RV Resorts; When will you get it right?

[xrvr]

Must be strange to be that important feeling that you must have a wifi signal to camp. I carry a cell phone because my wife forces me too, have never used it while camping. Seldom if ever watch tv on the road either. I listen to the radio fr news and weather occasionally. If I need these things daily, I stay home. I enjoy my wifi at home but, avoid it at all costs while camping. I can camp in my driveway and have all the amenities and save lots of money. I agree if the rv resort adveritses wifi then it should be available. Just the way my life goes, your life is probably much dif. Whatever, enjoy, jim

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by zigzagguzzi

Must be strange to be that important feeling that you must have a wifi signal to camp.

I try not to judge, but I must admit to occasionally feeling the same about satellite dishes. But WiFi?

When I stayed at Lake Bruin State Park, St. Joseph, LA, I did not have cell phone coverage, WiFi, or anything else. Midle of nowhere? Ha! Try far edge of nowhere!

My boss ripped me a new one later because he tried for three days to get in touch with me by both phone and e-mail while I was a happy camper at Lake Bruin. Turns out one of my family members had a medical emergency, and when the folks tried to call me and couldn't, they called my boss so that he could do it, but he couldn't get in touch, either. Turns out I was in time for the funeral, but not soon enough to say good-bye in person.

Now, I make sure I have SOME two-way connection to the outside world no matter where I camp. And my remaining family all still hate me because I was too busy camping to visit my dad in the hospital.

No. I'm not important enough to need WiFi. But my family is important enough for me to need WiFi.

[eubank]

Boy, how life has changed, huh? It wasn't that long ago when we camped in places where no cell phone coverage (let alone wifi) was available for dozens of miles. And that wasn't even boondocking; it was at a national monument. Made tiny Angel Fire seem like city services. Electronic communication was just not something that even crossed our minds. My guess is that there are still quite a few places of that nature in the west, but it's been a bit since we've been remote.


Lynn

[ROBERT CROSS]

What's a "wifi"?......I'm already Married. 24/7

Bob

[Skater]

Originally Posted by zigzagguzzi

Must be strange to be that important feeling that you must have a wifi signal to camp. I carry a cell phone because my wife forces me too, have never used it while camping. Seldom if ever watch tv on the road either. I listen to the radio fr news and weather occasionally. If I need these things daily, I stay home. I enjoy my wifi at home but, avoid it at all costs while camping. I can camp in my driveway and have all the amenities and save lots of money. I agree if the rv resort adveritses wifi then it should be available. Just the way my life goes, your life is probably much dif. Whatever, enjoy, jim

If you're going to gripe about the amenities of camping, you could start with the camper itself...

Let's face it, staying in an RV is not exactly the height of "roughing it." From there, camping means different things to different people, and there's room for everyone.

[Dan and Liz]

Most of them say they have wifi. On our recent trip to Vancouver, of over a dozen campgrounds, we found 3 that actually claimed to have wifi THAT WORKS -- and those 3 did! The rest never even claimed it worked, just that it was there...

[xrvr]

Wifi is hardly an amenity of camping, neither is a cell phone. A cell phone is important in an emergency to some, but not to others. Like I said in my previous post, we each have dif needs and wants. Jim

[newroswell]

I know the idea of needing wifi while "camping" is completely foreign to many. I go camping with the Jeep and a tent. The Airstream is for traveling. There's a lot more people than you might think that have jobs flexible enough for traveling 100+ nights a year, as long as we have cell service and a small amount of wifi. Yeah it's a bummer when we're out and I need to work a little. But I wouldn't trade the morning walk on the beach and the nice view out the window for being pinned down in a office 50 of 52 weeks a year.

I'm going to defend the campgrounds for a second also. It's not as simple as just writing a check big enough to make it work. A lot of parks start out getting quoted a huge number for a turn key system. Then after they have the first phase installed, they find out that was 10% of what it will really cost to make it work. They usually don't even know it was 10% until after they've doubled down once or twice to solve their "new problem" that has everyone in the park pissed-off, raising hell at the desk, threatening to sue, "taking their business somewhere else" and leaving bad reviews on the travel sites.

This is still new technology! Once you build a system for a park that has 300 spaces, it's completely worthless 18 months later when 74% of cell phone owners upgrade to smart phones that constantly nibble at the wifi. Then Netflix streaming comes along. Oh you thought someone was just going to check the news maybe read a few Wall Street Journey articles? That is a fraction of the bandwidth needed to spend just 10 minutes on Facebook.

I have no involvement with selling wifi networks, but everyone of our customers has one. Some of these wifi networks support 10,000's of "devices". They have a lot of full time, smart people, huge budgets, and these networks must work reliably. It's hard.

I agree with Lynn. The idea the campground will supply you with wifi will be gone quicker than you think. It's not what they do best. It's incredibly expensive. Besides there are better solutions already available. Give me the $4 a night discount and you can keep your wifi.

