Need help with RV park system
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Hello all, first time poster.
We own a small RV park campground, approx. 3 acres on the river. We have approx. 30 guests at any time. We have 150 Mbps service into the office currently. I'd like to update the current wifi system which was in place when we purchased the park, which consists of a cable modem in the office, ligowave antenna on the roof of the office, and a Netgear router approx. 300 feet away in the bathhouse. The Netgear router is inside the bathhouse, in the roof trusses. So we have our Office wifi, then an access point from the antenna on the roof, then there are two more access points off the Netgear router. Needless to say, it doesn't work so great, and the Netgear is testing out at somewhere around 4-6 Mbps and servicing maybe 20 clients.
What I would like is faster, more stable connection for those in the back of the park especially. I don't need very sophisticated controls, just the ability to change the password occasionally, like once a month, and check on the system in the event someone calls to report an outage. I was looking at the EAP 225 Outdoor for this build, and was planning to place one on the roof, and the other on the roof of the bathhouse. I figure just that should improve things. They are approx. 300 feet apart, and line of sight with minimal to no trees between.
So can the one on the office be made to act as an access point while also sending wifi to the second one? And would I need any other equpment to make this work? To be clear, only the one at the office would be capable of being plugged into ethernet for internet, the second one would be power only.
Thanks in advance, I'm still learning...
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Glad I could help. If you can improve your WLAN, maybe you want to give feedback here in this thread.
Wish you much success and fun with Omada EAPs!
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BTW, I had an idea how to help your camping guests coming with Faraday Cages on wheels to get better WiFi reception:
You could lease or sell them a CPE510/210 to connect to the WLAN and use it on their laptop wired to the CPE. See this post of a camping guest who uses the method to create an own network in his RV. CPEs can be used as wireless clients - or even as wireless routers creating a whole subnetwork for people carrying their data center in a RV.
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Good point, I will look into this. As for the 225 Outdoor, is this a 360 coverage? Obviously I will point the one at the office towards the bathhouse, but the one at the bathhouse, will it distribute the signal in 360 degrees?
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Yes, EAP225-Outdoor has 360º dual-band antennas. CPEs have directional antennas: CPE210 has 65º, CPE510 has 45º beam width.
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Hoping you are still reading this...both units installed this morning and having some trouble. At first I couldn't get the remote AP to connect, I couldn't log into it to add it. I eventually took it down off the roof, brought it back to the office, and connected it to the Ethernet cable, and was then able to configure it. I then took it back to the remote location, mounted it back on the roof, and ran Speed Test. I got a 47.9 Mb download. Then a minute later it was 1.7 Mb, then nothing. It now shows "isolated" on the Omada controller software and I can't get it to do anything. It seems to me that the signal should be OK since I got almost 48 Mb on the first test, so what happened?
And to make matters worse, apparently TP Link provides absolutely NO support for this product on nights or weekends, since it is classified as "business" product and they only support "home" products after hours. I really wish I had known this before purchase.
Anyway, don't mean to rant but I'm a little frustrated right now, and 3/4 of my customers are without Wifi, until sometime Monday at least. Thank you for any suggestions I might try.
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RiversideCamp wrote
I then took it back to the remote location, mounted it back on the roof, and ran Speed Test. I got a 47.9 Mb download. Then a minute later it was 1.7 Mb, then nothing. It now shows "isolated" on the Omada controller software and I can't get it to do anything. It seems to me that the signal should be OK since I got almost 48 Mb on the first test, so what happened?
Difficult to say what caused isolation after it did work already. I recommend to set 802.11n/ac WiFi mode for the 5 GHz radio (click on Access Points, then the Outdoor EAP listed there, then Configuration in the pop-up menu, then Radio/5 GHz). You can also try to set channel bandwidth to 40 MHz or 20 MHz. Next, ensure that there is a free LoS between both APs, this is very important. Make sure that the antennas are screwed on tightly (they tend to loosen when you adjust them) and are aligned in parallel. Maximum allowed Tx power in the US should even be much higher than in the EU, so 100m distance should be no problem.
