“Must-Have” purchase for within the month – Internet

April 1, 2015 Leave a comment

So this is what happens when it’s 9pm, and apparently everyone in the park is online.

TengoInternet at 9pm on Monday

For anyone not familiar with this, a “ping” is sending a piece of information to a server that’s basically saying, “Hey, are you there?”, and the server responds. Anything above about 30ms is not good, so imagine how terrible it must be at 235ms… The longer the ping, the slower the connection. This can be for a variety of reasons. In the case of the screenshot above, TengoInternet only has so much bandwidth to provide (I presume), and just about everyone is online, soaking up all of it, and putting strain on the system.

Here is the same ping to 8.8.8.8 (A Google server), but using ShawOpen. ShawOpen is only useable by those with a Shaw account, or at least know someone who can add their MAC address to the account. This means that very few people in the park are able to use it.

ShawOpen at 9pm on Monday

See the difference? In computer terms, this is the difference between the Pony Express (TengoInternet) getting you a letter, and email (ShawOpen). TengoInternet might as well currently just mail you a picture of the webpage you want to see, because it’s about that slow.

Now, I understand that there can be bandwidth limitations. It’s all in the package that you get from whatever ISP you subscribe to. However, I’m a little surprised that TengoInternet, which is apparently in nearly every campground out there, is this slow. Seriously. Wow.
Then there is the whole partnership with Boingo. I’m a Boingo customer, I pay for unlimited internet access anywhere that Boingo is. This includes anywhere that TengoInternet is. the complete inability to use the internet is not what I pay for.
Good thing I can connect to ShawOpen.
So, my next big purchase will be the WifiRanger Elite pack. A few trusted Full Time RVers all recommend it, and even a few that I don’t know much about do as well. I was originally thinking about getting the SkyRanger, but for an extra $100, I can make sure to get above the big RV’s that might be in my line of sight to an access point.
If I can boost a ShawOpen signal, I won’t need TengoInternet or Boingo anymore. Boingo is a great price, and I would use them if travelling outside of ShawOpen areas, but i’m locked to the Vancouver area for now, and Shaw is everywhere.
So, now to come up with $600 and all my wifi issues vanish. (I hope)

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