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Having a good RV WiFi booster is essential when traveling in your camper. We use this WiFi Booster Kit to help us get consistent, reliable internet access when RVing.
I originally wrote this RV WiFi booster review in 2016 when we started to using the booster and repeater setup in our Class A motorhome. While many things have changed since then, surprisingly, reliable internet access is not one of them.
When we camp somewhere with WiFi, the signal is usually weak, slow or non-existent. Since we run our online business from the road, having good internet access is important.
Many campgrounds and RV parks offer WiFi for free or for a fee. However, we’ve found that unless you’re parked close to a repeater, you will likely
- have trouble connecting to the WiFi
- experience a slow internet connection
- not see the WiFi network at all
That’s where an RV park WiFi range extender and an RV WiFi booster comes in. Keep reading to see how we use the WiFi booster kit to solve this problem.
What’s the Best RV WiFi booster Setup?
When we met Eric from TechnoRV at the Tampa RV Show, we asked him for recommendations on the best WiFi booster to use in our RV. The solution he recommended was the Alfa WiFi Booster and Repeater Kit.
RV WiFi Booster Review
What is an RV WiFi booster?
The WiFi booster is a powerful antenna that can pick up WiFi signals from further away than a laptop or smartphone can. The booster connects to the repeater and the repeater rebroadcasts the signal, similar to a home WiFi router.
You can also setup a password to prevent other people in the area from accessing the WiFi signal.
The caveat is the WiFi booster can only boost the signal it’s receiving. If the speed at the source is slow or everyone at the RV park is logging on at the same time, you’re going to have a slow connection. While there are limitations, you’ll still be getting a better, stronger signal by using the booster.
Is the WiFi Booster Mac Compatible?
There are several RV internet boosters available on the market, but not all of them are Mac compatible. This camper WiFi booster kit allows us to connect with any device.
Mac Owners – The WiFi booster cannot be plugged directly into your Mac computer. The WiFi repeater is required to use the booster.
PC Owners – The WiFi booster can be plugged directly into your computer via the USB connection. A repeater is needed for multiple devices to access the signal at the same time.
Our WiFi Desktop Booster Kit Setup
For the full review, watch my video review below. I discuss in detail what the WiFi booster and repeater do, how they work, what we like and don’t like about them.
We’ve been using this WiFi signal booster on and off since we first got it in 2016. Four years later and it still works like the day we received it. This RV WiFi extender setup has gotten us online and given us a usable signal more times that I can count.
The one issue we’ve run into is that it can be difficult to connect to WiFi networks that use a sign in landing page. You may encounter this at coffee shops or libraries – when you try to connect to the WiFi. A webpage will open up and ask you to register in order to use the WiFi. While are still able to connect, it does take multiple tries.
What About Using a Hotspot?
For the most part, we use the personal hotspot on our cell phones to get online. However, when we do stay at a campground with good WiFi or driveway surf with friends, this booster kit comes in very handy. To learn more about ways to stay connected on the road, read our post on Internet for RVers.
Why You Should Buy From TechnoRV
When we got the WiFi Booster and Repeater Kit from TechnoRV, it came with what they call their “Learning Series.” In this case, an email with step by step instructions on how to set up the WiFi booster kit and a phone number to call if you need to talk to a human.
I consider myself very competent when it comes to stuff like this so I didn’t bother with the TechnoRV setup instructions and just read the one in the Alfa package. To say I was lost was an understatement. The directions made no sense and after thirty minutes, I gave up and read TechnoRV’s instructions. Five minutes later, I was online.
We’ve heard similar stories from people who bought this setup from another retailer and were unable to get it set up. So my suggestion is to buy from TechnoRV and their customer service is great. I recently had to reset the login password on our setup and gave TechnoRV a call. They walked me through the reset procedure which was so much easier than trying to figure it out myself.
If you found this review helpful and decide to purchase the RV WiFi booster kit, please consider ordering through our Amazon affiliate link. There is no additional fee for the buyer and in return we receive a small percentage of the sale. Thanks for your support! We really appreciate it.
Disclosure: TechnoRV provided the Alfa WiFi Booster and Repeater free of charge in exchange for an honest review. This review represents our own opinions of the product.
Hi Joe and Kait, Hope all is well! Would you kindly recommend a device that will pick up cell phone and internet when camped in the mountains? Would it be the same device as in the article above? A camp I am thinking of is only four miles from town and Verizon is the carrier and main service there. Thank you =)
Hey Cosby, we use this cell signal booster, but it only works if there is signal in the area to boost. Also check out our article all about Internet for RVers.
I bought the Alfa setup off Amazon for my boat, moored 200 yards from the marina office WiFi server. I’m on my second unit (company replaced for free). Besides defaulting to Australia time for some reason, the system drops the signal constantly. When it works, it’s great. But it fails multiple times a day, holding the signal for a low of 12 seconds to a high of an afternoon. (Boat isn’t drifting.) I reached out to the company by email and got a fairly cryptic response with a setting change. Overall, it’s a cheap option. But then, you get what you pay for. Not impressed. Frustrated mostly.
Nipicking here…Joe, a really good antenna is not powerful, it’s efficient.
An antenna by itself is an unpowered, inanimate piece of hardware that depends upon an amplifier to to send or receive radio frequency radiation. A poorly designed, inefficient antenna handicaps the sending or receiving of a wifi or cellular signal. OTOH, a well designed, efficient antenna facilitates the sending and receiving of that same signal.
So when you’re shopping for a wifi or cellular signal booster, you are looking for a powerful amplifier WITH an efficient antenna. There are some good vendors out there and some crappy vendors out there. I don’t have an Alpha, but if Joe says it’s good, it must be good.
