frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Most places have weak signals. They provide it free and will not put more money into the system..... Some also have paid for service, that charges a daily fee, which is a stronger signal. The main problem, is as someone else said already, is the metal skins on the RV. It blocks the signals.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

The highly directional Yagi or Log Periodic style antennas (or even better, multi-element cubical quads) are fantastic, but require precise aim to be really effective. You can get good range in the 2.4 GHZ range and lower (lower is better for range and penetration through materials, trees, etc. 5.8GHZ is really tough, it is an extremely small wave-form, really only good for shorter distance, line-of-sight, everything gets in the way of good signal with it, you can't use a cable over a few inches as the signal loss is tremendous in a wired application. 900 MHZ would give the greatest range and strength. At 900 MHZ and up, the antennas will be very small, nothing like Ham antennas that folks think of with radio system/radio waves (big ole gangly things up on a tower, or pole). You are actually in microwave territory with wifi , starting around 1GHZ and going up from there. Consumers are sort of limited to L,S and C bands (1-to-8 GHZ), commercial products, but we won't get into all the Ham Radio stuff, not necessary for your needs.

There are a lot of options, but it is situational dependent, skill dependent, and unless you have radio expertise you'd be better off with plug-n-play.

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Ken, I wonder if you are enquiring about cellular reception rather than wi-fi? I think because you mention Verizon, which is a cellular provider, you are referring to cellular reception.
If so, yes you can get various 'aerials' to amplify the signal. But only if there is reception or coverage. If there is absolutely no tower or coverage in the area, there is nothing you can do to amplify what isnt there.
We travel a lot around remote areas here in NZ and have a 'system' that gives us coverage in all but the most remote areas. You might be able to buy a 'roaming' contract with your cell phone providor. The plan we have is with one providor but if the phone cant get a signal on that one, we switch our phones to roaming and it will then look for any signal and lock on to that. Inbound text messages come in free but we then pay a premium if we use the phone to text or call out or receive a phone call.
If reception is only one fading bar on the phone, we also have a yagi type aerial that amplifies the signal and works pretty well.

We also have a modem for mobile satellite 'data'. In NZ$ this costs us 79 per month for 100GB. I use that for uploading photos to our website, emails etc. Wife watches Netflix etc. We also have a small portable aerial for that if reception is dodgy. This can be used for making phone calls by buying a plan that includes what I think is voip (voice over internet protocol??). We dont have this as a) its expensive and b) sometimes its nice to just have no contact available.
Finally, I have a rather old iphone 6 and get 1 GB a month free data on my plan. I use that up each month by using the phone as a hotspot when I want a quick internet fix (just checking emails and reading the News etc). Someone said that can burn the phone out but the phone I use is pretty old, used a LOT, and is still going strong.

I realise the US is a vastly larger land mass than NZ of course, so there are bound to be places where its just not economically viable for any cellular provider to bother with a tower, however, if you have even spotty coverage, yes it can be amplified.

If you are actually referring to wi-fi reception then I have wasted my time (and yours) by explaining all this.
You cant amplify a wi-fi signal to my knowledge. Just get closer to the source and avoid obstructions between you and the source.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

It seems like you travel and are using nearby public (open) wi-fi where you stop. Is that correct?

The first thought to occur to me is that there is some inherent danger in using public wifi, expecially if you do on-line banking, shopping, or other confidential transactions.

It's possible that you could use a cellular signal booster, instead.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dmobile&field-keywords=cellular+signal+booster

JRFINN Loc: Plymouth, MA

A Wagu antenna will pickup Wi-Fi signals or extend Wi-Fi from your source.

kvanhook Loc: Oriental, NC

I use the Camp Pro and it does a good job. It logs on to the source and creates your own network for several devices.

dave sproul Loc: Tucson AZ

thanks for all the input

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

If you're in an area with a weak signal the skin on the RV is going to block that signal more. Sew-in extender inside the RV will give you a strong signal inside but your connection is no stronger then the incoming signal from the park. Usually there is a good signal outside the RV that is why the camp pro works the amount of outside bring the cable inside now you have a strong signal inside even from the RV Park. Remember you're connected to a public connection so make sure you have your protection on your computers in your equipment.

The other option is to get a dish and get satellite TV and internet with pay as you go service. Then you have to worry about trees getting in your way of the signal so I would go with a portable satellite dish with on a tripod so you can move it to where you can get a good signal. The dishes for this are self-aligning they will find the satellite and connect automatically. If you go with the satellite you own the equipment then you only pay for the service in the months that you use it.

If internet is a really important, then I go with both the dish and the camp pro.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

You need to clearly identify your problem. If cellular service is available then a mobile hotspot would be the solution. My GM car has one built in but it is expensive to use and I don't need it. There are also cell phone repeaters that can boost the signal a bit. These are NOT pocket devices. If you are trying to hook into a local wifi (e.g. McDonalds that is a bit far. the a usb wifi device with a high gain antenna may work. If you are truly in a remote area then satellite service is needed. For this to work the antenna must have a line of sight view of the satellite. If you are in a canyon or have hills or mountains that block the view of the sky then this won't work. My XM radio (satellite) is some times blocked by trees an hills.

Note your antennas need to be outside of your metal camper or you need a window in the right direction.

Plieku69 Loc: The Gopher State, south end

Clarify the problem.
We have no cell service because there's no tower. Anything cellular based is not going to work. If I had cellular service this would not be a problem.

We have a very, very weak Wi-Fi signal with only my phone picking it up, sometimes.
The RV shell is plastic, not metal.
I am looking for a device that can pick up the weak signal and amplify it.

