I have read all I could find on the forum on this subject, and I am wanting to purchase today. My question is: will the WFRanger GoTo modem work with a purchased separately Bullet 2M, 8dBi antenna, and associated hardware? It seems to me that all of that stuff is included with the Ranger Mobile, but for considerably more money. What am I missing?
Thanks, Mike
Mike,
The primary difference between MobileTi and the separately-purchased Bullet M2 Titanium is the WFR firmware which will be more nearly "plug and play" for pairing the indoor Go2 and the outdoor router. If you are comfortable with setting up CPE, you probably won't need WFR's assistance. Remember, they're trying to make this equipment plug and play for OEMs and RVers who don't necessarily have networking knowledge.
The most active WFR discussions I've found (since WFR did away with their own forums earlier this year) is on Escapees in this board Internet Access on the Road - Escapees Discussion Forum (http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showforum=33)
Complete transparency here - we have a Go2 and MobileTi. Used to have a Home/Pro and a WFRBoost (Bullet 2). Ran into a lot of challenges getting the Go2 and MobileTi to play "nice" together (despite them having been purchased as a "pack" and supposedly shipped already configured/paired), which involved WFR techs spending days remotely testing our setup and we still have issues when the Go2 is powered off coach 12Vdc instead of the 120 Vac wall wart. We purchased with a "customer appreciation" discount. I wouldn't pay full price for the MobileTi. Go2 isn't a bad little router but WFR has had their hiccups with firmware....
Can you suggest a wireless modem that would work well with a bullet antenna setup?
Mike
Mike - the Bullet M2 is a router in itself. It doesn't necessarily need another router like the Go2 to be used, but you do need to be able to power it, typically through POE (power over ethernet).
Jack Mayer has an excellent resource on his website for Internet on the road
Communication (http://www.jackdanmayer.com/communication.htm#Internet%20on%20the%20Road)
I have a Ubiquiti Titanium Bullet (Amazon.com: Ubiquiti BulletM2 Titanium Ubiquiti 2.4GHz 802.11n/g Outdoor Radio: (http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-BulletM2-Titanium-802-11n-Outdoor/dp/B008FITTKQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406502735&sr=8-1&keywords=ubiquiti+titanium+m2)) and it seems to be pretty decent. As Michelle says, it's a complete router in-and-of itself but it is a wired device and uses Power over Ethernet (12vdc injected into the Cat5 or Cat6 leading to the unit). I run the PoE unit on a small inverter along with a WiFi access point and a hub (switch) in the back bedroom. (Along with a Raspberry Pi which I'm thinking of upgrading to the latest model.)
The price difference reflects WFR's adaptation of these devices for people who are not technicians; although I really do not think that it requires a lot of knowledge but some idea about configuring a small router is handy. There is a forum (of course) for these with a lot of configuration information and answers to typical problems.
It's completely wired (on the input - or LAN - side) so if you want to access a WiFi system from a smartphone or tablet you'll need an access point (AP) and a hub. WFR's devices fill this niche but others will do it as well (and much cheaper if you are capable of the configurations).
We do not frequent commercial RV "parks" all that much and since the places we go generally have no WiFi most of our Internet use is via cell system access. I use the Bullet mostly to access our house WiFi system (about 2 blocks away). These are very good for that since they can be a router-and-antenna together mounted on the back rail of a motor home and quite capable of connecting to a system over 3 blocks distant. If you're in a park with WiFi that's at all decent, just a Ubiquiti Titanium Bullet (and the titanium model is the best) will do that job just fine.
Craig
Thanks all. I have jail broke my iphone in order to use a Cydia tethering app; works pretty good, and have purchased a Wilson electronics Sleek for the wireless aspect. But I also want a good WiFi set up, but don't really want to spend a bundle on it.
Mike
Mike... exactly what I do... except with Verizon (which *has* to allow free tethering by virtue of getting some frequencies from the FCC - not to mention losing litigation with the FCC over the matter). Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Wilson Sleek, and the Ubiquiti Titanium.
Craig
I use a Ubiquiti HP in 'station' mode to access the remote access point and as a 'Router' rather than a 'Bridge'. I feed the output of the Ubiquiti into a Linksys router for a coach hotspot. The advantage of the second router is that I don't have to change any ip-addresses for my devices. I could configure the Ubiquiti as a 'Bridge' but like to added security of switching networks.
