NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
RV Park WiFi - Extending/Bettering Signals
Hey y’all,
We recently bought a small RV park in rural AL and have got wifi up and running for the guests but we have been receiving complaints (mainly TVs struggling to connect) about it not working. Due to the location, the best internet we can find is T Mobile’s 5G gateway. In order for us to use our Google Nest cams we had to use a separate router. We went to Walmart (I know) and bought 2 AX1800s. We use one down in the storage facility area for the cameras and one in the middle of the park (in the wood laundry room) for the guest wifi and the RV park cameras. What is a good and cost effective way of strengthening the signal further? I have absolutely no experience so please explain it to me like I’m five.
We recently bought a small RV park in rural AL and have got wifi up and running for the guests but we have been receiving complaints (mainly TVs struggling to connect) about it not working. Due to the location, the best internet we can find is T Mobile’s 5G gateway. In order for us to use our Google Nest cams we had to use a separate router. We went to Walmart (I know) and bought 2 AX1800s. We use one down in the storage facility area for the cameras and one in the middle of the park (in the wood laundry room) for the guest wifi and the RV park cameras. What is a good and cost effective way of strengthening the signal further? I have absolutely no experience so please explain it to me like I’m five.
3 Replies
How big is this park?
How many people are you connecting to it?
How much bandwidth are you using?
How spreadout/far apart is everything?
Talking to an actual networking person might be a good idea if you're wanting reliable wifi coverage and speed. And not sure what speeds you're getting with tmobile but if its not very high, you might check into starlink for increased bandwidth.
- It currently has 14 sites. Will be adding half a dozen more. The size is approximately 240’ x 200’. I believe each router from t mobile will allow 70 devices. I am thinking about adding a wireless access point with PoE and mounting it centrally to the park. As opposed to the current nighthawk sitting inside the laundry room. I was looking at the wavlink ax1800.
If you're running this as a business, it's time to actually talk to someone in person that can help you set it up.
reason why is you're going to want your business devices on a different subnet than what the guests are using. Sadly, there's enough nefarious people out there that using consumer grade gear with your payment terminals/business information is going to put you at risk.
If you upgrade to a business class router/firewall (even second hand), you can have separate ssids on different vlans. This keeps your equipment separate from everyone elses. And maybe you only need coverage for the business stuff in a single building. Then you could probably just have the business class router/firewall in a single building with an access point, and use a couple consumer grade access points (outdoor rated) for guests. You're going to want more than 1 in the middle or people will complain if wifi is something you're advertising. Luckily, the wavlink's aren't that expensive. so you could do an outdoor rated one (or 2) and maybe some indoor rated ones.
whenever people are using these for a business, its always worth investing the extra to ensure your data is safe from the guests there. And if you're advertising it as a feature, ensuring you have enough coverage for what you're advertising (or it'll hurt your reviews). A little extra money up front can save you a lot of time, costs if your data is compromised, or cost from negative reviews.
Even using something like a used SXR80 system would allow vlans and can be picked up used for quite reasonable as its end of life (eol). And it can have added satellties. there isn't any outdoor rated ones for that system but it could provide some central coverage with separate ssid's/vlans and all you to connect (if you got a poe injector/switch) a couple outdoor rated ap's.
