My WiFi Repeater adventure

[rbertalotto]

Like many of you, I'm not a "Full Timer". I still own a house and a yard and a bunch of stuff! But I plan to work out of my Toy Hauler this spring and summer as my business has me traveling all over the country. Why not work in a different area each week?

 

This entails being able to connect to the internet and access to WiFi when it is available and of good quality.

 

The search led me to TechnoRV.com. After reading a million articles on WiFi extenders, I realized that getting good, fast WiFi in most areas will be a bonus and a HotSpot will usually be a better way to access the internet. With this in mind I didn't want to spend a ton of dough on a WiFi repeater system. I opted for the "External WiFi Booster Tube" antenna and the "ALFA R36 Repeater"

 

http://www.technorv.com/RV_WiFi_Boosters_s/85.htm

 

I ordered the equipment on Tuesday and it was here at my house on Friday. Eric Johnson, the owner of TechnoRv was a great help in selecting the equipment and offered a free shipping incentive. I went with TechnoRV because I'm all thumbs when it comes to IT stuff. I barely can do email.....I need to call one of my 12 year old grandkids to get me out of Ethernet predicaments I get myself into.

 

If you buy the product from TechnoRV, they email you something they call "TechnoRV Learning Series" once to pay for the product. These are fantastic tutorials that even I could understand!

 

So anyways...How does it work?

 

Well, it's 32 degrees right now and the Forest River 19RR is under wraps so I can't install the system on the trailer. But I had to check it out.

 

I simply plugged the antenna into the repeater with the supplied USB cable (USB means no loss that a coax connection would have and much less chance of RF interference) , plugged the repeater into a wall socket with the included power supply (The repeater runs on 12v DC so in the camper it can run off my batteries as I do 85% boondocking).

 

I simply left the repeater on the floor next to my desk in my office

 

 

and stretched out the USB cable and mounted the antenna in the window of my wifes bathroom

 

 

I followed the instructions from the "Learning Series" and I was actually up and running in ten minutes! I couldn't believe it was this easy! I've NEVER hooked anything up to my computer that worked the first time and didn't need at least two stiff drinks! This time I was up and running with out a lick of liquor.......Bummer!

 

I live out in the country with very few houses and zero businesses within a couple miles of me. With the WiFi on my MacBook Air and my Iphone5s I can only pick up my own router and the Xfinity WiFi from my cable TV router......That's it!

 

But as you can see from this screen shot, I've got WiFi coming in from all over the place. I can identify at least one and it is about a 1/4 mile away!

 

 

As I was warned, you don't find many "Open" WiFi points. Si I'm hoping this will work well when parked near a Lowes, HomeDepot, McDonalds etc which offer open WiFi. We'll see!

 

But so far, for the money spent, I'm really impressed!

 

I also bought a WeBOOST Drive4G-M that I'll report on at another time.

 

I hope this helps some other RVers if they are thinking about adding a WiFi repeater to their bag of technology tricks!