boosters

[billdowning]

Excel 32'

 

Would love to hear your thoughts about cell AND wifi boosters of all kinds Thanks in advance.

[docj]

No offense, but you've asked a very broad question about two completely separate topics both of which have been discussed in many previous threads on this forum.

 

My suggestion is to start by reading the material available at this website: https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ Technomadia has done an excellent job of providing a valuable resource to RVers interested in these topics.

 

Once you have reviewed Technomadia's material you will then be in a position to pose more specific questions on this forum and, I'm sure, you will receive many helpful answers.

 

Joel (AKA docj)

[oldjohnt]

Bill, you asked for "thoughts" I have a few VERY BASIC regarding my cell booster and Wi Fi.

 

For an in depth detailed presentation, go to You Tube and look at the link below by Technomadia as well as the other related links on the right side of the screen. I have attended their seminars and they are experts who can probably give you tons more information then myself or others here might provide on this limited space forum. They have 20 to 60 minute presentation videos which is far more then we can provide here in a few paragraphs

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdEh6v3p0rg

 

 

After watching what the experts have to say, here are my brief thoughts:

 

For my cell phone booster, after researching the topic, the method I chose is a unit that has a small EXTERNAL RECEIVING roof top antenna which connects to my interior booster amplifier that feeds an INTERNAL TRANSMITTING antenna that re transmits the boosted signal throughout my RV. Typically it adds two bars on my cell phones signal strength and works fine. Alternatives are cradle type boosters which your cell phone lays in but I wanted the freedom to use the phone anywhere in the RV as normal and not have to fool with any other tethering.

 

As far as WiFi, I use an external High Gain USB Wi Fi Adapter Antenna that plugs directly into my laptops USB Port. It typically doubles or adds two bars to my WiFi signal strength. These are booster/extenders for local Wi Fi that an RV park or restaurant or rest stop or truck stop might provide, they are NOT Cell Service receivers like below, you have to be in range of local WiFi for them to work, but they generally give you much more signal strength then the units own small internal receiver. Security can be an issue, use public WiFi carefully.

 

Other options are MiFi or Jetpack CELL SERVICE type receivers which enable devices such as your Cell Phone, Laptop, Kendall or Tablet etc. to connect wirelessly to the Internet. The providers may be Verizon or AT&T or Virgin Mobile or Sprint etc etc which your unit receives and then makes the internet available wirelessly on several of your personal devices. You can buy packages such as maybe 1 to 5 GB or more data per month.

 

THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS and much depends on your needs and use and location (possibly remote). Each has advantages and disadvantages. As far as Internet , the options are WiFi ORRRRRRRRRR CELL SERVICE as described above. This is very "basic" and different folks use different methods and products so see what Technomadia and the other fine gents here like then make your own decision based on your use and locations and needs.

 

John T

[Kirk W]

We use a cell signal repeater and external antenna from the 3 G store.

[rbertalotto]

I have both WiFi Booster and Cell Phone/HotSpot Booster and could not be more pleased! We are living out of an aluminum can in most cases. Simply the worse environment for radio waves to work from. This past week I was in a state park in Massachusetts with near zero cell service. I work out of my trailer and must have good internet service. The WEBoost worked amazingly well.

 

Here is an article about it that I wrote for my web site

 

http://rvbprecision.com/rv-projects/cellular-and-wifi-booster-install.html

[Dutch_12078]

On the cell side, we recently upgraded from a WeBoost Drive 4G-M amplifier/repeater to a Maximum Signal MaxAmp RV Mobile amplifier/repeater, and have been very pleased with the results so far. We've now been through a number of areas where we've previously had no signal or a very unreliable signal for both voice and data even using an external antenna, and have had no loss of signal with good data speeds with the MaxAmp. The WeBoost did serve us well last winter in some pretty poor signal areas, but the inside antenna limitation that requires your device to be within a few feet of the antenna was a real drawback with multiple devices in use and two people trying to use them at the same time. The MaxAmp is giving us a good signal throughout our coach and even extends it out to our patio area under the awning. I can't post meaningful speed comparison numbers, although we have checked from time to time, because most of the time, when we switched the MaxAmp off in those areas, we would get either no signal, or 1X or 3G data only, compared to a 4G signal with it on. We did learn early on that "bars" on the phone or MiFi display are relatively meaningless, with the signal quality and data speeds being the better units of measure. In every no or low signal area where we've checked, our RSSI numbers and data speeds have been well within acceptable levels using the MaxAmp, and pretty much unchanged in moderate to strong signal areas, as it should be under the current FCC rules.

 

On the Wifi side, we use a PepWave Surf-Mini On-The-Go router/repeater that also handles cell modem routing as needed, but park WiFi is usually so poor that we seldom bother with it.