iPads and Wi-Fi boosters

[Rok]

Hi everybody I'm actually posting this from my new iPad isn't this cool

I'm actually talking and my iPad is writing this for me so I'm actually talking to you rather than typing on the keyboard.

Amazingly I think the iPad spells better than I do.

Anyway I got this iPad so that I can hook up to the Wi-Fi booster in our great West legend SE. More on that later

I'm just trying to keep up with the technology and I guess I'm starting to do that somewhat this is the first I-anything that I've ever purchased. It's a fun toy--and a lot more I guess.

So far I've managed to get the iPad connected to the Wi-Fi booster and the Wi-Fi booster connected to a network (our house network). The next step is to hook up to the house network and hook other devices up to the Wi-Fi booster in the rig. Interestingly when I got into the Wi-Fi booster I could see about 30 different networks when were in our house I can only see maybe three or four so the Wi-Fi booster does seem to be really sensitive for picking up networks.

Your thing is holding me up right now is I have to wait for my wife because I forgot the password for our home network

Wow I just told the iPad the words smiley and face and it put a on the note.

New technology is sure amazing isn't it?

… Rocky

[markopolo]

That is cool. Are you using a third party app or is voice to text included in the iPad?

[gordonhks]

Rocky, thanks for the excellent update!

[Davydd]

Dictation is built into iOS with just a tap on the keyboard.

[Rok]

Well, my wife Maggie got home and we tried to connect everything up, but we had one major snag. (I'm writing this on the computer this time, by the way.)

Anyway, here are the steps we took:

(1) Managed to get the Ipad hooked up to the "Wi-Fi Booster" and got into the control panel of the booster.
(2) Did a search for networks in the area. When we do this on other devices we usually get 3 to 7 different networks listed--ours and a couple of nearby neighbors. With the booster we were able to see about 30 different networks!
(3) Connected the booster in the RV to our house wireless network (our own wi-fi network).
(4) Connected the Ipad, our two phones, and Maggie's laptop to the Booster in our RV (GW Legend SE). We WERE ABLE at that point to do internet browsing with all the devices through the Wi-Fi booster in the RV.
(5) Unfortunately that connection was OPEN, so we tried to set-up a password for the Booster so everybody and their brother couldn't use it. Unfortunately we couldn't get that to jell. It seemed like there was something wrong with the documentation. Because of security concerns, we shut everything off and are waiting until Monday to call the manufacturer to get them to help us put the password in place.

So that is where we stand on that one.

I read the documentation fo the cell phone booster, and it sounds much easier to operate. I think you just turn it on and it is supposed to work. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to help the cell phone signals much. ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED ON THE CELL PHONE BOOSTER.

Marco: yes, as Davydd mentioned, the Siri (dictation) system is pre-installed on the Ipad. The one on the Ipad seems to work much better than the one on my Android phone.

Initial experiences indicate that the Ipad will be a welcome additon to the motorhome tech due to its size and power. It's much bigger than the phones (even my Galaxy Note II) but it is not nearly as clunky or as heavy as the laptop.

The next step is to find a good keyboard for the Ipad. I don't like the new "flat style" keyboards, and that seems to be all I can find for the Ipad so far. I like the standard "old School" typewriter style raised-keys keyboards. My big fat fingers just don't like the little laptop style keyboards.

Anyway, the bottom line is that the wi-fi booster seems to work great with the exception of us not being able to get the security settings right.

I will try to update this thread after contacting the company about getting that taken care of.

...........Rocky

[Davydd]

Almost any bluetooth keyboard will work. We just use the standard Macintosh keyboard. However, I must warn you that if you leave bluetooth on and have any bluetooth devices nearyby they are going to be constantly communicating and will wear you battery down rather fast. You might wake up in the morning and wonder why your iPad battery is way down when you went to bed with it fully charged.

