Why must wifi be so bad

[kohai]

Ok, just back from 2 weeks on the road -- our first big trip. I was surprised at how poor the wifi was at every place we stayed.

Things I ran into:

- one park didn't even try to offer it where the sites were. They just said you had to come down near the office.

- one place even had a sign that said their wifi wasn't good and that they couldn't get anything better. Part of the truth though was that their equipment wasn't configured right to even allow me to connect.

- several places offered it but you couldn't actually get web pages to load

- I've heard people bash tenango (or whatever it is called). It was dog slow but at least I could get pages to load (about 45 second page load times)

- I can tether from my phone but some of the places I was in didn't have the best signal strength. Wifi systems have the advantage of being a land-line based setup.

I've done network administration in my day and have some familiarity with how hotels run their networks. I like how some hotels do it. You get a sliver of bandwidth for free (say, 256k) but you can upgrade and get enough bandwidth to stream video for $x dollars a day. Their systems throttle anybody consuming more than their share -- people streaming video can't steal all of the bandwidth because the system won't let them.

The technology exists to solve the bandwidth hog problem. Probably the biggest hurdle is getting a decent connection from a telecom provider. Even with a slower connection, the systems could be managed better.

I would pay extra for working internet at a park. Being a techie and still needing to do work when I'm on the road, it really is a downer (and a bit maddening) when I can't do what I need for 30 minutes before I go off to enjoy my vacation.

I assume working wifi will be more of a demand with the younger generation -- or lack of working wifi may deter them from the RV world.

[Vulcan_Rider]

What....hello......camping....hiking....bird watching.....napping in a hammock....camp fire.....back to nature ......

I actually find it refreshing to NOT have a signal for anything in some places.

Well not EVERYTHING. I still like to be able to get a TV channel or two. 😉

[Old-Biscuit]

Simple solution.
Provide your own Internet connection.

I'm by no means any where close to being a techy and for 7 yrs. FT traveling weekly/bi-monthly we had Internet connection 95% of the time.

At that time we just use a simple booster antenna plugged into air card


Lots better ways now..especially for techies


FOlks are already paying for cell phone.....
high speed/large data WiFi at CG that could handle all sites.....every one says they would pay extra BUT not at the cost that CG owner would have to charge to cover the cost plus.

You need it....you provide it. Then you can use it when/as much as you want.
Course yo pay for it........or is that too much ?

[mockturtle]

While I do have my own mobile Wifi, there are still quite a few places that do not have a Verizon signal (although Verizon no doubt has the best coverage). When a campground advertises Wifi in such a place, I do expect it to work--preferably well--but even slowly is better than nothing. I ran into a few parks in Canada and Alaska that limit data usage to 250MB per 24 hours and I'd like to be notified of this before I pay for a site. Yes, I would pay extra for good Wifi. And, no, I don't do video streaming or anything like that. I don't believe RV Parks should advertise Wifi unless it's actually functional.

[azdryheat]

Do like many folks and get a Verizon Hot Spot or similar. Park WiFi generally sux plus being in an aluminum cage doesn't make getting the signal any better.

[ChooChooMan74]

Campground WiFi systems SUCK, especially ones employing wireless repeater. Every repeater hop, you cut the speed in 1/2. Then, have lots of people trying to access the network, and you are bottlenecked. I don't expect much from campground WiFi. I do have my own home built WiFi setup, with a Ubiquiti Bullet on the roof and my own Access Point/NAS/DLNA Server inside the unit.

[2oldman]

kohai wrote:
- I've heard people bash tenango (or whatever it is called). It was dog slow but at least I could get pages to load (about 45 second page load times).

It's Tengo, often mispronounced "tango." Dreadfully slow and unreliable.

The wifi signal strength is only a small part of the problem. The 'backbone' to the internet where the real money needs to be spent. I don't think most parks really want to invest too much in their backbone, or uplink. It's expensive, and with most people now using their phones, it's probably not worth the investment. Having 50 people trying to view pictures on Facebook, and stream Netflix movies would take some serious bandwidth. The internet is demanding more and more bandwidth, so I don't think CG wifi is going to improve, unless the management can somehow restrict CG usage to emails and text-based sites.

I had one good wifi experience, in the Redwoods, where there were only 2 other campers. That's good, because there was no Verizon service at all.

[westernrvparkow]

kohai wrote:

I assume working wifi will be more of a demand with the younger generation -- or lack of working wifi may deter them from the RV world.

More likely, in five years public wifi systems will have gone the way of the corded phone and the telephone booth. You will get your wifi connections directly from your internet service providers. At home it will be from your phone company (DSL), your cable company (cable modems or fiber optic based) and when you travel, exclusively from your cellular provider. Most RV parks cannot obtain enough bandwidth to service 100+ simultaneous users. If you spend much time in hotels, you know that even in large cities the wifi is pretty much crud and they have access to the latest and greatest bandwidth options. If you NEED wifi, you need to supply your own. We provide it as a nice amenity, but you cannot depend on it, any more than you can depend on the cable system in an RV park to have HBO so you won't miss an episode of Game of Thrones.
And as much as everyone will bluster about how important wifi is and claim if a park really wanted to provide it, they could. The fact is it is IMPOSSIBLE to for the vast majority of parks to provide nearly unlimited bandwidth to virtually an unlimited amount of users. And all the programs and equipment that "manage" traffic, are all subject to the laws of diminishing returns. After you have basic traffic shaping installed, all the other programs become more costly, require more man hours to manage and really don't improve the service very much.

[coolmom42]

I agree, it's annoying. Best thing you can do is not depend on it.

There are several hurdles, I think---lack of good broadband at many park locations; lack of tech-savviness by park owners; costs of investing in state of the art equipment; paying someone to install and maintain a system.

Lots of RV parks and most public campgrounds are located in spots where one or more of these is hard to come by.

[MrWizard]

x$ per day is fine for the businessman that can put it on the 'account'
for working costs

the avg RVr might as well get a pay as you go data plan and buy more when he needs it, cost will be about the same as x$ per day wifi and possibly more secure

[Lovedays]

This isn't the solution to all of your problems but it helps significantly in the rv parks I frequent. Have you tried it?
With your skill-set you could probably make it on your own.

Clicky