It’s worth pointing out that TechnoRV also offer a much higher-gain “Yagi” antenna which can plug into the booster and give you a much better range, if you’re a really long way from the site office 🙂
The two drawbacks are
a) It’s highly directional, so you will have to make sure it’s pointed exactly at the Access Point.
b) you’ll need to mount it putside the RV, on a pole. They do offer a suction-cup mounting system for this, but I developed my own which clips to the edge of the slide-out, and allows me to rotate the antenna without a ladder 🙂
Would love this ! Making a camping van and hope to have cool adventures like you,. This will help us stay in touch with family!!
We have been struggling for years to figure out a way to hit the WiFi at camp. We d love this so that my son could do his work.
This booster and repeated would be a welcome addition to our RV because we homeschool our 16 year old daughter and spend as much time as possible seeing the places we are studying! Reliable WiFi would make lesson planning much easier because I know we could access all of our “normal” resources on the road!
We would love to have the WiFi Booster. We are just starting out in the RV World and really miss our internet that we are used to at home!
We need a WiFi booster in our roadtrek so we can boondock in far away places and play world of Warcraft ?
For the alliance!
We need a WiFi booster because many parks have weak signals. We also like to go to county, state and national parks. We just retired and would love to travel more.
Nice prize, so looking forward to finishing my van and hitting the road.
We travel and lose touch with everyone. Going into forests (Ocala National Forest etc) we are unreachable. I don’t make a living as a writer but I need to do something to support our wandering ways. I absolutely need to buy your book and learn how it’s done. Perhaps that could be the next giveaway.
I am very close to purchasing my first RV and as a widowed senior, my 85 year old mother would feel better knowing she could stay in closer touch. This is the dream my husband and I shared, so I am planning a year on the road in his memory.
I could really use one of these. My husband and I are renovating a camper van and are often in locations where wifi is limited. This could enable me to work without having to disrupt what he’s doing just to drive closer to wifi to send out work.
Would love to be able to stay in touch with all your fabulous information on your blog and youtube channel.
I’ll be happy to throw my hat into the ring here. I expect to pick up my new custom mini toy hauler next week and a big thanks to Joe & Kait for their encouragement
I have been trying to navigate the whole internet access thing for our rv. This looks like a great place to start. We start partiming in December. Yes we are joining the great snowbird club! Thanks! For taking us all on your adventures!
We are just getting started in our RV adventures and need all the help we can get to stay connected. We are currently in Gibbon NE enjoying the Sandhill Crane migrations! We would love to win this great prize!
A wifi booster would be great! It’s on our list of things to buy.
Donna from RV Trek
We are wanting to travel more extensively, this setup would be a great asset for my Travel Agency Business
My husband and I have been foster parents for 20 years, and parents for 30. We have 2 years until our youngest graduates. We are dreaming, and planning for full time RV-ing once she is off to college. We are avid campers, so we can’t wait! I work online, teaching ESL to children in China. I would like to be able to teach from wherever we are camping during the spring and summer months. It would allow us a lot more time out in nature now. It would be wonderful to with a fantastic set up like this one. I was not sure if we were supposed to comment here, or on the Facebook post, so I will put this comment in both places. I love following the two of you on your journeys. I LOVE the beach, so your recent video was a favorite for sure! I am also about half way through your book on my Kindle. It is such a good read. I look forward to reading other books from the two of you in the future. I am also an avid Instant Pot user, so can’t wait for Kate’s cookbook. Thanks for all you do to keep us dreaming! <3
Wish I had one of these, not in my budget right now. But the videos make it sound like a must have for retirement camping.
I love your channel so much! We’ve learned so much watching you guys! It’s always Fun to see what you’re up to!! Blessings!
I’d love to win this because we want to spend more time traveling but my husband is still working. He currently works from home but needs a signal everywhere we go to work on his laptop. Sharing the FB post ! Thanks!!!!
I am looking into buying these items and I was wondering if you still recommend it. I noticed you didn’t use an external antenna (other than what the booster provides). We would want to mount something like a Yaggi or Tube U. Thanks for any help – Ray
Hey Ray! We still recommend these items, but highly encourage you to purchase through TechnoRV to get the customer support.
As fas as a WiFi Repeater, we’ve used “Connectify” in Germany and most times it works great. You need to have another dongle wifi antenna to plug into your system to transmit the signal and you must have wifi for this to work at all, but it allows other devices to connect to your laptop as a hotspot.
Interesting concept but, assuming there is wifi, why wouldn’t I just connect my other devices to it rather than setting up my laptop as a hotspot? Just trying to understand what uses this has.
We have used Connectify a few times when the only signal receivable required that our Windows 7 (at the time) laptop be pressed up right against a window. Connecting our tablets to the Windows laptop meant we could sit anywhere in the RV and have web access. Be VERY careful though about where you download Connectify – several sites bundle it together with annoying spyware that is difficult to remove.
Great review of these products, we still run into RV parks where “wi-fi” is something they paid $100 bucks for at Radio Shack ten years ago. A couple of years ago, I was at a park in Nova Scotia where the antenna was on the office building. I sat on a picnic table right in front of the building and still couldn’t log on.
Good comment about the instructions, awful from the manufacturer, great from the retailer, sounds like they know what they are doing. When our kids were little, a couple of them used to call the “instructions” the “destructions”. Sometimes, they were right about that.
Yeah the mom and pop campgrounds really lack any decent wifi and like you said, we’ve seen standard home wifi routers used as the parks wifi. The quality of the instructions that TechnoRV put out are fantastic and well worth the few extra bucks you might pay over Amazon…unless of course you know what you’re doing.
so informative! Thanks for all the information