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**moosetags** · 09-02-2014, 10:36 AM

On our current Aistream adventure, we have been on the road for over 40 days now. Lucy has camped at 15 or 20 different campgrounds from Alabama to Washington. Almost all of these campgrounds had WIFI as an advertised amenity.

It has been our experience that there is usually a strong signal from the campground's router, but the Internet service from their modem is most often poor or non-existent. We have had to use our Verizon cellphones with FoxFI to establish our own hotspot at all but three of these campgrounds.

On several occasions, I have brought this to the attention of the campground desk personnel. The response is usually as if I had just recited the Lord's Prayer to them in Mandarin Chinese. Most of these campgrounds don't have a clue that WIFI alone does not provide Internet access.

I realize that in some instances, heavy Internet traffic in the campground can slow the system. These campgrounds need to realize that if they want to advertise having WIFI Internet access, they need to provide the band width necessary to serve the number of campsites that they have.

Brian

BoldAdventure · 09-02-2014, 10:45 AM

Most aren't in locations where they can actually provide that level of bandwidth. And most don't even invest in a proper antenna.

Generally the best would be providing an actual fiber connection at the park, the appropriate router and antennas and repeaters.

Most aren't even aware that the routers you buy for your home handle one request at a time. In your home, it's hard to see this between your computer and someone else's and maybe a tablet.

But try adding 30 devices all trying to access the same router and boom, slow down.

timmaah · 09-02-2014, 10:48 AM

The problem is easily accessible streaming video. The bandwidth required to allow 25 campers to all stream Netflix at once is way out of their budget and in probably a lot fo cases would take infrastructure upgrades just to get that kind of pipe out to the campground.

Their option is to pay a reasonable amount for Comcast Business line (or something similar) and call it good. And it will be good.. until you have 5 people streaming a video and then it is worthless for the rest.

Putting up signs asking people not to stream video won't work. Their best bet if they are to stick with their current connection size is to have their router limit peoples connections. And as you mention, no one at the campground has the knowledge to do that, so it is more $$ to get someone knowledgable in. There is no easy solution to this for a campground that doesn't have extra cash to spare.

Cannonball · 09-02-2014, 10:50 AM

I would think there is very little incentive for most campgrounds to provide more than cursory internet access. This past weekend, we actually had decent service that would support streaming music/radio broadcast. Still, it would drop out periodically.

This is not really an issue for us because I am not trying to do any significant work from the road.

Gene · 09-02-2014, 10:51 AM

Our wifi experience at campgrounds has been the same except in Canada where it always worked better than in the US, even in remote areas with only satellite internet. We end up using our Verizon jet pack when the campground wifi is bad—usually in the early morning and mid-evening. Since RVers go to sleep early, after 9 pm, campground wifi works a lot better. Or wake up in the middle of the night to send photos. Worst wifi is anywhere that uses Tango as their provider.

Campground people in the office have no idea what is going on with wifi and is it useless to ask them. Some get annoyed when you do. I'm sure they get lots of complaints and feel attacked about something beyond their understanding.

Most campgrounds are located outside of town where they may be no good internet service to the campground. Then they don't have good equipment. Some have told me they can't find anyone who can fix the system, even near big cities. So part of the problem is there aren't enough people who know how to install a good wifi system at campgrounds. And a good system may not work when you are surrounded by MH's blocking reception.

Gene

**moosetags** · 09-02-2014, 10:58 AM

We had suspected all of these issues. Now we don't even bother asking a campground if they have WIFI Internet. We ask instead if they is a cell phone signal at their campground. Our Internet business requires on-line access at least every couple of days. We now depend on our own cellphone hotspot.

Brian

idroba · 09-02-2014, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moosetags

We had suspected all of these issues. Now we don't even bother asking a campground if they have WIFI Internet. We ask instead if they is a cell phone signal at their campground. Our Internet business requires on-line access at least every couple of days. We now depend on our own cellphone hotspot.

Brian

And even cell phone hotspots have issues with capacity. When a lot of voice service is demanded from the tower, the net service is slowed down or delayed considerably. I have found that usually my Verizon MiFi works well, but sometimes from about 7 to 10 pm it is slow or even effectively drops out of service.

