So, RV Park Wi-Fi… We all know it, and for the most part, we all hate it right? I mean really, COME ON! How hard could it be to have Wi-Fi in an RV Park? After all, I just call my cable company and BAM…High Speed Wi-Fi in my home. So what’s the big deal with Wi-Fi in RV Parks and why is it usually so bad?
As someone who has installed a number of parks ranging from as little as two access points to large scale ones with 120 access points, and still help manage them, let me try to give you some insight as to what is involved in doing Wi-Fi in an RV Park and what they run into. So before you write that next review on an RV park out in No Mans Land AZ that reads “The Wi-Fi is so bad I will never be back!”, maybe this will help you understand why that may be.
The best way for me to do this was to make a video. But let me just say it comes down to bandwidth and the amount of Internet they may be able to obtain at the parks location. How the network is built and managed. And last but surely NOT least, the type of RV’ers that are in the park at the time! Yes, the RV’er play a roll more than you may think!
REMINDER: We did do a post on how to make a High Powered Private Wi-Fi system for your RV for under $100.
CLICK HERE if you had not seen it.
Happy Thanksgiving to you David and Brenda. Stay warm.
Enjoyed the video
Happy Thanksgiving
Oliver
Happy thanksgiving to you from John &backy
A lot of this was over my head but what I learned is that rv’ers shouldn’t go into rv parks and stream videos or movies from Netflix or Amazon or places like that. If everyone followed that rule then we could all enjoy basic services such as surfing the internet and sending and recieving emails from family and friends while at the park. Thank you.
Hi…It surely is not just the RV’ers making for an issue of bad Wi-Fi service. But it surely does not help based on the amount of data streaming requires. So I was not saying this is all caused by people streaming. Even if everyone stopped doing it, and RV park surely can and sadly likely will have poor service based on a number of other factors that all come into play. The #1 issue is not a big enough pipe (the amount of bandwidth needed) to supply the need.
Thanks David. That helps a lot! By the way, your “High Powered WiFI System” is terrific!
Excellent explanation of all the factors. And I agree, the ISP is usually the culprit. It takes a lot more bandwidth to service 150 or 950 RVs than 1 home.
Excellent video David. Me being “an average joe” so to speak, never really knew that their were so many factors involved in an RV parks WI-FI system. Now I can’t say I didn’t know (DANG IT, I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS)……LOL. I really enjoy your videos and I learn a thing or two also. I am sitting on the edge of my chair waiting for your next video to be published.
I hope that you and Brenda had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving. And please keep those excellent videos coming. I understand they are very time consuming to shoot and edit for you but, I do so enjoy them very much, Thomas.
Thank you Thomas, so kind of you to say. Yes, they do take a lot of time and seeing we do not do this for a living, something it is hard to even see why we do it. I say that for now it seem everyone has a channel and/or blog and some of them we just can’t understand why they get the views they do as they are clearly doing it for a living and are marketing. Please understand…Doing it for a living is not a bad thing mind you…I just hate seeing videos that are done for no other purpose then to promote something without really saying that.(It actually has a name and it’s called “Native Marketing”) It just makes us wonder why we take the time at all. (Sorry, ranting. :))
Just saying, we don’t pick a park based on wifi knowing people are streaming when they shouldn’t. These are probably the same that drive in the left lane cause they are more “comfortable ” and don’t care about anyone else.
That said your stuff is great ! We tell everyone we meet no matter what rv they have, especially newbies!
Keep up the good work, hope to meet you on the road!
On your list and look forward to everything!
Either do we. Thats why we have two JetPacks, AT&T and Verizon, as we know if a park is not setup right, it surely will not work well. As far as driving in the left hand lane. Yes, GUILTY! We will do it whenever we run into roads where the right lane shakes the coach a lot and the left is totally smooth. I surely would rather protect what I own as we paid a lot for it. So it is more than just being “comfortable”. :) Glad you like what we do.
David,
It’s fun that you get to use your former vocation as a hobby that benefits the parks where you spend time. Good for you!
You are my wife‘s and my number two source of information as we research RV life ahead of retirement. Number one is my parents who have been full timers for 17 years.
We just referred you to three guys who all own Tiffins we met at La Mesa RV in Mesa, AZ yesterday. They were poking around and we were learning. We told them you introduced Tiffin to the “L” shaped sofa. I don’t think they believed me. ?
Your archive of videos is fantastic, much appreciated, and helps me keep up when I’m having conversations with my dad.
Happy travels.
Steve
Hi…”We told them you introduced Tiffin to the “L” shaped sofa. I don’t think they believed me.” That would be because that would not be correct. :) They had an L shaped one, it was just REALLY, REALLY uncomfortable. So we set out to work with Villa, with Tiffins permission as they make them for Tiffin, to design a new one. It was a complete hit.
Thank you for the video, it was very helpful. I am building a Ubiquiti network for my buddy’s new RV park that will have 120 pads. Can you give me a ballpark for the service bandwidth it would need? I believe they have purchased a 15mb link from Spectrum and I do not believe that will be enough.
Thanks again!
Hi James…I am not sure on your skill level, but doing an RV park is not for the faint of heart. :) If you are even asking the question on bandwidth for 120 sites, well, that kind of tells me you may be getting in over your head. (I have no idea mind you…so just mentioning it as it is not a simple task.) Like how many AP’ will there be? How are they going to be connected? (Please don’t say MESH.) But in any case, you are correct, 15Mbps is not going to work! You would want to start with at least 200 Mbps down/20 Mbps up and be able to go higher once you see how the data is being used. Consider ONE NetFlix video can be 4Mbps for normal videos and and Amazon Video can be up to 10Mbps! So as you can see, it can become an issue quickly if not properly controlled. Consider that each RV site will have AT LEAST 3 devices. (Two phones and a tablet….if not more.) So the number of devices connected to the network and at each AP also can become a concern. Even if not currently being used, they are still connected to the Wi-Fi and thus take frequency bandwidth. So AP’s and the number of them become also something to consider. Good luck!