Use campsite WiFi

Reading time 2 minutes

Aktualisiert – Januar 12, 2024

Bringing the WiFi on the campsite or otherwise available in the motorhome onto your own network is possible with appropriate routers, which can receive the WiFi offered AND forward it to your own network.

ALFA Networks

This is achieved, for example, by products such as the TravelConnector TCS-USB-12 (the “12” stands for the variant with 12 dBi amplification) which currently costs around 250 euros. The router is from ALFA Networks.

To get straight to the point: this solution - for me - was unfortunately only temporary, because after almost two years the router started producing interruptions, which stopped for a short time after a restart, but recurred at increasingly shorter intervals.

At the time, this solution still cost around 350 euros, but was still almost 200 euros “cheaper” than the Teltonika RUTX variant.
Based on today's experience, I should have chosen Teltonika directly and still saved around 150 euros. The here described in more detail RUTX-50 costs around 450 euros today. So I spent a total of 800 euros...

Teltonika

Yes, Teltonika produces industrial quality. No (motorhome) person needs it, was my first reaction at the time. But what use is a commercial “zero-eight-fifty router” that is simply not reliable and will let you down at some point, usually shortly after the warranty period has expired?!

Teltonika offers various router variants. If you want to use 5G and are or might be dependent on load balancing with two SIM cards, the RUTX-50 is the suitable device. Anyone who can do without 5G is also well served with other versions.

Set up

The default user is “admin” and the password can be found on the router sticker.

The SIM card to be used does not necessarily require a PIN, but can optionally be activated and entered in the automated setup process. Provider data from the mobile network is taken over automatically, but can also be entered manually if necessary.

Thanks to the setup wizard, the initial setup is quick and requires no specialist knowledge; even setting up the campsite's Wi-Fi usage works straight away: start scanning the Wi-Fi networks, select the network, enter the password, done (network - wireless).

The order of the WLAN and mobile network can be determined by moving the WLAN network to the first position (network - WAN).

alternative

An alternative can be a Starlinktariff, starting at 50 euros per month with unlimited data volume with realistic download rates of up to 160 MBit/s and upload rates around 40 MBit/s.