Extreme WiFi for RV, trucks, motorhomes, vans and cars

How to setup a Wi-Fi hotspot for RV-parks, truck stops, marinas, city parks and motels

Commercial quality Wi-Fi hotspot:

Solution A:
Use a Ubiquiti Network Bullet2HP high power "base station" and an external high gain antenna. The Bullet2HP is a 802.11b and 802.11g access point.
Use a patch panel antenna (of suitable beam width) if the AP is located at the edge of a property, or an omni directional antenna if the AP is in the middle of the property. See this diagram.

Solution B:
EnGenius EOC-5610 is an outdoor 600 mW Wi-Fi "base station" with integrated antenna. It is an access point (hotspot) that only needs a CAT-5 cable run from a cable-modem or DSL-modem to the base station with a PoE injector in between.

EnGenius EOC-5610 has a built-in 5 dB antenna for the 802.11b and 802.11g frequency band (I presume it is an omni), which is adequate if the hot spot is in the middle of a small RV-park. If the hotspot is at the edge of a property, an external directional patch panel antenna (of suitable beam width) can be used to concentrate the RF energy to the campsite/marina. EOC-5610 has the ability to use either the built-in internal antenna and connectors to use an external antenna.

Low cost solution:

Place a TP-Link TL-WA5110G or TL-WA601g or TL-WA901ND wireless access point at a strategic location, with an antenna (RP-SMA connector) that is appropriate to your location.

Typical mistakes made by commercial hotspot installers (using low cost equipment) are:
(1) Using the default DHCP lease time which is several thousand hours. 1 hour is recommended for hotspots.
(2) In the DHCP configuration, one should allow more IP addresses than the typical default of only 50 IP addresses.

Add a big outdoor sign (or signs):

that lets people know you have a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Download and use this graphics image file to print a big outdoor sign for quick Wi-Fi brand recognition.

Disclaimer

GPS co-ordinates 49.2238, -122.9748 49°13'26" -122°58'29"

Last revised: September 10, 2010

Tags: Wi-Fi hotspot Extenders, Wi-Fi hotspot boosters