Are there many vehicels in-between the EAPs? Are the EAPs mounted on the same level over ground (or nearly the same level)?
Did you turn off the controller or is it still running? As I wrote, turning off the controller should be supported for meshing after initial setup according to TP-Link's FAQ, but I never tested it, so I can't say whether the FAQ is right here.
And to make matters worse, apparently TP Link provides absolutely NO support for this product on nights or weekends, since it is classified as "business" product and they only support "home" products after hours. I really wish I had known this before purchase.
Oops, it's new to me that your TP-Link branch office supports home products over nights or weekends (the branch office in my country doesn't do so). Business-class products are supported here, but only by mail (as are home products).
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There is clear Line of Sight between the devices. The first is mounted at approx. 15' agl, the second is probably closer to 11' agl, but not a huge difference. There are no vehicles inbetween them, although there are vehicles below the sight line between the locations, not sure if that's what you meant? Nothing obstructing Line of Sight. Controller is still running for now, at least until I get everything up and running. It's also on my mobile app.
So you recommend setting 5g? I had heard 2.4 has better distance coverage, is that true? Right now it is on both
Also FWIW, in the office, approx. 50' from the AP that is working, I'm only pulling .24 Mbps up and down right now. It seems to vary wildly, from 50 or 60 to 1 or 2 just a minute apart.
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Update, I got the connection problem fixed. On the Omada desktop, go to the AP that shows as Isolated, click on Mesh, then Action, then select Link from the right side of the line. That was it!
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RiversideCamp wrote
There is clear Line of Sight between the devices. The first is mounted at approx. 15' agl, the second is probably closer to 11' agl, but not a huge difference. There are no vehicles inbetween them, although there are vehicles below the sight line between the locations, not sure if that's what you meant? Nothing obstructing Line of Sight.
What is 15' in meters? Yes, I meant vehicels on the ground, they will also reflect microwaves, possibly creating interferences.
So you recommend setting 5g? I had heard 2.4 has better distance coverage, is that true? Right now it is on both
No, you should leave both, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz enabled, but the mesh always uses the 5 GHz band to link the nodes. 2.4 GHz can pass obstacles such as trees much better, but 5 GHz offers a greater range and better channel separation leading to more stable links.
Also FWIW, in the office, approx. 50' from the AP that is working, I'm only pulling .24 Mbps up and down right now. It seems to vary wildly, from 50 or 60 to 1 or 2 just a minute apart.
Yes, I told you. Radiation of EAP's omni antennas is 360º, but not as an ideal sphere, it rather radiates like a donut. There is a good signal all around at the height level of the EAP horizontally, much weaker signal directly beneath it (vertically). Radiation expands vertically the further the signal travels horizontally.
This is the throughput in my office via EAP225-Outdoor mounted on the balcony ~3m apart, ~2.5m above. There are 2 walls between, thus no free LoS, bandwidth is further rate-limited (in the switch) to 160 Mbps downstream/8 Mbps upstream:
Is there a change to get mains power on the camping ground? Could you test the second EAP at a location nearer to the office house?
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Ok, I just did set up a mesh node. Connected it to the controller by wire, adopted it.
Then I isolated it, only power supply feed to the remote node. It goes to state »Isolated«.
Proceed as follows:
1. Login to the controller.
2. Go to tab »Site Settings« (bottom of screen), click on »Device Account«. Show the password, make note of Username/Passwort (needed later).
3. Next, go to tab »Access Points« (top of screen). There should be one EAP in state »Connected«, the other (remote one) in state »Isolated«.
4. Click on the MAC address of the remote EAP so that the pop-up for configuration appears. Select »Mesh«. It should look similar to this:
5. Click on »Retry«. A pop-up appears asking for username/password. Enter values from step 2 here.
6. Now wireless adoption happens. This may take a while. If successful, the Action button shows »Linked«, status still »Isolated«:
7. Just wait a little until it will show »Connected«. Done.
The normal way is to adopt them wirelessly at first time, no wired connection needed at all (only exception is if you use mamangement VLAN, but that's another story).
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