OK-DUH- you lost me. I guess I would say as a beginning route we'd rather not pay a monthly fee for wifi. That said, right now we pay for hi-speed internet from Qwest which we find to be so-so - not very fast but fairly reliable.
Short of having to go to Starbucks or over to the RV Rec Hall to use whatever they may have, we'd like to stay at home (RV) to use our computers If a paid subscription is required for this, then I guess we'll have to look at that - which leads me back to my question regarding "things" that might be nice to have the MFG put in/out during the building process
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As I say, I can spell WiFi - after that DUH!!!

I'm a painter and have very little technical knowledge outside of my world.

We'll never be out in the boonies so as I say easy to access - reliable and exceptable speed - we each have a laptop and we don't have all those fancy things that people spend all day on and end up with thumbs and fingers that stop working. I don't even have a cell phone - and never will. I'm sure I have not answered your questions, as you lost me after the first few words and I really do not know what my questions are. :>)

RVPAINTER wrote:

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SINCE WE WILL BE HAVING OUR RV BUILT, I'M WONDERING IF THERE ARE ANY PRE-PLANNED THINGS WE SHOULD REQUEST OF THE MANUFACTURER BASED ON INSTALLATION OF WIFI EQUIPTMENT - SUCH AS EASY ACCESS TO HOOK UP AN EXTERIOR ANTENNA - IF SO, WOULD THE BEST PLACE BE IN THE REAR NEAR THE LADDER?

WE WILL BE IN RV PARKS MOST OF THE TIME AS BOONDOCKING IS NOT OUR "THANG."  SO EASY AND RELIABLE WIFI FROM OUR RV WILL BE OUR NEED - WE BOTH HAVE BLOGS THAT WE POST TO EVERYDAY AND WE SURF THE INTERNET AND OF COURSE EMAIL.  NO BIG NEEDS OTHER THAN RELIABLE ACCESS TO HI SPEED INTERNET - WHENEVER WE WANT IT.

MY KNOWLEDGE OF WiFi STOPS AFTER I TYPE THE WORD.

THANKS

 

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I’ll keep this to a simple suggestion which will allow you a lot of flexibility for the future and not require you to make a lot of decisions today.

 

From wherever you want to place you WiFi equipment, along with printers, etc. in the RV, have at least one  2 inch piece of Innerduct, which is just a flexible conduit, to the roof area and terminated into a waterproof connection box.  Beside this roof connection box have them put a rail upon which antennas, such as for Wifi or cell phones, can be mounted.  The size of the pipe on the rear ladder is fine.  I would place this toward the rear of the rig if it is a 5’er to minimize the cable lengths to the equipment.  This will allow installations and changes in the future.  You could have another 2 inch run to the front of the rig for other reasons beyond the scope of this note.  But the bottom line is to have some way from a cabinet inside the rig to the roof in the most direct path possible and then have a way to mount antennas up there. Once you have this you can make changes later and don't have to know everthing "today" while the rig is being built.

 

This is very simplistic, but the biggest hassle is always mounting the antennas and then getting the cable to them.  Been there, done that.

 

There a dozen good ways to have internet, cell phone, air-card implementation; but all good implementations require, for best performance, an outside antenna even if you are not in the boonies.

 

(Remember to have an AC outlet – and maybe a 12 volt outlet – put in that cabinet into which you will place the inside equipment.)

 

Safe travels

 

Bill

Let me muddle things up a bit. WiFi is just a way to get the internet signal to your laptop or other WiFi enabled device, it just replaces Ethernet cable and a wired router. I suspect you used Ethernet or WiFi to use Qwest high speed internet. Guess what, that "high speed" you got from Qwest is very likely the same thing the RV park is using and then letting everyone in the park share via WiFi. If it felt slow when you were using it and not sharing it with 10s or hundreds of other users, just imagine what you encounter in an RV park. WiFi is not magic, unless getting AM, FM and Shortwave radio is magic. WiFi is very precise and fast radio but instead of voice it sends data.

OK------what does one do to speed it up????? How does speeding it up enter into my initial question of "Is there something the MFG should do to faciltate WIFI?" For folks who know WiFi I'm sure this is ABC's - however I do not know WiFi so I need things explained in very simple language - I suffer from CRS. Your muddle does not seem to address my question. I hesitated asking this question as there seems to be a lot of WiFi geeks here who need to explain things in Non-Geek talk. GENECOP & BILL I understood - sorry but you bjoyce and Bill Adams ----- not so much.

An understandable reply might start out - Well here is what I use and the approx. equip cost and cost for service. Oh well - I shall continue looking for suggestion.

RVP, you will find the more technically savvy guys are more difficult to understand. I know very little, but explain it well, LOL......

You are sooooo right GENECOP. I will check out your site Jack - thanks.

I really am trying to be clear. Speed is relative. When there is an accident on the freeway everybody goes 2mph. The same way during the morning and afternoon commute, the roads run slow because there is heavy traffic. The Ferrari is going 2mph right next to the 63' Chevy truck. You can boost the signal of a WiFi source, like a campground, but if it is heavily used you can't do anything to make your internet run faster since the "road" can't handle the traffic. Maybe at 2AM if there are no other night owls, but at 6PM when everyone is checking email and surfing the web it can be really slow.

Follow Bill Adams advice and get the WFRBoost, so you can boost a weak WiFi signal from far away, but realize your internet speeds could still be slow. But you will have WiFi in your RV in many cases, others will not since they won't have the boost. Try using campground WiFi and see if it works for you. Also pay attention if you are being restricted on what campgrounds you stay at, since many do not have WiFi.

Terry: A WiFiRanger, just like a Cradlepoint router, will accept an aircard/datacard/USB modem (pick a name) and give you WiFi for more than 5 devices, to a larger distance from the router (MiFi's are designed for about 30 feet, normal WiFi goes 100 to 300 feet depending on what is in the way). Plus these routers has more configuration settings and such, which does make them more complicated but also gives you more flexibility. I am using a Cradlepoint router with a Verizon USB modem right now with four computers hooked up. I know people who have had to get a router like a WiFiRanger or Cradlepoint because they use more than 5 devices. Think his and her's notebooks, his and her's iPads, a wireless printer and a couple Kindles. It adds up fast for some people. Of course Verizon acts like such routers don't exist.