To all my RVing friends who depend on wifi:

My wife and I depend on wifi for many reasons.? TV, Roku, browsing, updating this blog, planning my next trip, checking emails, keeping up with family using skype, and more.? For those of us that have this dependency on wifi, I found a design for long range extended wifi reception.?? This solution is GREAT as long as the campground provides stable, unfiltered access to their internet service provider.? My experiences have pulled in wifi connection from a home quality linksys WAP that was located in the club-house that was at least 1/2 mile away.?? For less than $200 bucks from Amazon for all the components, and a little bit of setup time – IT WORKS !

I can tell you from experience that several campgrounds across the country “offer” wifi, but they use content filtering or bandwidth limiting per connection.? In those cases this design will not work around the limitations.?? We are still dependent on the connection quality to their internet provider and their firewall restrictions that my block NETFLIX, YOUTUBE, HULU, etc.?? But for those locations where the wifi would be great if you were just close enough to their campground antenna is located this list of components will definitely give you the best chance of a strong signal.?? I can say that using this set of components and if they are configured and setup correctly, it will bring in and amplify wifi signals from almost a mile away.

I must tell you that you should have a good understanding of wifi setup and static I.P. addressing of your PC, laptop, or tablet.?? If you don’t then I’m sure there is someone close to you who does.

First, the Components list:

• Ububiquiti-airgateway-access-pointiquiti Networks Airgateway Indoor AP (AIRGATEWAY)
• TRENDnet 8dBi Outdoor Omni Directional Antenna TEW-AO08OTRENDnet-8dBi-outdoor-omnidirection-antenna
• Ubiquiti-BULLET-M2-HP-Outdoor-802.11-BGN-M2HPUbiquiti BULLET-M2-HP Outdoor 802.11 B/G/N M2HP
• iCreatin Passive PoE Injector and PoE Splitter Kit with 5.5×2.1 mm DC ConnectoriCreatin-Passive-PoE-Injector-adapter
• A Wall-wart power adapter for PoE Splitter Kit – The airGateway is compatible with Ubiquiti PoE Adapters featuring 24V, 0.5A??? or 15V, 0.8A.
• A 10-20 foot long Cat-6 patch cable to connect the antenna outdoors to the Indoor Airgateway Access Point.

 

Second – The Concept of Operation.

Example scenario : Campground has a good reliable internet access but requires taking your laptop or tablet to the store or bathhouse to use it because of distance or tree interference.?? You can purchase the above components for roughly $175 – $200 depending on shipping costs and where your buy them.?? The antenna screws directly onto the Ubiquiti BULLET outdoor receiver which is configured using a web browser.? Then a CAT-5 or CAT-6 patch cord connects the Ubiquiti BULLET to the indoor Ubiquiti AirGateway access point which is powered by the Passive PoE Injector which is connected to your Wall-Wart Power Adapter. ? The Ubiquiti AirGateway is also configured via a web browser.

Both the AirGateway and the Bullet are configured with a web browser and requires your PC to be given a specific IP address according to the instructions that come with them.? Basically, you are giving the AirGateway a SSID name and Security Password to prevent neighbors from sharing from your wifi hotspot.

Any device at that point will be able to receive and IP address from the DHCP component of your AirGateway ( according to how you set it up ).?? In my case, I have my AirGateway setup to provide up to 10 addresses to limit the number of devices that can connect at any one time.?? I also setup the unique ip address range to be assigned to my devices that are way outside the normal “off the shelf device” addresses.?? I try to stay away from the 192.168.1.0 network.?? I use 172.16.102.x?? or 10.2.102.0 range to avoid interference with other typical network addressing schemes.

Diagram of complete Assembly: