WI FI and cell boosters

[bobbrazie]

Hi all. 2020 24' Cougar.


I am looking into getting a cell booster and was wondering about recent experiences with brands.


I have a Furrion/Access module behind the TV and it is hooked to the antenna I believe.
I visited their web site but it seems I would have to buy data from them to use it. Anyone using this one with the built in access point already in your unit?



I have a Verizon plan with data and don't want to pay for two data plans.


Thanks in advance. Bob.

[busterbrown]

A cell booster is only as good as the line of sight of the broadcasting cell tower, the height of the pole used for the external antenna, and the type of external antenna used.

If no signal is available to begin with, the signal can't be "boosted". If mountains or dense forests lay between the antenna and the cell tower, the signal boost will be minimal or nil. Finally, a quality wide band directional antenna must be used to get decent results. Avoid omni / multi directional external antennas at all cost.

I own a Weboost RV Connect 65 and it does the job. But I follow the requirements I previously listed. The directional Wilson antenna is pole mounted 25 feet in the air.

I have no experience with the Furion unit in your trailer. What makes me question the quality of a product is the diversity of products from a single manufacturer. For example, Furion makes stoves, microwaves, TV's, refrigerators, speakers, backup cameras, entertainment head units and now cell boosters. On the other end of the spectrum, Weboost only specializes in cell and wifi amplifiers and boosters. The question of the day then becomes "who makes a better booster?". I will let those reading this answer that question.

[Bill-2020]

As I understand it (I have the same interior furion mount by the way) the additional component that slides onto the interior wall or ceiling unit can be used as a WiFi booster. But it’s an omni directional antenna on the roof still. You don’t have to by data from them if you just want to use the WiFi portion of the product. Does it work any better than just using your laptop or smartphone WiFi capabilities? I can’t answer that. I’m literally 30 feet from a WiFi unit at an RV campground. The password they give isn’t working and the one who administrates it isn’t here now. So this WiFi is useless. Verizon it is for the rest of the time here (which is only a few more hours anyway)

[wiredgeorge]

Wow... Furrion is serious about ripping you off as their data plan @ $65 a month for 10 gigs of data is EXPENSIVE. I can use my phone (Consumer Cellular) as a hotspot and have 20 gigs of data for less than that. I mounted a dual band directional USB wifi antenna on my ladder and point it in the direction of the campground wifi signal. I connect the long USB cord to a laptop which I turn on as a hotspot and have wifi in the camper. The wifi signal is better but the quality depends on the quality of the campground wifi; sometimes you can stream netflix and sometimes the signal creeps along and drops from time to time. This isn't due to signal strength but is just a function of the campground wifi. I can also use the phone as a hotspot but 20 gigs won't stream a lot of movies and we avoid using our hotspot in that manner.

[bobbrazie]

There's a campground we go to quite often and we only get one bar on the Verizon network and was hoping to improve on that.

[Bill-2020]

Originally Posted by bobbrazie

There's a campground we go to quite often and we only get one bar on the Verizon network and was hoping to improve on that.

I hear ya, and I understand your desire. I tend to work a bit while camping (mostly in the evenings or poor weather). Data is a nice thing to have for my purposes. I have Verizon and usually if there is service in out lying areas it's a Verizon signal. Now, in northern Georgia with family late last year I had zero signal while hiking in a state park. My daughter-in-law who has T-Mobile had 4G/LTE and a full signal. Go figure.

That being said - we had a need in my company to boost a cell signal within the facility so that a customer's product we were building and testing would get a decent signal. We bought an off-brand signal booster on Amazon just to see if it would give us a better signal inside the building. The exterior antenna was directional and we had to aim it at the tower about a mile away. note: that the antenna was also mounted on the roof of the building at over 20 feet in height. This cheap cell booster worked for what we needed, but it had to be set up to be working properly. It is by no means a "Weboost" brand nor of the same quality. You get what you pay for, as they say. This doesn't mean to try the off-brand cheaper cell booster. Just telling you what we did.

[Dave fromRockcliffeTheSea]

I hope there is more feedback on this topic. I have a similar Furrion box on my new 2020 Cougar and it says you need a Furrion Router (around $350 Can.) which seems sowewhat excessive. I'm trying to enhance my Wifi.

[bobbrazie]

I was hoping for more information too. At this point I am leaning toward the WeBoost and just use my Verizon data plan.

The Furrion unit in your trailer would require their router as you said but would also require you to buy a monthly data plan from them.

I see no reason to pay for data from two different sources.
There might be different opinions though.

[BeagleMan]

Me too!! It has been so frustrating to research this stuff. I like the Winegard set up and the idea, but there is not a lot of love for it, Winegard is very vague in explaining it and the people in the cell business, AT&T, Verizon, et al, do not have a damn clue what we are talking about when we inquire about a data SIM card for it. I have seen, MoFi, WeBoost, Netgear, Nighthawk routers out the wazoo, I have even seen and read people hoisting up 25 foot telescoping flag poles with some "thinking outside of the box" antenna systems, but nothing is, for one a perfect system. In a house, its hardwired and wireless, no problem. Why is there not a more stable, more conducive system for RV WiFi? If it is not the strong enough campground Wifi thats the problem, its the receiver bit on our end that cannot seem to connect up correctly or if at all. So frustrating!!

[Dave fromRockcliffeTheSea]

Is there another thread on WiFi boosting that we don't know about. Seems like very little input for what I am sure is a very common problem.

