Internet access". The wifi never
was a problem, and worked nicely with an outside omni-directional
antenna. It was, as some pointed out, the abysmal Internet connectivity
of the parks that made me realize that wifi is not the way to go.

--
Best regards

Peer Oliver Schmidt
PGP Key ID: 0x83E1C2EA

'76a Eleganza II, VA
 
Peer,

About campsite wifi access ..... Mostly it is bad, here in Europe also.
I used the Alpha router in combination with the external boost-Antenna.
And testing it at home, it worked up to quit a distance flawlessly. A real joy to use ...

Till the first campsites, that feeling disappeard totally ...
Even sitting at the reception were the signal was at it strongest, connecting and keeping that connection was no fun at all.
Of 10 campsites only one was good to excellent.
So for now, travelling in Europe, I don't even bother anymore, looking for wifi.
I have a europe-wide slow but stable simonly prepaid plan, no limit internet-access but slow up, 64 and slow down 128-signal, but stable.
Putting my android-phone to thetering and that works fine.
(As I am now at the MH park in Alblasserdam (NL) writing this message)
In the next year, internet accesse and the costs for it will be the same for almost all of europe ...

But, when visiting the USA and Canada, working with our phone would be really costly for us, so searching for free wifi was our way to go.
Visitor centers, McD, BK, Starbucks etc ... It worked for a few weeks, but if you have a suggestion of a prepaid sim suitable for us foreignors, I
would like to hear from you guys.

Bye, Daniel
--
Daniel Jacobs, No GMC, but an admirer of them .... We'll see what the future brings ....

Always remember, the world is full of nice people!
So, if you can't find one, be one!
 
Peer, Pre-Paid WiFi from your favorite Walt-Mart. You can purchase a mifi spot for about $50.
SmartTalk has several different gig and time levels of service on pre-paid cards. Sweet spot seems to be $50 for 5 gigs and 60 days of service. Just
be sure and immediately set an SSID. At one event, when we first tried it out, an iPhone locked onto the mifi and used all the pre-paid service.
Runs on AT&T 4G LTE network.
Tom, MS II
--
1975 GMC Avion
KA4CSG
 
Thanks Tom,

I was asking (Daniel) but this info is equally usefull for all of us :)
Peer won't mind he was dutch for a short time, so i am not as taken as a german.
We can get along quite well.... :d

As the rest of the world would had more love for the good old stuff and values ...
(for example the GMC .... :d :d :d )
... Perhaps people could get along with each other, much better !
Helping each other is much more easy and rewarding ....

Daniel
--
Daniel Jacobs, No GMC, but an admirer of them .... We'll see what the future brings ....

Always remember, the world is full of nice people!
So, if you can't find one, be one!
 
Thomas,

I've been using Straight Talk's couple of bucks mifi router (UMXxxx) and
it works okay. Coupled that with a 3GB for 2month for 75USD and I was
set. After 2 weeks of usage by my family, I needed to reload :*)

The cheap mifi I have has a small issue with heat. It is best stored
somewhere fresh. No idea how good the more expensive is with that regard.

--
Best regards

Peer Oliver Schmidt
PGP Key ID: 0x83E1C2EA

'76a Eleganza II, VA
 
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