We recently had a wild fire in our area. The fire camp was moved to town, where cell service was available. 650 people were in the camp, town size is also about 650. I went to town and tried to use my cell phone (no service at all where I actually live) and found I could not even get a phone call out, the poor tower was so overloaded. I understand that cell towers are generally set to provide service to 5 to10% of local users at any one time, when a lot of additional use is demanded, they are overwhelmed too.

Just more information for our connected world.

Goal15 · 09-02-2014, 12:07 PM

I would think that some enterprising tech person who likes to travel could clean up on solving this issue. Makes me wish I had paid attention in science class.

eubank · 09-02-2014, 12:10 PM

Living on the periphery of a rural village, we have learned to appreciate slow internet, meaning faster than dial-up, but not by THAT much of a margin. And living on the periphery of a rural village that attracts a lot of tourists, especially on weekends like the last one, we've learned to appreciate almost any internet access at all.

And folks are right: Distributing a wifi signal to campers is one thing: Spend some money in the right way, and there you go. But distributing a signal that connects them to the internet is quite another. In many cases, no reasonable amount of money will do the trick.

Lynn

afneill · 09-02-2014, 12:12 PM

I suppose we are not alone in this predicament. I recently read an article about the drop in attendance by the student body at college football games, especially at the major schools. It seems that the available bandwidth is such that phone and internet service is almost nonexistent. While the students may like their football team, they like their smart phones even more. They stay home and watch on television and can still use their phones.

Gene · 09-02-2014, 12:42 PM

We've stayed at Lynn's campground and he has better wifi than just about anywhere we have been. If he has problems, it is not the campground, but the pipes in the area that are overloaded. At our house, there is no way to get internet except satellite (which is traditionally slow) and Verizon's jet pack, a/k/a, mifi. The service is pretty fast, but we pay a lot to get it and always go over our monthly allotment of 5 GB and we don't stream anything. Outside of cities, it is hard to get decent service. Netflix would be impossible for us if we wanted it. The US is way behind in internet bandwidth.

Gene

Lily&Me · 09-02-2014, 12:46 PM

Verizon mifi is your answer.

Your own, secure, internet connection. Almost anywhere.

Maggie

tulip09 · 09-02-2014, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moosetags

On our current Aistream adventure, we have been on the road for over 40 days now. Lucy has camped at 15 or 20 different campgrounds from Alabama to Washington. Almost all of these campgrounds had WIFI as an advertised amenity.

It has been our experience that there is usually a strong signal from the campground's router, but the Internet service from their modem is most often poor or non-existent. We have had to use our Verizon cellphones with FoxFI to establish our own hotspot at all but three of these campgrounds.

On several occasions, I have brought this to the attention of the campground desk personnel. The response is usually as if I had just recited the Lord's Prayer to them in Mandarin Chinese. Most of these campgrounds don't have a clue that WIFI alone does not provide Internet access.

I realize that in some instances, heavy Internet traffic in the campground can slow the system. These campgrounds need to realize that if they want to advertise having WIFI Internet access, they need to provide the band width necessary to serve the number of campsites that they have.

Brian

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Arcticfox · 09-02-2014, 06:19 PM

If I may ask - Does anyone know if Verison has any type of prepaid or no contract type plans one can access. My issue is I travel in the USA only about 3-4 months a year and would like to have some type of system to access the net while in the south. Our problem is we don't want a monthly fee type arrangement as there is to many months that we would not use it at all as we are back in Canada... So some type of "use as you go" type thing would be great for us.

Also, what type of MIFI is the best to get as Verison sees to sell more than one.

Thanks

Doug

ghaynes755 · 09-02-2014, 06:28 PM

Get the Coverage? app (iOS and I think Android). Has all 4 cell phone company maps. Generally pretty accurate way of deciding where you will find coverage. Consider investing in a booster amp such as the Wilson Sleek or the new 5 band amplifier to help with signal boost in fringe areas.

Couple weeks ago I was in a small state CG, 5 bars of Verizon inside the trailer and clocked at 36mb/s. Unbelievable in town of 600 residents.

markdoane · 09-02-2014, 06:29 PM

Yes, you can get prepaid service for a Jetpack. It runs from $15/week/250Mb, up to $90/month/10Gb.

