Are you considering working remotely? If so, there are many challenges to consider. One of the biggest challenges is having reliable cell and WiFi signals. In your home office, this may be a challenge that is easily met. On the road, however, this is a challenge that may-or-may-not by easily met. Here’s my recent experience.
Until we landed in Gig Harbor, Washington, we had been lucky with both. Most of the campgrounds had reliable WiFi, although a little slow, and our Verizon phones and hot spots had a strong enough signal. But our Gig Harbor campground was fairly remote with trees and mountains, so we had a hard time getting cell signal. I gave in and bought a Wilson Electronics weBoost Destination RV kit that has an indoor antenna and booster along with an outdoor antenna that has to be set up on an extendable mast and pointed to an available tower. If you can get a minimal signal, the weBoost Destination RV can pull it in and boost it inside your actual RV. That all sounded great, but our first deployment was a failure.
It seems that, if you cross paths with the indoor and outdoor antennas, they create a loop and slow your signal speed. I worked for a couple of weeks to refine the external antenna direction, but finally broke down and called tech support. They were quick to respond and had me do several tests as well as using a different cell tower locator app. Bingo, I found a tower 180 degrees from the one that caused a problem. Once pointed and rebooted, our signal came in fast, with quick response, and great download and upload speeds (relative to all other efforts, that is).
Now for the technical part. Our office needed a central WiFi router to connect laptops and printers too, and not keep re-connecting them to different hot spots. Our 5G Verizon M2100 has the ability to teather via USB to the Wifi Ranger, so that it becomes our network router. If we have cell signal, it uses that, but if we have campground WiFi, it uses that first if the speed is acceptable. With the cell booster issue resolved, at least for this location, we have a great network and internet connection.
So the moral of my story is – if you plan to work remote, be sure to check for suitable WiFi and cell signal, or you may have to do as we did, get appropriate boosters.
Can We See You in Action?
We will be pointing east on August 1st, heading toward Southern Indiana before turning southeast through the Smoky Mountains on the way back to Florida. Until then, if you are a manufacturer or supplier in the Seattle area, give me a shout. If you think you’ll be on our path back across the country, drop me a line. It would be great to see your operation and see what your company provides to our industry.