[Rok]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Almost any bluetooth keyboard will work. We just use the standard Macintosh keyboard. However, I must warn you that if you leave bluetooth on and have any bluetooth devices nearyby they are going to be constantly communicating and will wear you battery down rather fast. You might wake up in the morning and wonder why your iPad battery is way down when you went to bed with it fully charged.

Thanks for the tip Davydd, but I quickly figured that one out. The I-pad just keeps searching for B.Tooth. devices once you turn the Blue Tooth on. I looked down and said, "Holy Cow where did my battery go!" (Edited for general audiences.)

We've had other devices that did this too. My Android phone (Samsung Galaxy Note II) is happy to have its BT on all the time. Why the i-Pad can't do the same thing is a mystery to me.

Anyway thanks for the heads up, but I already discovered it myself, but I will add my voice to your chorus so that anyone reading this in the future will be prepared.

HOWEVER, since we are on the subject of I-pads, There are a few things I would like to ask:

(1) Can you share files with other devices? I haven't been able to do that yet. In particular I wonder if there is a MS Word compatable word processor for the I-Pad?

(2) I tried to send a text to my wife's cell and it won't take for some reason. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

(3) Also, I was in a room with another I-Pad user and I wanted to test out the "Face Time" feature and I couldn't get that to work either.

(4) The impression I'm getting is that Apple products want to interact with other Apple products, and they don't play nice with Android &/or MS products. Is this a reasonable impression or is it my mind manufacturing some conspiracy that really isn't there?

Many of my problems might be because I refused to have my stuff in the i-Cloud. The I-pad seems very powerful and well constructed, but its functionallity seems to be impaired by something. I guess it might just be my MS/Android predjudice at work, but there might also be something there.

Thanks for the comments thus far.

..........Rocky

[Davydd]

I use iCloud extensively since I have an iPad, iPhone and a MacBook Pro laptop. It would be foolish not to use it as it coordinates, email, contacts, calendars, notes, reminders, photos and now Pages, Numbers and Keynote across all my devices. The latter three are full fledged word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps on the Mac and the iOS devices that also work in the web browser. Pages will open MS Word documents and you can also export a Pages document to MS Word. Now that's playing nice. It might be the other way around. Does MS Word export to Pages?

You can also use Dropbox. Here is a Pages document I created, converted to a PDF in the app, and placed in Dropbox for anyone to pick up.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oi1n4y0qgarm4 ... torial.pdf

If you look at this document you'll see it is somewhat of a desktop publishing app as well. I did this without any instructions the first time I used Pages and probably didn't tap its potential in that aspect.

I can create a Pages document and also email it right from the app in several formats such as native Pages, PDF, text or Word.

What you have to understand about the iPad is it is not cluttered with individual files as you see on a computer. They have to be accessed within apps, but once you figure it out it starts to make some sense.

There are a lot of other word processing apps available. I just don't bother with them to check them out. Microsoft has their Office apps for the iPad but they haven't pulled the trigger and released them. That's on them, not Apple.

As a retiree I rarely use Numbers and Keynotes to create anything but can use them to open Excel spreadsheets or Powerpoint presentations.

I'm not sure if Facetime works over cellular networks yet. There's been talk about it. It could if the cellular companies like Verizion or AT&T allowed it. I know both sender and receiver must have a wifi connection. We talk Facetime in our family all the time between iPhones, iPads and Macs. It's the grandkids that love it. It works within the Contacts app.

[Rok]

On the other issue of the router, I think we got it to work finally.

We found that the manual we got was not for the same revision of the software used in our unit. An e-mail to a tech at the manufacturer made the issue even more complex.

So here is the ultra short version of "Wi-Fi booster 101":

(1) The signal comes from an external Wi-Fi system like a campground, or a Starbucks.
(2) It first goes into the antenna of the booster antenna. That antenna has software and can be accessed through an IP address and reconfigured so that it looks at the signal from the source you choose (in this case the campground or Starbucks).
(3) Usually at this point you need to put in the password for the external system you are using. After putting that in, the booster antenna is getting internet from the external source.
(4) The Internet signal is now passed through a wire to a router. The router will work, but the network you have set up is not password protected. So someone could use your connection to get to the internet, "Big Deal," you might say. The problem is that someone savvy might be able to hack into your computer or other device throught this connection. So you should password protect your network inside your RV. We couldn't get the antenna to password protect itself.
(5) However, the router has its own IP address and you can get password protection through it. So you enter the router and install a password on it that protects your system.