The rate is for either the time period (week or month) or volume (Mb or Gb), whichever you use up first. You can let it lapse and buy a new time/volume slug whenever you need it again.

It's supposed to work anywhere there is Verizon service.

ghaynes755 · 09-02-2014, 06:30 PM

Doug check out Millenicom.com. They have a monthly plan that uses Verizon. And you can start and stop at will. Not sure how much volume you need as theirs is 20gb for about $90.

Gene · 09-02-2014, 06:41 PM

Verizon plans and devices keep changing. Your best bet to get a better deal is towards the end of the month when they have special deals. There is a contract, though you can suspend service on the Jet Pack (formerly mifi and probably something else now) for several months each year—or you could last year. They know people use them in RV's. They told us we would only use half of the allotted GB's per month (about 3), but we use about 6 and it comes to $60 + nuisance charges.

What you get is a box that is really a cellphone inside, though you can't talk on it. It connects to cell towers and only sends data. You can have around 4 or 5 devices using it—it sends out a wifi signal in a house and a bit beyond. The signal can be hacked and if you complain enough, they can set up a more secure system. The advantage is that you can take it with you and use it at home, on the road and in your pocket at a restaurant (it has a 3 hour battery). The disadvantage is you have to control your use of the internet—$50 for the 1st 5 GB, $10 more for each additional GB. It is pretty fast, though it slows after dinner time and early morning, just like campground wifi, but not nearly as slow as that.

You might be able to get this even though you don't live in their service area. See if they have a Canadian plan so you could use it at home, but I suspect it would cost a lot. They also have a phone system for a house where you get another box that is a cellphone inside which you plug into your home phone system while disconnecting the landline company's line. All the phones connected to the home system will work on this as phones, no internet. It cost $20/month several months ago and had unlimited long distance. You can take the box with you anywhere you have 120 v. including a car with a 120 v. outlet or a trailer. Once they establish this submarket, I'm sure they will increase the price a lot. Right now it is a far better deal than an old fashioned landline.

I think other companies have similar gadgets. They follow each other closely and match each other's plans most of the time. We chose Verizon years ago because they had better coverage in the west, though I'm not sure they still do.

Gene

BoldAdventure · 09-02-2014, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghaynes755

Doug check out Millenicom.com. They have a monthly plan that uses Verizon. And you can start and stop at will. Not sure how much volume you need as theirs is 20gb for about $90.

This.

Millenicom is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile...twork_operator

They buy alloted bandwidth from the big 3 at wholesale and then resell to YOU the customer at a discount.

MVNO's are not allowed to publicly disclose whose network they are on because of the agreements they make.

Millenicom resells Verizon's LTE service with the Verizon mifi (they litterally slap their logo overtop verizons) in their 20gb plan for less than Verizon's own 10gb plan.

The upside here, is that Verizon throttles your internet speeds. Millenicom does not, as they have an agreement with Verizion.

One note, the 20gb plan is verizon. I believe their cheaper plan is on the Sprint network.

Boost mobile, Virgin Mobile are other MVNO you have probably heard of.

You can see a list of MVNO's here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile...twork_operator

overlander63 · 09-02-2014, 07:57 PM

In the campgound we stayed at last weekend, internet access was almost nonexistent. The areas most campgrounds are in, at least the ones we would like to go to, are remote. Very few internet service providers are interested in doing much more than providing whatever ends up at the connection at the campground. Management has tried to get reliable internet service at a cost of less than my truck payment per month, and was pretty much told, "take our service the way we provide it, or don't have any at all".
Of course, they are being provided internet service on a data amount, rather than a flat unlimited rate. And no other company has any incentive to do anything else for them. Think "cash cow", with all the over-limit fees and extra data fees every month.
The campground's only even partly workable solution is to limit bandwidth to the wifi system, and turn it off completely when the office closes. Imagine what happens to the internet bill, with a 300Gb per month plan (all they can get from any company), when 50 campers fire up their computers, and start streaming videos every night... A movie can suck up to 1.5Gb of data.
Just food for thought. And I was shown their internet bill for July... Wow...