How to get wifi?

[1964econo]

Newby that's bad at research here, sorry. I live in my airstream full time, we're parked next to a house that has full strength wifi outside the trailer.. when we're in the trailer we get nothing. Will adding a wifi range extender outside the house help get the wifi inside the trailer? Thanks in advance for your thoughtful helpful comments!

[mpsgolf]

The metal shell attenuates the signal. However if you have “full” signal just outside I’m surprised you get “nothing” inside. You can research Faraday Cage for tech info. In my experience my AS reduces a signal but doesn’t block it completely.

I just added a router and external MIMO antenna to Sali. The c router has dual cell and wifi antenna connections to match the dual antenna. One option to improve internal wifi is to connect one external wifi and use one “paddle” Antenna on the router to improve internal signal. But I have tested the system and so far that is not required. I installed during v winter and this is our first year to use it on the road so we’ll see.

[Tyler2you]

Something like this should help:

https://www.amazon.com/WAVLINK-Outdo...7-93deae8f9840

[Mollysdad]

Can I assume you have permission to use their wi-fi, including the password? In that case you don't need to find internet, you only need to get it inside. The problem is you can't simply add an antenna to your computer/device. I'd start with a repeater/booster. Maybe located in a window. I have a simple Netgear repeater behind my TV because my wi-fi in the house was too weak for the TV to stream.
https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wi-Fi...s%2C119&sr=1-5

[uncle_bob]

Hi

One thing that can be very helpful debugging this sort of thing:

There are apps that will run on your phone or your computer (usually the computer is a better bet). The computer based ones will show you *all* the WiFi signals that are out there, not just the one you are connected to. Both the phone and computer versions will give you a very fine grain reading on signal strength. The little "one to four bars" thing you typically see isn't really giving you much detail.

Just which app you get depends a lot on what kind of computer or phone you happen to have. Wi Fi Explorer is one that works on a Mac, it's no better / no worse than many others.

Bob

[JDHinMaine]

I put a Wi-Fi extender in the front window and lit up everything in and around my Excella 1000

[GrandpaMac]

There is a product called WEBOOST that will use an outside antenna to pickup both cell and WIFI signals and repeat them to an indoor antenna. Not expensive, and works great!

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

One thing that can be very helpful debugging this sort of thing:

There are apps that will run on your phone or your computer (usually the computer is a better bet). The computer based ones will show you *all* the WiFi signals that are out there, not just the one you are connected to. Both the phone and computer versions will give you a very fine grain reading on signal strength. The little "one to four bars" thing you typically see isn't really giving you much detail.

Just which app you get depends a lot on what kind of computer or phone you happen to have. Wi Fi Explorer is one that works on a Mac, it's no better / no worse than many others.

Bob

[Fungus]

Originally Posted by GrandpaMac

There is a product called WEBOOST that will use an outside antenna to pickup both cell and WIFI signals and repeat them to an indoor antenna. Not expensive, and works great!

I am not aware of a WeBoost product that boosts a WiFi signal. Ours boosts the cell signal, sort of.

I have an enterprise-class WiFi setup at home using Ubiquiti equipment. Multiple POE-powered access points mounted on the ceiling. An outdoor access point is about 30 feet from the trailer. Inside the trailer the signal is weak, at best. But I can set a mesh access point in the window.

[richard5933]

We started our RV life in a vintage coach which was built just like an Airstream - big metal can which effectively blocks most WiFi signals.

I followed the instructions in one of this guy's earlier videos on how to set up a system inside my rig to get WiFi. Here's his later video:

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

What I particularly like about this type of system is that once you get it set up to work, all your devices will connect automatically to it each time. You only need to reset the actual WiFi connection between the system and the new WiFi network once, and then all your devices are good to go at the next camping location. Plus, it provides some security against others getting into your devices from a public WiFi.

We put the antenna unit in a window facing the WiFi in our Airstream and get pretty decent reception. I have since upgraded to a system using an external receiver so we can get WiFi from more distant places when in campgrounds, but that won't really apply here.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by GrandpaMac

There is a product called WEBOOST that will use an outside antenna to pickup both cell and WIFI signals and repeat them to an indoor antenna. Not expensive, and works great!

Hi

We have (or had) a Weboost in our trailer. After a few years I decided it really didn't do much good. If there was a reasonable WiFi outside, I could get it inside. If the signal was marginal outside, the bandwidth inside still was pretty poor.

Ours also had some sort of issue with the power supply. They swapped it out yearly. I have no idea what the issue was there.

Bob

[Fungus]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

We have (or had) a Weboost in our trailer. After a few years I decided it really didn't do much good. If there was a reasonable WiFi outside, I could get it inside. If the signal was marginal outside, the bandwidth inside still was pretty poor.

Ours also had some sort of issue with the power supply. They swapped it out yearly. I have no idea what the issue was there.

Bob

Our experience was mostly similar to Bob's. WeBoost was just ok. Sometimes it seemed to make a big difference; other times, nada. It depended on the location, how many other folks were using up what amount of bandwidth, tower proximity, etc.

Putting the external antenna on a 25-foot telescoping pole significantly improved performance in the areas we tested, making it worth the effort. However, the comparison is incomplete because I haven't tested it under the same conditions in the campgrounds/campsites as our previous experiences. With the 2.25" roll-bar clamps permanently in place on the tongue jack, deployment adds five to ten minutes of set-up/take-down time. The internal antenna is low-power (probably to avoid interference with the external antenna) so devices need to be close to it or line-of-sight. At this point it's good enough. We'll keep it until Starlink is available in the areas we frequent.

[Scott S]

Can you receive the wifi signal just outside your trailer? If so, do you have aluminum screens? When I replaced the aluminum screens with nylon ones on my '60 we went from having almost no signal to having a really decent signal.

[TeddyK]

I’ve a WeBoost and love it. It’s on a 27’ pole off back of trailer ring clamped to bike rack. I’ve a T-Mobile 5G gateway (router) inside w the internal antennae right next to it. The beauty is I never need to move the internal antennae and can easily connect from 100ft away to my network

[Middlejohn]

Originally Posted by TeddyK

I’ve a WeBoost and love it. It’s on a 27’ pole off back of trailer ring clamped to bike rack. I’ve a T-Mobile 5G gateway (router) inside w the internal antennae right next to it. The beauty is I never need to move the internal antennae and can easily connect from 100ft away to my network

What kind of inside antenna are you using?