So, this is going to be “Real Post #1” and I’m thinking it’s going to be a doozy. With that in mind, as we have yet to be formally introduced, methinks a bit of insight into my mind would probably provide some context for what’s about to come.
First off, I’m an IT guy. Servers and networks are my thing. Perhaps “Stubborn IT guy” would be a more apt description.
Secondly, my wife and I enjoy camping. We try to get away as much as possible, even if it means we have to spend the working hours huddled over our work computers. As we’re both IT folks, we can pretty much work anywhere that we can get decent internet. (That’s called foreshadowing…)
Third, I’m a tinkerer-mad scientist kind of guy. While I will take the “Let’s see what Teh Google has to say” approach, more often I’m the guy in the local home improvement store with a napkin sketch, laying out various bits of whatever parts I think I need on the floor while the employees try to decide if they should ask if I need assistance or if they should be calling the authorities. Luckily, apathy is usually on my side.
Finally, for now anyway, I’ve been called stubborn and/or obsessive, especially when I’m trying to make something work that isn’t (and more than likely, shouldn’t).
There… that should get things started…
As one could imagine, when you’re trying to make it appear to your co-workers that you’re sitting at your desk at home while you’re actually sitting in a campground nowhere near home, reliable internet is key, especially reliable wireless internet. There’s times we will use our own by way of a cellular hotspot, but if the connection is decent enough, we’ll use the park’s internet. The problem, however, usually isn’t the availability of internet access but rather really crappy WiFi service.
See, with older 2.4GHz WiFi technology, there are a finite number of channels available for an access point to use. Here in the US, that number is technically 13. In reality, only three channels are viable for use: 1, 6, and 11. See, each channel will use 11 MHz on either side of the channel to provide enough bandwidth for the clients to communicate which means that channel 1 stomps on channels 2 and 3. Channel 6 interferes with channels 4, 5, 7 and 8. Channel 11 overlaps channels 9, 10, 12 and 13. While you can certainly configure your access points to use channels other than 1, 6 and 11, you’re doing everyone a disservice by doing so as you’re essentially creating twice the interference than you would have by picking 1, 6 or 11. It’s a geeky thing, I know, but when I’m trying to use my own wireless but my own wireless is getting its ass kicked by the poorly configured campground APs, I tend to get grumpy.
Don’t get me started on how people with poorly configured wireless clients ruin the experience for everyone, especially when coupled with poorly configured access points.
A side note about IT geeks and camping – we tend to have a gazillion devices with us, all wanting wireless access. If I needed to reconfigure every device to use the campground wireless every time we went camping I’d probably end up sitting in a tent with an Etch-a-Sketch. To get around this little inconvenience, I’ve set up a wireless bridge and personal access point in the RV that allows me to connect one device (the wireless bridge) to either the campground’s internet or our own and then use that connection to service all the devices in the RV under the same wireless network name. (If you’re interested in how this works, I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here. Check this link out instead.) This usually saves loads of time as I don’t have to reconfigure things every time we go somewhere new. However, as it’s fairly ubiquitous, I was set up to use the aforementioned 2.4GHz wireless and was growing tired of having every putz with a poorly configured access point crushing our surfing experience.
With the idea that the 5GHz spectrum is probably a lot less crowded (or abused), last weekend I got fed up and ordered a 5GHz bridge and 5Ghz access point and set out to recreate the same set up we had before but with newer stuff. Figured I’d take care of that particular chore at home where I could work at my leisure. <insert the Jeremy Clarkson “How hard can it be” sound bite here> The wireless bridge was set up with no major issue. However, the access point … well, the access point almost met the hammer. Several emails with support later and I discovered that the access point, when configured for 5GHz and left to its own devices, would auto-select a wireless channel not technically available in the US. As all my wireless devices are, well, set up for use in the US, they wouldn’t see the wireless network. The solution (that’s not my word – my word was “workaround”) was to manually select a channel appropriate to my location never mind the fact that part of the setup was telling the access point where it was going to live. Minor detail (but not a “bug”), I suppose. So, if you’re out there trying to configure a Ubiquiti Networks airGateway Pro for 5GHz and none of your devices see it, Google “US 5GHz channels” and pick one of the frequencies out of the list. Anything between 5745MHz and 5825MHz (channels 149-165) should work nicely.
That issue licked, I realized that the ChromeGoogleCast devices we had only supported 2.4GHz and would need to be replaced. Being the smart guy that I think I am, while I still had all the new 5GHz wireless stuff for the RV strewn across the kitchen and finally working, I’d hook up the new GoogleChromeCast devices to the living room TV and get them set to go. I quickly found out that even though Teh Google knows all, Teh Google couldn’t tell me why one of their own devices wouldn’t connect to my network. Well, technically it did connect to my network (I could see it in the list of connected devices) but in a toddler-esque fit of “you can’t see me!”, it refused to acknowledge that it had connected. Oddly, though, the stupid little puck had no problem at all connecting to my home wireless. After many, many hours of cursing, reconfiguration, Googling, inserting more/different hardware, resetting to factory defaults after completely screwing things up and desperation, I finally had an idea: Create a wireless network on my home wireless with the same network name (SSID) and password as I would have set up on the RV wireless. Got both of the new Google Cast devices configured, connected, upgraded, and tested on the home wireless with no issues whatsoever and sure enough, when I shut down that network and turned on the gear destined for the RV, the stupid things connected right off the bat. Still have no idea why that worked, slightly pissed off that it did, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
So if you happen to use a Ubiquiti Networks NanoStation M2 or M5 and airGateway in your RV and can’t figure out why your new Chromecast devices won’t connect, I don’t either (yet). But if you take them home and set them up on your home network with the same SSID and password, they should work in the RV. If you got here because you Google’d that particular issue and read all the way down to this point just to get that tidbit, my apologies.