RV Wireless Repeater:

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Page 1 - Introduction

The following pages explain how I setup a Universal Wireless Repeater in my RV, which allows me to increase the signal strength (or rather, extending the signal) of a campground's WiFi service, in and around my RV. I'm hoping these instructions help someone else. I'm also available to help you setup the same, should you need it and you live in New Jersey.

I have a 2007 Crossroads Cruiser Fifth Wheel CF29CK. This is my fourth trailer. I'm also in the I.T. field and have over 20 years of professional experience. When I'm on the road, I like to be able to get online. And since I often had a problem getting a strong WiFi signal at various campgrounds, I started looking for solutions.

I credit most of what I learned, to Greg Paine and his Paine's Pointer tip on creating a WiFi Antenna and Bridge. His tips really gave me the inspiration to try creating a solution. One major difference between Greg's setup and mine: he used two network devices (a Linksys Bridge and a Linksys Access Point), but my setup only requires one network device.

My second major credit goes to Sebastian Gottschall, who wrote the DD-WRT firmware replacment that I use on my network equipment. My final credit goes to the help pages on his site (written by many volunteers), but in particular the instructions for creating the Universal Wireless Repeater.

Greg's tips explain a lot about the physical hardware setup required, especially as it relates to an appropriate external antenna and parts. However his site does not explain the software setup of the network devices.

Unfortunately the software setup is the most confusing part of the entire solution. There are many ways to configure network equipment to do something similar to what I wanted. And each has their pros and cons. In addition, depending on what network equipment your campground has, and how they have it configured, could affect your own solution. I will attempt to explain as much of what I have learned, as possible.

Here are some related DD-WRT configuration/setup options that I checked into:

1. as a Wireless Bridge
2. for Client Mode Wireless
3. as a Wlan Repeater
4. for a WDS Linked Router Network
5. for a WDS Point to Point Network
6. as a Universal Wireless Repeater (the configuration I use)

In addition to the above six configuration help files that relate to the solution I was looking for, there are so many other options and related help files and discussions on DD-WRT's Wiki Tutorials and Forum. If you're like most people, the more you read, the more confusing and overwhelming things may seem.

For my RV, I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. In addition, some of the above help files linked above, require that the campground's router be configured in specific ways (especially if using WDS). But campgrounds are not going to let you change their WiFi setup.

The simplest solution, that did not require changing the campground's WiFi setup, and which was the quickest to configure on DD-WRT, was the Universal Wireless Repeater. Note that this option only requires one Wireless Router/Gateway device. You must be sure that your device is supported by DD-WRT.

The remaining pages of this RV Wireless Repeater tutorial, will explain the specifics of the external hardware parts (the antenna and cabling), and it will summarize how to setup a Universal Wireless Repeater, similar to the original help file but clarified and simplified a bit.

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