We were told yesterday by the owner at the campground we are at, that using our own wifi affects the wifi offered at the campground. Somehow it causes the campground wifi to be less effective if there are alot of campers using their own wifi. We use the Verizon Jetpack. Has anyone heard of this?
monde48 said
01:03 PM Aug 25, 2013
I have never heard of that we use our own Wi-Fi when we travel and have never had a problem interfering with anybody.
Did they want you to use their Wi-Fi and do they charge
GENECOP said
01:11 PM Aug 25, 2013
Never heard of this.....
Tony and Eileen said
01:26 PM Aug 25, 2013
No they do not charge for the WiFi. She is being told by her tech people that she might have to upgrade her system due to the interference of personal Wi-Fi's. We to have never heard of this before. I do know that campgrounds don't like you to use their system for game playing and that is one reason we have our own Wi-Fi plus for our online banking.
Jack Mayer said
03:01 PM Aug 25, 2013
If you are on the same channel as the park wifi you could affect their APs (Access Points) but usually that is not an issue because your router is really not sending out an very strong signal - that is MOST peoples routers do not. The best thing you can do in a situation where you "might" affect their wifi is to change to a different channel that does not conflict with theirs. Then there is no possible issue.
To find their channel (and yours) easily, use a tool like inSSIDer on a PC or on a tablet/phone/Android use either inSSIDer or WiFiAnalyzer. Both are free. With them you can see the access point and what channel it is broadcasting on. It will typically be 1, 6, or 11. Your router will also typically be broadcasting on 1, 6, or 11. Simply make sure you are on a different channel.
The reason those channels are used is that on the limited 2.4 GHz bandwidth those are the only channels that do not overlap with others. I won't go into a more technical explanation.
In the park I am in - where I designed, installed and maintain the wifi system of 7 APs - I can see 28 other devices broadcasting in our airspace as access points/routers. While there is some interference to our radios we have good enough equipment and antennas that it is not affecting performance in any measurable fashion. It can be a problem however, with people running rouge equipment like very high powered radios they buy online to "get better wifi". If not properly set up, these radios can essentially wipe out an access point.
bjoyce said
04:04 PM Aug 25, 2013
As Jack explained, there is a slight possibility of channel interference. Remember, the campground owners often know very little about WiFi, so they can easily overreact on the subject. When we had satellite internet we often had campground owners accuse us of interfering with their WiFi.
Many of the MiFi/Jetpack devices also try to find and use the least busy channel since they default to "auto". Your Jetpack might already be set for least interference.
Technomadia said
05:20 PM Aug 25, 2013
I would suspect that during diagnosis of the campground's WiFi performance, whoever the tech people are tossed out several possible causes - including too many WiFi networks in one area. She probably saw that as one thing she could try to change without it costing the campground money to upgrade the network.
She should also request that no one use their microwave ovens.. as that's also on the 2.4 GHz wavelength, and actually causes more temporary WiFi problems than anyone running a MiFi device or their own router. :D
- Cherie
Tony and Eileen said
01:37 AM Aug 30, 2013
Thanks to all for your comments. Learn something new everyday!
DRivinDago said
02:52 AM Sep 7, 2013
Along the lines of WiFi - other than getting a data port from someone like Verizon at about $50 a month, is there any other way to get WiFi if the park does not offer it or if you have to go to the office area?
bjoyce said
03:46 AM Sep 7, 2013
DRinvinDago: Scroll up a couple messages and get The Mobile Internet Handbook from Technomadia. You can learn about boosting WiFi and much, much more.
We were told yesterday by the owner at the campground we are at, that using our own wifi affects the wifi offered at the campground. Somehow it causes the campground wifi to be less effective if there are alot of campers using their own wifi. We use the Verizon Jetpack. Has anyone heard of this?
Did they want you to use their Wi-Fi and do they charge
To find their channel (and yours) easily, use a tool like inSSIDer on a PC or on a tablet/phone/Android use either inSSIDer or WiFiAnalyzer. Both are free. With them you can see the access point and what channel it is broadcasting on. It will typically be 1, 6, or 11. Your router will also typically be broadcasting on 1, 6, or 11. Simply make sure you are on a different channel.
The reason those channels are used is that on the limited 2.4 GHz bandwidth those are the only channels that do not overlap with others. I won't go into a more technical explanation.
In the park I am in - where I designed, installed and maintain the wifi system of 7 APs - I can see 28 other devices broadcasting in our airspace as access points/routers. While there is some interference to our radios we have good enough equipment and antennas that it is not affecting performance in any measurable fashion. It can be a problem however, with people running rouge equipment like very high powered radios they buy online to "get better wifi". If not properly set up, these radios can essentially wipe out an access point.
Many of the MiFi/Jetpack devices also try to find and use the least busy channel since they default to "auto". Your Jetpack might already be set for least interference.
She should also request that no one use their microwave ovens.. as that's also on the 2.4 GHz wavelength, and actually causes more temporary WiFi problems than anyone running a MiFi device or their own router. :D
- Cherie
DRinvinDago: Scroll up a couple messages and get The Mobile Internet Handbook from Technomadia. You can learn about boosting WiFi and much, much more.