live. work. dream.

After a fun visit with some friends who drove all the way from Oakland to visit us at Lake Francis, we have now made it to Yuba City – just down the road from the RV Service Center where we’ll take the rig tomorrow to get the fridge checked out. Of course, it seems to be working well now. Hopefully it was just bad power at that campground. This trip has certainly become one of discovery.

Good news is, we do have internet access with our dish here. Bad news is, our computers can’t see our wireless network. I’ve wired in to troublshoot the problem and have determined there is just too much WiFi interference here. Various other networks keep showing up and disappearing. Ours was visible momentarily then went away for good. At least we are only here for the night … hopefully!

This is really much more of a mobile home park than an RV resort, but they are Good Sam approved. It’s located right in the city, which will be helpful if we have to run to the medical clinic. Rene has come down with a serious fever that she’s blaming on a tainted salmon burger from the fridge. She’s not one to throw food away. I was lucky enough to have a real cheeseburger!

A couple websites that come in handy for dealing with health issues when traveling full-time include:

• WebMD.com – self diagnosis, first aid and emergency info
• MayoClinic.com – symptom checker and first aid guide
• eMedicineHealth – consumer first aid and health information
• Google Maps – find the nearest urgent care center

But I digress…

If you’re having trouble finding or staying connected to your own wireless network when stopped at resorts with heavy WiFi interference, try these steps to getting a better signal:

1. Ensure that your router’s SSID (your network name) is unique and different from the default setting.
2. Change the broadcasting channel of your router from the default (usually channel 6). Note that channels 1, 6, and 11 are preferred as they are considered non-overlapping channels.
3. Enable wireless security on your router.
4. Minimize obstructions between your computer and the router.
5. Reduce the distance from your computer to the router.

If all else fails, plug into your router with an Ethernet cable. Or better yet, give up, go outside and enjoy the great outdoors … assuming you’re not in some parking lot of an RV park and it’s 90 degrees out!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Full-Timing Tips, Live, RV Tech, Resort Life, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.