Ubiquity has a good wiki for help.
See AirOS User Guides - Ubiquiti Wiki (http://wiki.ubnt.com/AirOS_User_Guides)
With things like Mifi and tethering my Razr I don't use wifi very much any more but will if I can get a good feed.
I looked at WFR but saw no advantages over what I use.
Craig, I read that too. ::)
Tether same as hotspot-terminology?
Were looking at straighttalk
Got it. Just looked on droid forums that say unlocked droids, which mine is; couldn't stop you from using data from straight talk.
Decisions decisions ::)
Thanks Michelle
John... I have a 6gb data plan and just use FoxFi (pdanet) on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone (cell phone) if we need to connect a tablet or laptop to the Internet.
Actually, the Note 3 is good enough that I haven't tethered anything to it in a long time.
The way I heard the story was that Verizon got some frequencies from the FCC that required them to "open" their system up to tethering. Verizon's executives decided to lock tethering anyway (a profit center, after all) and the FCC filed litigation in Federal Court and won. Verizon had to pay a few million in damages to the FCC (ka-ching) AND open up tethering. But their only defense (too hard to know which frequencies a user was using and so too difficult to determine if they were using the ones they had to keep open) backfired and they had to open up all of them. :D
Early in 2013 Verizon tried again to lcok up tethering; this time they set it up so that you could tether for a few minutes but it would disconnect. If you called they'd say "Gee... must be the applicaton you're using... sign up for our $20 a month plan". But the Internet is pretty potent now and it's harder for a company to keep that sort of thing on the QT and suddenly it all worked again.
So we stick with Verizon for now. But it's always something...
Craig
Sooooo......We too are moving towards boosting existing RV park wifi signal strength in order to save data on our cell plan. We have purchased: Ubiquiti PoE, and Ubiquiti Bullit M2-HP, and an Engenius Hi Gain 8dBi Omni Antenna.
We also have a Netgear WM3000rp range extender. We use the Netgear range extender for our VMSpc and VNC to mirror the VMSpc from the laptop to our Samsung Tablet.
I understand that the Netgear repeater can not be used as an access point for the Bullet. Can I get a router/repeater that will repeat the signal from the laptop for the VMSpc as well as work as an access point for the signal from the Bullit?
I am ignorant of this technology and it"s sometimes hard for this Old Dog to learn new tricks.
Should I add a wireless router to the Bullet set-up and keep the Netgear separate for the VMSpc? or what?
As usual your input and assistance is greatly appreciated.
Scott
Update: We have purchased a Netgear N900 Router. This should work for our WiFi signal booster and also for our VMSpc set up. The antenna should arrive today and will put it all together tomorrow. We shall see........
I've been reading about WFR Go2 and Mobile Ti/Mobile RV - it seems like it would be a pretty good system. What I'm confused about is why the Mobile Ti is $500 and a Bullet Ti w/ 8dbi antenna is $150 on Amazon. I get the Mobile Ti would be running different firmware, but yikes it's the same hardware.
My question is if you run the Go2 & Mobile Ti you use one web page to control both. If you use the Go2 with an Amazon Uiquiti Titanium Bullet can you not still use the Go2 web page to choose which wifi AP and then connect to it? It's the auto connection/fail-over/standby features of the WFR products I like. Would I loose that functionality if I went with the Bullet instead of the Mobile?
Scott ~ how's the install going?
Don't know if this applies, however, we use a BadBoy Extreme from Bitstorm coupled to a bitstorm Unleashed to form a hot spot on our boat in the Caribbean. It is a Wifi amplifier that we have used to connect to wifi systems up to 4 miles away on neighboring islands. Easy to set up (plug and play) and powered through POE 12 volt. We haven't installed one on the coach yet since both our IPads use cellular data plans. We don't use the IPads in the Caribbean on cellular due to the extreme cost of the overseas data plans ($20 per megabit!)
The Bitstorm is a good system with good customer support if it fits your needs. You can order it direct on line.
Install went OK. Once we established a static IP address on my pc for the Bullit the install went well. Took 1 bar from the RV park wifi and now we stream from Netflix, have 2 laptops attached to the network.