Wi-Fi Connection Difficulties

Unlimited Streaming Possibilities - But not at the Campgrounds!

Original material:  https://roadtrek210.blogspot.com/

If you are like us, you have encountered campgrounds that advertise wi-fi but internet access is non-existent or very sloooooooow. More often than not, the issue is streaming by campers....

Here is my "home" internet speed, with four devices connected. You will not experience this at the typical campground, yet this is what many campers expect:

This post is prompted by a recent experience at a campground which had upgraded the wi-fi system. Some campers were thrilled and immediately connected their TVs so they could stream movies. One camper even posted a photo of their internet enabled TV.......Well, you can guess how that turned out. Soon we were all once again plodding along with poor connections, as apparently everyone attempted to stream movies and videos.

I discussed this with the campground management who said "Norm thanks again for the information but I have no clue. I'm not a tech kind of guy. For 32 years ...I turned all this stuff over to the IT department. As I did here..... My [contract] with this company was to provide  a stronger WYFI signal and to reach a broader scope of campers. Seems that both of those objectives have been met. Does it meet everyone expectations.  No!!! But certainly better [than]it was. "

I made three posts on the Facebook page of the campground to advise campers of the limitations. This blog article is based upon that.

When that campground upgraded one camper posted "Thanks for the great WiFi..I think I may never leave.." They included a photo of their streaming TV:

Streaming TV at the Campground?? Good Luck!

We usually encounter slow speeds at campgrounds in which all campers sign on with a common user name and password. In this situation the internet connection is shared without individual restrictions between all the users in the campsites. In other words, there are no bandwidth restrictions on any one user and if you want to stream, go for it. However, this shared connection probably won't allow us all to stream movies at the same time. For example, it can be expected that smaller campgrounds have a total bandwidth of about 60 MB/sec (60 Megabytes per second).

In the campground, if we all attempt to open the cold water at the sink at the same time the water flow drops to a trickle. The same thing happens with the internet connection. That internet "pipeline" has only so much capacity.

You may ask "How many users can that support?"

Not all of us can stream at the same time. I think there may be a misunderstanding about this. I'm going to include some figures later in this post. This post is the background information so you, the reader understand what those numbers will mean to you.

As additional users log in with their smartphones, PCs, tablets and internet enabled TVs the internet bandwidth is shared. In simple terms, if 60 people sign into a shared system that 60 MB/sec is divided among 60 devices and each of us gets 1.0 MB/sec internet speed. The actual allocation can be more complex.

If a campground with 60 sites has two people at each site and one is using a smartphone on the internet and the other a PC or internet enabled TV, then at those times the campground is full we could have 120 or more users logged into the wi-fi and internet service. In that case, we might each get only 0.5 MB/sec. However, the bandwidth may not be shared equally.

To demonstrate, the photo below shows the actual internet speed at a recent campground at about 6:30PM. That is distinct from the wi-fi connection speed. The campground has a wi-fi system that connects to an internet provider (ISP) via a modem. The campground wi-fi speed and the internet speed are not the same.

At the time I took the screen shot the internet speed was 4.3 MB/sec. At the same time the wi-fi speed on my PC was 27 MB/sec. In other words, the campground internet connection is the ultimate deciding factor about how much bandwidth is available. It was being shared by all of us who were logged in at the time, and my portion was 4.3 MB per second.

Internet campground speed as checked at FAST.COM

I’m providing this info to pass along to anyone having a camp wifi connection issue. Of course, if they aren’t connected they would need someone to pass this info to them.

At a recent campground with few users plugged in, the wi-fi was fast, really fast (see the photo). Speeds will vary.

However, as people got up and connected the speed dropped dramatically. You may experience connecting issues as we did. For one thing, there are different wifi (WLan) standards. Some of these are backwards compatible and some are not. I have no idea what campgrounds have installed, and apparently neither do some of the management. Knowing the bands and protocols of campground hardware would certainly aid in solving connection issues.....

Internet speed at a campground with most campers asleep and disconnected!

In other words, our ability to connect to the campground wi-fi will be determined in part by the compatibility of the hardware we are using to whatever the camp owners have installed.

However, here’s a few things to be aware of.

