External wifi antenna/extender

[KirbyRVA]

Looking for any recommendations for a fairly inexpensive, easy wifi antenna. We will be in the same RV park always but on different sites so distance from our laptops and the most near antenna will vary. Thinking an external antenna will help with signal strength. I see one on Amazon from Simple Wifi for $99 that gets good reviews but I know nothing about these things.

[Second Chance]

The couple in the link below are generally considered the tech gurus of the RV world. Check out their site and see what they have to say:

https://www.technomadia.com/

My two cents worth, though, is that wi-fi boosters used in RV parks, etc., are not worth the cost. The majority of parks and campgrounds have marginal wi-fi and internet systems with poor bandwidth and overcrowding. All a wi-fi booster does is amplify an already poor signal and service. As full-timers, we depend on our 4G LTE JetPack (with unlimited data) for all of our internet needs. There are only rare occasions - sometimes when we are too far out in the boonies - that the cell signal is poor enough for us to resort to using the park or campground wi-fi... if it's even available.

Rob

[D2Reid]

What Rob said. I love the Google Speed Test. It's not perfect, but it is a good litmus test of throughput speed.

The RV park that we are in has "good" internet service. At 3 am I can get 8-10mbps, at 9am only .65 mbps. I typically just switch over to my Verizon MiFi that is getting 16mbps this morning, course I have to pay an extra buck for that.

[Second Chance]

What Rob said. I love the Google Speed Test. It's not perfect, but it is a good litmus test of throughput speed.

The RV park that we are in has "good" internet service. At 3 am I can get 8-10mbps, at 9am only .65 mbps. I typically just switch over to my Verizon MiFi that is getting 16mbps this morning, course I have to pay an extra buck for that.

OK... Dallas just motivated me to try a little experiment. We are staying at an "urban RV park" in Augusta, GA, doing some annual medical stuff (happens as we get older). The park has decent wi-fi with multiple access points around the park. The park is about 65% working people who are either at work or sleeping during the day, so 12:10 pm is not a bad time to run a test of the park wi-fi. The nearest Verizon cell tower is heavily used and can sometimes slow down in the evening, too. Anyway, I ran the Google speed test on both networks just now:

Verizon 4G LTE with JetPack 8800L:
17.4 Mbps download
5.96 Mbps upload

Park wi-fi:
10.3 Mbps download
4.60 Mbps upload

Those numbers will likely all be lower this evening - this is just a sample of one data point (time).

Rob

[JColeman]

OK... Dallas just motivated me to try a little experiment. We are staying at an "urban RV park" in Augusta, GA, doing some annual medical stuff (happens as we get older). The park has decent wi-fi with multiple access points around the park. The park is about 65% working people who are either at work or sleeping during the day, so 12:10 pm is not a bad time to run a test of the park wi-fi. The nearest Verizon cell tower is heavily used and can sometimes slow down in the evening, too. Anyway, I ran the Google speed test on both networks just now:

Verizon 4G LTE with JetPack 8800L:
17.4 Mbps download
5.96 Mbps upload

Park wi-fi:
10.3 Mbps download
4.60 Mbps upload

Those numbers will likely all be lower this evening - this is just a sample of one data point (time).

Rob

If you don't mind me asking, how much total bandwidth per month are you using?

[KirbyRVA]

Thanks for the feedback. I did wonder if adding an antenna and the other necessary device would do anything other than boost the signal but have no impact on speed.

We also have a Verizon Jet Pac with their 'Beyond Unlimited' data plan. However, when you use something like 11 Gig on the Jet Pac, Verizon slows the speed to a point where it is nearly useless. This slowdown then lasts until your monthly reset date.


What I see at the RV park is 5 bars for signal strength at times then only 3 bars at other times.

[Second Chance]

If you don't mind me asking, how much total bandwidth per month are you using?

I don't mind you asking - I just don't have an answer for you, Jeff. Since switching over to the pre-paid unlimited plan on the JetPack, total usage is no longer available on either the device or my on-line account. It just says "Unlimited." In fact, on the JetPack (both our previous 6620L and the new 8800L), the line where data usage used to be displayed is now a jumbled mess of text over text - I would imagine the software/firmware was only designed to handle accounts with a data limit and measured usage. On the new pre-paid plan, the phones each have 3GB/month. My wife may use half of that doing Facebook, streaming videos of the grandkids, reading the news and her vegan blogs... I use about a tenth of it (just use data on my phone for the satellite finder, maps, and to occasionally check email or look something up on-line).

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Rob

[SouthTX]

OK... Dallas just motivated me to try a little experiment. We are staying at an "urban RV park" in Augusta, GA, doing some annual medical stuff (happens as we get older). The park has decent wi-fi with multiple access points around the park. The park is about 65% working people who are either at work or sleeping during the day, so 12:10 pm is not a bad time to run a test of the park wi-fi. The nearest Verizon cell tower is heavily used and can sometimes slow down in the evening, too. Anyway, I ran the Google speed test on both networks just now:

Verizon 4G LTE with JetPack 8800L:
17.4 Mbps download
5.96 Mbps upload

Park wi-fi:
10.3 Mbps download
4.60 Mbps upload

Those numbers will likely all be lower this evening - this is just a sample of one data point (time).

Rob

Rob - have you installed an external antenna on your 8800L? My little cheapo 5 db antenna makes a noticable difference in signal strength - 3 to 5 bars and 60 something to 90 something db. I haven't done much speed testing, but I would expect a significant improvement as well.

Like you, since we've gotten real unlimited cell data, we generally don't even bother with park wifi. It may be fine for email, but I haven't found a park system that we can stream in the evenings. The cell systems sometimes noticably slow down, but we (knock wood) haven't had one become completely unusable.

We have the month to month Dish account and I haven't activated it since last fall sometime.

[Second Chance]

... 'Beyond Unlimited' data plan. However, when you use something like 11 Gig on the Jet Pac, Verizon slows the speed to a point where it is nearly useless.

That is not the plan we have. We are on the new pre-paid plan with truly unlimited data on the JetPack (data not shared with the phones). There is no throttling or slow-down past certain points. It's a completely different animal that the so-called "Unlimited" post-paid plans.

Rob

[Second Chance]

Rob - have you installed an external antenna on your 8800L? My little cheapo 5 db antenna makes a noticable difference in signal strength - 3 to 5 bars and 60 something to 90 something db.

I have an external antenna I used on the 6620L. The reading I've done on the cellular blogs/forums says that the two plastic-plugged ports on the 8800L are test ports and will not work with antennas. There's a member of this forum who has contradicted that and says they do work with antennas and he is doing so (even PC Mag calls them antenna ports) - I have not tried. The external antenna often made a 1- to 2-bar difference on the 6620L. Since our 8800L is brand new, I haven't mustered up the courage to pry out the plastic plugs on in to try... perhaps when it's out of warranty or the first time I can't get a usable signal (whichever comes first).

Rob