CaptainEd

While I lived out at the end of a dock, we had trouble talking to the marina WiFi provided by the office. We used a system from a company named Island Time. It was based on the Microtik Groove: https://mikrotik.com/product/RBGroove52HPnr2 We chose their system over putting the system together ourselves for the excellent support the company offered and the mounting options provided. All of the components are available "off the shelf" and are not terribly expensive. Beyond the marina, it worked great for picking up shoreside wifi (Comcast lets you connect to other customers' routers if your a subscriber yourself) while out on the hook.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Check out the Moho 50 Curve.....I have found it works well in both large cities and the mountains.

HawaiianEye Loc: Haleiwa, Hawaii

If you're comfortable managing the settings of your router, try DD-WRT:
See: <http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Supercharge_Your_Wireless_Router_With_Open_Firmware>

Consumer-grade wireless routers -- your standard Linksyses or Belkins -- do their job well enough much of the time. But there are some juicy features offered by high-end commercial routers that just don’t come with the home package. We’re talking features like quality of service (QoS) management, adjustable transmission power, and support for IPv6.

If you need (or just geekily crave) these features, you can shell out cash for a pro-grade router, or you can get them for free by installing new firmware on a cheap home router.

What You’ll Need

* A compatible wireless router

* An Ethernet cable


Customize Your Router

This process involves replacing the manufacturer’s firmware that comes installed on the machine. There are quite a few open-source projects developing alternative firmwares for home routers. Each offers a variety of features and advantages.

DD-WRT is one of the most mature such projects, based on a Linux kernel and offering a wealth of options. Tomato is another firmware choice. Though not quite as feature-rich as DD-WRT, it is significantly easier to work with.


Find a Compatible Router

Linksys’s WRT54GL, shown above, is a good choice. It runs about $60. Older models in the WRT54G series, without the L suffix, work: the WRT54G and WRT54GS versions 1 through 4 work without modification, and the version 5-6 work with ‘micro’ firmwares like DD-WRT micro thanks to the hack that can be found here. Look at the serial number on the underside of the router to check its version. Other routers that use Broadcom chipsets, made by Buffalo, Asus, and others, work as well.

There are numerous firmwares available for this platform. OpenWrt [1] provides a base for most of these firmwares, which extend it through a web based management console. Popular projects include X-Wrt [2], DD-WRT [3], and Tomato [4].

DD-WRT is compatible with a somewhat wider range of routers than Tomato is. Consult Wikipedia or the DD-WRT site for a complete reference.


Get the Firmware

Download the latest firmware, whether it be OpenWrt, X-Wrt, DD-WRT, or Tomato.

For some reason, Tomato is packaged as a 7z archive, one of the less-common file formats. You’ll need to unzip it with a tool such as 7-Zip for Windows, 7zx for Macs, or p7zip for Linux.

Unpack the downloaded firmware into a directory on your computer. It includes several different .bin files for different routers.


Install the Firmware

Follow these steps:

1. Plug your router into a power socket. Do not connect it to the Internet.

2. Use an Ethernet cable to connect your computer to one of the router’s LAN ports. Do not use a wireless connection for this, since if the connection dies while you’re installing the firmware, your router may become unusable.

3. Go to the administration page of your router. In a default setup, this is probably accessible at http://192.168.1.1/ . You’ll need to log in. The default Linksys username and password is admin/admin.
Changing the Linksys router’s firmware
Changing the Linksys router’s firmware

4. Go to the Administration tab, and choose Firmware Upgrade. (This is standard for a Linksys router; other routers may offer this option in a different place.) It offers a slot to choose a firmware file from your computer, which will be installed on the router. Browse to the Tomato directory you created and choose the appropriate .bin file for your router. For a Linksys WRT54GL, for instance, choose WRT54G_WRT54GL.bin. Click the Upgrade button and do not interrupt the connection until the process completes! When it’s done, your router will reboot itself. When it returns, it’ll be running Tomato.


Use the Firmware
Monitoring network traffic in real time is just one of the tricks Tomato’s open firmware can do
Monitoring network traffic in real time is just one of the tricks Tomato’s open firmware can do

First, change the administrator password to something that’s not the default, so random internet people can’t log in and change your settings. Tomato’s options are all laid out in a sidebar: click Administration and then Admin Access to get to the password page.

Now connect the router to the Internet and play around.

* One popular thing to do is to boost the transmission power: you can crank it all the way up to 251 mW. But this is unneighborly. It interferes with other signals in the area. It’s also somewhat useless -- laptops will be able to find the router’s signal from farther away, but they won’t be powerful enough to transmit back to it at that distance, so the connection won’t work. Be smart and bump it up to 70mW.

* Set up some QoS rules. That way, you can make sure that your high-priority tasks (web browsing, gaming or VoIP) get all the throughput they need, while lower-priority tasks like BitTorrent downloads don’t eat up the bulk of your bandwidth.

* If you have kids (or leeching housemates of another sort), you can gain finer control over their access to the internet. Block P2P file transfers or ActiveX traffic at the router. You can also turn off wireless access during certain times of the day.

* Use your new firmware to run Dynamic DNS, which is essential if you want to set up a mail server, run a BBS or share your music collection through a web interface.


See the Tomato website for more about these (and far geekier) options.

JoAnneK01 Loc: Lahaina, Hawaii

I sometimes work in a fringe area. Currently use a "Hot Spot" from my cellular company T-Mobile. With the hot spot I can work with 10 different devices and have no problems.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

The OP is having issues primarily with *cellular* service. WiFi is spotty, and apparently there’s no wired Internet. So a micro cell tranceiver is probably not helpful. A long conversation with his cellular service provider is in order, to discuss options.