(6) The end result is that when you are parked, you can connect with a Wi-Fi system using the software in the booster antenna. Then you can connect your devices to the router using the password you've set up and everything can be connected to the internet through and exceptionally strong and password protected signal.

The only problem is remembering all the IP addresses and the right order to do things. The reward for going through all those difficulties is that you get an ultra strong internet signal that you can do wonders with (download videos, watch netflix, etc.)

So while we don't have actual on the road experience yet, we have done a test run by connecting to our house network and everything works great. The other GW Legend SE owner who told us about this said it is the "cat's pajamas", whatever that means.

OK, so I had Maggie, my wife read the above and she said I have it all wrong, but pretty close. Apparently you have to go through the router to get to the booster antenna, and there is some proprietary software/firmware in the router, too. If someone else can explain it better, please take a shot at it. The bottom line is that it is not a trivial project to hook one of these up, but it appears to be well worth the trouble.

........Rocky

[Rok]

Davydd,

Thanks for the reply. I'll just keep chugging along. I guess I have to realize that I'm still at the beginning of a learning curve on the I-Pad. Give me time and I will get better. I guess the I-Cloud thing slows me down. I accidentally gave my I-Pad access to one of my e-mails and it downloaded over 200 saved e-mails. Now I had to figure out how to stop that process. I try to avoid the pressure to integrate my life. I like keeping parts of my life compartmentalized.

Anyway, I'll keep plugging along. In general, I really like my I-Pad. It's a really well built piece of equipment. (I guess that is why Apple has gone from the verge of bankruptcy to being the largest company in the world (at least it was at one time).

..........Rocky

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by Rok

The reward for going through all those difficulties is that you get an ultra strong internet signal that you can do wonders with (download videos, watch netflix, etc.)

........Rocky

Isn't your Internet still only as good as the wifi system you are connected to? Which is usually pretty slow at campgrounds and many campgrounds will not be good enough or allow you to live stream videos. You ought to read the topic Booster started today on wifi security. I'm pretty much sticking to cellular on the road. If I can pick up a wifi signal to generally surf the Internet then that is OK. Keep in mind picking up wifi signals from your B like at a Starbucks can be considered theft. The wifi is there for the benefit of customers. Those places already have some problems with diminished signal strength and speed with customer overload.

[mlts22]

Davydd hit the nail on the head here. Usually someone on a CG Wi-fi is slurping up the majority of the usable bandwidth, (classic tragedy of the commons), so even getting to a web page can be difficult.

One note about some Wi-Fi places. I'd be careful about some. I've encountered wardrivers who put up SSIDs with the same name as open hotspots in hopes of getting access to traffic or redirecting people to phishing sites (yes, the website will give a warning about the SSL key not being right for a bank, but a lot of people will click through anyway... and the bad guy then has their banking info, or the site uses an exploit to dump malware on the computer.) I use a VPN service that encrypts everything, so the worst an attacker can do is stop my connection.

Of course, people can attack a LTE connection... but to do that requires a lot more than just a simple antenna and a machine running netstumbler, and realistically, it isn't much of a threat.

[Rok]

And I guess I would be that guy who was taking up all the bandwidth if I was watching a Netflix Movie or something like that.

The fellow who told us how he used a Wi-Fi booster and how good it was said that often a CG will have several wi-fi's, and without the booster he had to use the one nearest him. With the booster on, he was able to sign into any of the systems and use the one that worked the best.

Anyway, I don't see any downside for me, but I see your point that there might be some downside for other users of the system.

.........Rocky