As you most probably know, the free WIFI connection in caravan parks is very hit and miss. It all depends on what $$$ the park has put into providing a good service or a lousy service just so they can advertise "free WIFI".
I have found my laptop has poor WIFI signal capture, even at home, let alone in an aluminum Faraday Shield.
To some degree, I have overcome this shortfall by getting a WIFI/USB dongle with an external antenna and a 3 mtr USB cable. I plug in the dongle to the cable and the cable ito my laptop. I then put the dongle with its antenna vertical out through the roof hatch and generally get a good reception. Still depends on the distance from the park antenna, power of this park antenna, any hilly terrain/trees etc, in the way, speed and data capacity of the parks WIFI connection though. No good for wet weather or blustery winds though.
What are you trying to achieve ?
and
What locations do you expect to use your extender ?
and
Do you really want a Mobile Repeater to extend your phone's access to internet ?
A WiFi extender adds physical range and improves signal strength of an existing WiFi signal.
A Mobile Repeater ampifies and rebroadcasts your Telco's signal to nearby devices. Many long haul truckies use these systems. The only legal repeaters in Australia (I think) are marketed as Cel Fi.
All true Mobile Boosters are illegal in Australia.
I personally use a Telstra Pocket 4G Wifi with external antenna. A lot cheaper and just as effective as "RV Wifi" and similar products.
I've just joined the forum and was looking for an answer better than my own suggestion.
One answer is this link: although I don't like the suggestions https://au.pcmag.com/wireless-networking-1/47829/the-best-wireless-range-extenders
2nd answer is this probably expensive piece of kit: https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-range-extenders/EX6200.aspx
You see, if you want to extend a wi-fi signal, the bandwidth immediately halves (for reasons I have forgotten) and if it's not a strong signal to start with, then that's likely to be very low. There is a workaround with very expensive "mesh wi-fi" kit but your average caravan site won't have it, much less know how to let you join its "mesh". And this is (was when I looked) a proprietary solution i.e. not one standard. So . . .
My suggestion would be to use the above Netgear extender or any lesser one that you fancy from the PCMag list but to use any equipment e.g. laptop / printer / whatever via one of it's Ethernet ports. That way, anything that is connected gets the bandwidth at the same speed as the original network - AFAIK / YMMV / etc. The other thing is that if you disable the broadcast on the repeated signal there wil not be any interfearance with the original signal. Remember that 2.4MHz wifi is only 3 discrete channels: 1, 6 and 11: all the others are an overlap so the fewer signals you broadcast, the better the reception of the signal you want to hook into.
The benefit (as I can see it of this Netgear product over the rest - although I haven't used it) is that there is a power boost involved to maximise the connection to the campsite's wi-fi antenna.
The only downside to this kit and all of the other extenders is that although they are trying to boost a dodgy signal not from the ideal position of half way between the source and your van but from your van itself. This isn't what they are designed to do so . . .
You want to plug an extension antena into the socket on the router instead of the little fitted one and get that as high up on your van as you can to boost the weak signal even more. Even better if you go to a specialised commercial networking supplier and can get an external antenna to sit on top of your van outside of any metalwork so that it has a good clear view of the source of the signal.
3rd answer: I'll tell you when I've found and deployed it.
So, I'm looking to do all of that and have this wired through a wired network with a 4G cell router on it and decent antenna for that so that I can get an either or solution working.
Telstra have 5G (and 4G) routers that can do that (no socket for a decent external LTE (mobile phone) antenna as far as I can see though). There is a plus side to that option though - if their kit can fit high quality external antennas you get to use Telstra Air as a freebie bonus.
In case you don't know, most Telstra NBN and Cable modems by default have a wi-fi network enabled that other Telstra subscribers can use that doesn't interfere with the owner of the land-line (Telstra phone boxes are also Telstra Air fi-fi hotspots). I'm likely to build that into my design so that the house next to the camp-site might be able to provide me a better wi-fi experience than the camp site itself and of course it's legitimate.
The Telstra kit I was talking about is over $1000 and $115/month for 3/4/5G of $180GB - but with the Telstra Air wi-fi being unlimited why not? No doubt cheaper 4G router and data package would still offer Telstra Air - the important thing is getting a decent external LTE and WiFi antenna - and try to disable the internal repeater ones and use fixed Ethernet.
I'll race you there.
-- Edited by Gonwanda on Thursday 17th of September 2020 04:15:09 PM
-- Edited by Gonwanda on Thursday 17th of September 2020 04:21:14 PM
-- Edited by Gonwanda on Thursday 17th of September 2020 05:20:32 PM
-- Edited by Gonwanda on Thursday 17th of September 2020 05:21:55 PM
Sorry, but I don't know what it is 
