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Dream Internet and Wi-Fi setup for a RV?

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Neal

Staff member
RVF Administrator
Joined
Jul 27, 2019
Messages
12,406
Location
Midlothian, VA
RV Year
2017
RV Make
Newmar
RV Model
Ventana 4037
RV Length
40' 10"
Chassis
Freightliner XCR
Engine
Cummins 400 HP
TOW/TOAD
2017 Chevy Colorado
Fulltimer
No
In recent chit chat about cellular and wi-fi router options, and not derailing a thread on topic (again), the gears are turning in what would be an ideal dream Internet and Wi-Fi setup in a RV?

Having just upgraded my mother to a new router and going to Wi-Fi 7 and subsequently my own house, I wonder how I would design my dream setup in my RV. Right now I use a Peplink "Pepwave" (I think they're doing away with the Pepwave term) MAX BR1 PRO 5G which is a combination cellular and Wi-Fi router. It has Wi-Fi 6 and has been great to date, I run two of them in the coach which is nice for mixing up Wi-Fi in vs. out, 4 cellular SIM options, and Starlink as another WAN (Internet) source.

My thought is an ideal setup would separate cellular from Wi-Fi. Not required and I did this long ago when I suffered through using a Wi-Fi Ranger and used my own Netgear Wi-Fi routers at that time. I really like Ubiquity UniFi setup and tried it in my house once but I'm not really wired for it. Imagine if Newmar, for example, hardwired your coach so you had a Wi-Fi antenna in the roof of your living room, roof of your bedroom, and one in the basement supporting the patio side of your RV? Have your cellular router and/or Starlink all feeding into a switch (supporting PoE) either of some other brand or UniFi's switch with their OS built in.

It's a bit funny in that a RV is a small space and any Wi-Fi router should provide sufficient range, and the newer Wi-Fi specs (6E/7) will be even better, yet several of us are running mesh or additional access points for whatever reason. Whether the interference in this radioactive coaches, or frames of the vehicle are an issue, seems we need "more power".

Then with the UniFy switch feeding the properly placed antennas we'd have great Wi-Fi coverage. You can feed the UniFy system with cellular and Starlink but controlling the WAN sources would be interesting. That's something I like how Peplink does, it's been a while since I used a UniFi setup to know how to control WAN inputs.

So if designed your dream RV with a dream Internet setup, how would you set it up?
 
Would you include Bluetooth in this dream setup?

I have a couple of Bluetooth speakers build in and they work great without any additional equipment but that's not the case with my TPMS sensors on the toad when I am towing that. I had to mount a Bluetooth repeater back in the chassis battery compartment to reliably get the signal up to my TPMS monitor.

Would the same apply to Bluetooth cameras? Bluetooth has such limited distances, but with the right setup, would we find uses and maybe even better solutions?

Just something else to consider if going down this journey.
 

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