[TBRich]

We no longer even try to rely on RV parks' WiFi systems. If it works well, we are always pleasantly surprised. We use a Verizon hot spot device that works great...and always better than the campground's. I have a feeling that many campgrounds offering WiFi are pathetically under-prepared and not all that techno-savvy. I probably know more about their system than they do, and if that's the case...they are really in trouble. (There are exceptions ... I know Lynn at Monte Verde knows his stuff, for example.)

By the way, I never apologize for wanting to be "wired" while we camp and travel. It enables me to do work if necessary and stay in touch with clients and friends ... and for us that equals more frequent and longer camping trips! So it's a very good thing for us!

[Big C]

Another Verison hot spot user. Wifi is usually just a draw, kinda like a loss leader in retail.

[andreasduess]

I too feel for the campground owners. Supporting a system that offers genuine high speed connections to a multitude of users over a large area is an expensive proposition.

As far as connectivity is concerned: I own a small business. My clients expect me to be available whenever they need to talk to me. If I'd like to continue to reap the benefits of being my own boss, I'd better make sure my clients are happy and if that means being available while camping, so be it.

[pappy19]

I used to depend on campground wifi's but for an additional $20/month, I have a 4g aircard with security on my Verizon bill. Best money I've ever spent, in campgrounds and airports, no worries about some digbat glamming on my internet and I have never had a problem with getting service.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by Skater

If you're going to gripe about the amenities of camping, you could start with the camper itself...

Let's face it, staying in an RV is not exactly the height of "roughing it." From there, camping means different things to different people, and there's room for everyone.

You whacked that rivet....

Bob

[eubank]

Apropos wifi AGAIN, we just lost another signal booster during yesterday's thunderstorm. Fourth time's a charm! Last one went last summer from a direct lightening strike. New one ordered with scheduled arrival next week, and another $400 down the tubes. At least people will be able to access the net if they walk up closer to the office.

Lynn


Added note: When we were hit last summer, I was in Santa Fe with the AS -- and was hit by lightening myself. I looked again at the strike point this morning while working on the polish job. It didn't penetrate the aluminum, but did create a spot that looks like somebody touched a welder to it momentarily.

[wncrasher]

Blocking netflix streaming would probably solve 90% of the problem on many of these wifi networks. It floors me when I see people doing this when they know there is only so much bandwidth to be shared by everybody.

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by wncrasher

Blocking netflix streaming would probably solve 90% of the problem on many of these wifi networks. It floors me when I see people doing this when they know there is only so much bandwidth to be shared by everybody.

I think it's a faulty assumption that most people with a computer know much about how the computer or the network actually work.

On top of that you have the human tendency to think "Oh, it'll be OK if I'm the only one doing it."

[outofcontrol]

This is a very interesting conversation. I too try and work while I'm on vacation, being self-employed, I only need a laptop and a phone. I've been tethering my phone to the laptop for years. I can't use public WiFi anyway because I can't risk my clients' sensitive data.

I would think that most of us have a smartphone by now. I read somewhere that 70% of Americans over 18 now have smartphones. You can "Tether" or create a "Hot Spot" with almost any of these phones. You can either pay the extra $20 for the service or work around it with some clever programming. Jailbreaking, Rooting, which is basically a "hot wire" your phone to provide internet to your laptop for free. My new phone has clocked speeds up to 23.93Mbps on AT&T 4G LTE making any need for WiFi obsolete. Granted, I don't need that much bandwidth to send email correspondence for work, but I could watch movies all night with that speed.

I think Lynn is right, and I believe the future is going to be phones, tablets, and laptops that don't rely on WiFi at all. And as proven here, by so many examples. They can't be counted on, and they're slow. Ironically, even at my house now, my phone internet service is faster than my WiFi.

Slightly edited down...

Originally Posted by eubank

Finally, my own suspicion … is that campground wifi will go the way of telephone hookups at sites. Less than a decade ago, that was all the rage, so campgrounds rushed to lay telephone lines to sites …. Within a very few years, nobody wanted it anymore, so the expense of wiring it up was a waste …. Today, you see more and more people who use their cell service for Internet, eschewing campground wifi.

Lynn

-Kevin

[BAB]

...and of course you have the other side of the coin. The most connected place in the world (as I understand it) is Seoul, Korea where WiFi is beyond ubiquitous. I find it discouraging that in most European cities my credit cards won't work as they've gone to RFID. Sweden is considering eliminating cash completely. I think it's a scandal that I pay as much as I do for internet access and don't ever expect to see fiber optic service. My experience in campgrounds parallels what others have posted. Even with a WiFi ranger, most times the signal that it picks up is too weak to establish an internet connection.

[NJtoNC]

Right now I'm posting from my iPhone because the james island SC county park that promised wifi at my site hasn't had it for the 2 days we have been here. I got no apology; I got ; "it's AT&T 's fault!" I call BS.

I am self employed and work online. No Internet = no work = no pay. I called ahead to make sure I could get internet to a few hours' work in each nite. We don't travel enough to make mifi worth while.

BTW- it's $48/nite here.
I will also mention the showers are disgustingly filthy.

[wncrasher]

You can get a program called "tether" for your laptop to link your iPhone Internet connection. Costs $30 a year, works well and is legal. Go to their website of the same name.