[rhagfo]

Originally Posted by bobbrazie

I was hoping for more information too. At this point I am leaning toward the WeBoost and just use my Verizon data plan.

The Furrion unit in your trailer would require their router as you said but would also require you to buy a monthly data plan from them.

I see no reason to pay for data from two different sources.
There might be different opinions though.

Originally Posted by Dave fromRockcliffeTheSea

Is there another thread on WiFi boosting that we don't know about. Seems like very little input for what I am sure is a very common problem.

This is what happens when you live where you can get terrestrial high speed, unlimited internet for a reasonable cost.

Welcome to the world of what Full Timers put up with.
Depending on cellular data for internet access.

Please understand too many confuse terms also.

WiFi, this is wireless network connection to a network. This can be a RV Parks Network or it can be your local Network in your RV, or the "Free" WiFi at Starbucks.
There are boosters for this signal, if in a RV park and you have a weak WiFi signal a WiFi booster might get you a better connection, but you are still sharing the parks total bandwidth with every one else in the park.

Cellular Signal Booster, These are devices that boost Cellular signal in a given area. These will take a zero to very weak signal on the ground to a low usable signal. Typically you need to mount the receiving antenna at least 20' above the ground.
These work pretty well, but are not cheap. We have a WeBoost and it works well in a location with very poor signal.

Not mentioned often is a Cellular Hot Spot, we also have one these, they act as a network router, and replace using your phone as a Hot Spot.
The advantages are that in our case always in the RV, can support up to 5 wireless devices at the same time. We have a wireless printer, security camera, laptops, so we can connect easily anytime.
In addition because it is NOT a phone, but a dedicated cellular data device, ours seems to work better on low signal than our phones. It will work fine when in the same location our phones won't.

[LewisB]

Does this help? Pretty basic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwk4U_XQt-g

https://www.technorv.com/rv-wifi-boosters/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...n81Oxj1piDokp8

I don't work for TechnoRV, but I am a customer an like their information papers and videos. Hope this helps.

[7Iron]

I agree with LewisB that Eric at TechnoRV is a good choice for your possible purchase , depending on what you decide that you need/want .

But I would recommend going to Mobile Internet Resource; they are the experts on plans, hardware and software solutions (they do not sell products) .https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC95...uvBuIHfuVo6W4Q

Eric at TechnoRV has recommended them as the "techies"....

I would suggest that you watch a few of their videos, especially the ones dealing with MIMO and Cell boosting.....No cell signal boosting equip supports MIMO (Multi In Multi Out)....Think of it as sending and receiving on two or more channels....which increases speed significantly

Both cell phones (hot spots) and what rhagfo referred to as Cellular Hot Spot ( a non phone device that is used only to create a "hot spot" --it does not have voice/txt capabilities--).....are MIMO (typically 2 channels and better devices 4 channels)

I call rhago's device a MIFI (so as not to confuse with the hot spot that I can/do create with my cell phone and iPad using my Verizon data plan)...

The device used as a MIFI is sometimes called by its brand/model/Mfg: i.e. Jetpack and Ellipsis are the two common Verizon MIFI devices. I have a NightHawk that is used by ATT and it's off brand Cricket....

I also use the NightHawk with the Cricket data plan as it is one of the best plans (see Mobile Internet Resources recommendations). I can easily adj from 30, to 50 to 100 GB by a simple login ....so when we are not on the road I use the 30 GB for $30 and when we are on the road I ramp up to 50 or 100/115/130 GB depending on long we are on the road . ($50 or $100/115/130)

I also use a mobile router (Spruce) that I use to broad cast my Wi-Fi network.....It gets its "signal" from either my cell/iPad hot spot or from my NightHawk depending which signal(Verizon or ATT) is the strongest and/or fastest--and/or how much data I have remaining. So all the "things" looking for a wi-fi signal never have to log into a different device, the Spruce is always sending my RomperRoom (SSID) wifi....regardless of what the data source is---could be cell phone/iPad Verizon Plan or my MIFI (ATT/Cricket Plan, i.e. the TV (ROKU or Apple TV) or my laptop always automaticly logs into RomperRoom signal being sent from the Spruce .

If the cell signal needs boosting then I use my WeBoost, grabbing either the Verizon or Cricket(ATT) which ever is the strongest and/or fastest(or remaining available data) after boosting and then it is sent to the Spurce router ...but remember when I boost I loose the MIMO .

OBTW, most MIFIs have the ability to add an external antenna--which is MIMO (my NightHawk external antenna was only $49--and I rarely need use my Weboost )

Bottom Line our 2 Verizon Cell phones and iPad have 30 GB of hot spot data (unlimited data when not used as hot spot) so I use a hard connection from the iPad to my TV using a HDMI cable and then my streaming data is unlimited) and I use one or both of the phones to create a hotspot for my laptop and my wife's tablet that does not have a data plan....

If you would like a schematic let me know and I will draw one up for you...

It seems very complex/convoluted until you watch the referenced videos and then after you understand it is not complicated at all (just like algebra)

[Dave fromRockcliffeTheSea]

Originally Posted by LewisB

Does this help? Pretty basic.

https://www.technorv.com/rv-wifi-boosters/
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...n81Oxj1piDokp8

I don't work for TechnoRV, but I am a customer an like their information papers and videos. Hope this helps.

That was a lot of help. Thank you very much. Good explanation and looks exactly like what I need,

[bobbrazie]

Looks like you need to have a connection to the WEB for this to work. It doesn't help with you cell phone reception.
Just to be clear.