1. The wi-fi signals can experience interference. The strength can be reduced by metal walls and so on. At another resort we know of people who live in “candominiums” with metal walls who experience issues with cell phones, wi-fi and so on. Some campers have aluminum sides. The signals are “line of sight” so if the network router is behind a building, or another structure or blocked by other rigs you may not get a signal or it will be greatly diminished (very weak). Weak signals do “come and go” which can be really annoying. You may get a better as in stronger and more reliable signal by moving your hardware to another table, etc. Try setting up your laptop or whatever outside of your rig. If that solves the problem then you know it is structural interference.
2. Rebooting (power off ,then power on) can sometimes help, as does a kick to the head.....
3. There are different wifi communications bands. The wi-fi source such as the campground may support only one band or both. There are 2.4GHz and 5 GHz (Giga-Hertz) bands. If your hardware is designed for 2.4 GHz and the campground is 5 GHz, then your hardware won’t see the new network. Consider it to be like attempting to use an AM radio to listen to an FM station. On questioning the owner at a recent campground he could not tell me what hardware is installed, but I suspect it is single band 5GHz. If so, it will be invisible to any 2.4GHz hardware (TV, PC, etc).
4. When you bring up a list of available wi-fi “hotspots” what you see is a list of SSIDs. These are “service set identifiers” for the available networks. Each network device may broadcast that SSID. If you do see the SSID for the campground you should be able to connect to the network if your hardware is using the proper encryption and you have the proper password. Many campgrounds use WPA2 PSK encryption. Most campgrounds use a log on name and a password. You must use these.
5. There are a number of standards for wi-fi data link protocols and these have evolved over time. Current standards include IEEE 802.11a, but there is also 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac and 802.11ax. Older hardware may not be compliant with newer protocols and that means you may have connection issues. You may see the SSID but there will be connection problems. Some network technology (routers, etc.) are backwards compatible to different standards. It is likely the campground management will be unable to tell you what they have installed, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Why is Streaming a problem?

I hope this clarifies a few things. Realistic expectations will aid us in having a pleasant internet surfing experience while at the campground.  Streaming is what is called a "data hog".

Netflix and YouTube say we will each use the following bandwidth, if we attempt to stream using these services. Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO and so on are similar to Netflix. Music services such as Pandora also use bandwidth, between 150 and 300 kbps (0.150 to 0.300 MB/sec).

Netflix Requirements (Prime and Hulu are similar):

1. Required minimum connection speed 0.5 Megabits per second. Below this you won’t be able to connect to the Netflix website. Recommended connection speed 1.5 Megabits per second.
2. SD (standard) or DVD quality streaming 3.0 Megabits per second.
3. HD Quality 5.0 Megabits per second.
4. Ultra HD Quality 25 Megabits per second.

YouTube Requirements:

1. SD 360 requires 0.7 Megabits per second.
2. HD 720p requires 2.5 Megabits per second (this is average quality).
3. HD 1080p requires 5.0 Megabits per second.
4. 4K requires 20 Megabits per second.

At a recent campground I concluded the peak internet speed for the entire network was 60 MB/sec (60 Megabits per second). I monitored it for a few days and the normal is about 20MB/sec, but at times when logging on my connection speed would drop to as low as 1 MB/sec..

To provide perspective we have camped in many, many locations from the north to the southwest, the eastern seaboard to the Florida Keys and everything in between. Internet access is frequently a touch and go thing, which is why I have a Verizon jetpack….Because of my business travel situation for many years I travelled with both AT&T and Verizon!  However, even cellular systems can become overloaded.  Comcast Xfinity has connection points all over their geographical area, but you will find connect speed of about 1.0 MN/sec. That has been my experience.

Some older campgrounds have DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) internet service, which is via telephone line and is distributed throughout the campground. It does require a DSL modem to connect. Those systems usually have individual login and passwords, and the routers provide download speeds beginning at about 4.0 MB/sec. That is adequate for streaming on one device at a time.  I say that from practical experience gained.

Speed Decreases as more users are added

I stated that our wi-fi, common log on internet speed will decrease as more of us add devices to the campground system. The bandwidth is shared among all of us who are connected. As more of us perform streaming tasks such as movies, videos, music and so on, the speed for each of us decreases, until the connections falter.

This is exactly what we have experienced in wi-fi systems. Some systems have greater bandwidth and more of us can connect than before. However, it is not infinite and we will experience slow downs and interruptions as more of us stream and “pile on”. The campground’s ISP (internet service provider) may also “throttle” or reduce the bandwidth as more is used. That would aggravate the situation, making it worse for each connected user (that’s you and me).

What does this mean in realistic terms, as we attempt to stream movies? If a campground has a 60 MB bandwidth to the internet, then we each might have a connection speed of 1.0 MB per second if 60 of us (including the campground owners) attempt to login to the internet and simultaneously run content. At 20 MB/sec the internet speed for each of us will be about 1/3 of that…..

What can we each do with a 1.0 MB/sec connection? We can’t stream movies……To stream we would need about 3.0 MB/sec on Netflix (DVD quality, but not HD). It would seem that about 20 users might be able to stream movies at a time on the new campground internet service. 

I hope this clarifies a few things. Realistic expectations will make our internet surfing a pleasant experience.

Remember, when all else fails:

Copyright (C) 2019 Norman Retzke "All Rights Reserved"