Wi-Fi reception

You asked for an update on Wi-Fi reception on sites.

As an RV or caravan gives you a Faraday Cage Effect, the signal from routers are either weak or lost, resulting in poor or no signal.

One way to overcome this is to go outside, this is ok if the weather is fine or you are under some kind of awning, and have a portable device? An alternative to this is a USB antenna with a built in network card. Or a USB extension lead for your dongle (remember to put it into something waterproof, like a freezer bag, secured with an elastic band). In both cases height is relevant, they must be similar height to the repeater masts or as high as possible, as Wi-Fi is line of sight.

I have a 3G dongle, which is pay as you go, for sights that do not have Wi-Fi, or are too expensive. These can be purchased from numerous retail outlets, like Curry’s Digital, Comet, or mobile phone shops. (Too expensive to use Abroad)

I also have invested in an external USB antenna, for sights that do have Wi-Fi and especially when it is free. I did not want to pay the earth for one, so it took a while to track one down that had a price that did not break the bank. Look Here this is the type I have, There is also a review in Practical Caravan, they also have others but the cost goes up. The metal bracket is not the best; I even paid the extra for the suction cups to go with it. I modified one of these Suction cup, which does a better job and looks better.

This unit has an 802.11 g card, but not n, which means it can only handle 54Mbs/108gMbps. In reality you will not achieve the max so unless you are into gaming on your pc, I think it is quite adequate for emails, and Skype.

For those that are interested I hope it puts you in the general direction.

No connection with any of the above.