martin
Member
Hi all
Just about to dive back into the market and buy next boat. So have been working on design for boats AV system.
I need the fastest and most reliable internet connection possible capable of me working from the boat during the day and supporting an evening of me watching BBC Iplayer on a smart TV, while teenagers bash the net with Ipads from there cabin. Before anyone suggests we stop using the AV and return to real boating and play scrabble by oil lamp together we just don't like doing that enuf said.
So, initially, I was working on Wifi Boosters etc to make sure that I got the best "air connection" possible. Then I remembered that most of the marinas I have been to seem to have a very poor/slow setup. Good for emails etc but not for downloading a film or a lync video call to the office. That said its cheap so it has a role to play in the design but was not sure if it should be the primary connection to the net.
I had heard that the 4G networks were going to offer huge step up in speed and reliability and so being curious I decided to test it. Well WOW is all I can say.
I bought the EE 4G Alcatel dongle £39.99 and plugged in, it took a few calls to the router support team to get it online and out here in Herts where my house is I got a poor 1% connection strength... hence wasn't hopeful of any massive performance.
So was very surprised when fired up the Samsung Smart TV and connected to BBC Iplayer. Firstly it connected fine...secondly left it running for couple of hours, no buffering at all!
Then tried a test Lync video call to the office all good. YCAM security camera streaming good to. Sonos radio also good. various combos no problem..
I am so impressed at the Umph in this test that am thinking of doing away with marina wifi option and investing in another dongle (the draytek router can support two USB dongle connections) from a different network provider and getting the router to load balance/fall back across the two connections. That way if we have a problem on one network it should switch to the other without interrupting throughput. Anyway just thought I would share as could be useful for a few of the tech types.
Just about to dive back into the market and buy next boat. So have been working on design for boats AV system.
I need the fastest and most reliable internet connection possible capable of me working from the boat during the day and supporting an evening of me watching BBC Iplayer on a smart TV, while teenagers bash the net with Ipads from there cabin. Before anyone suggests we stop using the AV and return to real boating and play scrabble by oil lamp together we just don't like doing that enuf said.
So, initially, I was working on Wifi Boosters etc to make sure that I got the best "air connection" possible. Then I remembered that most of the marinas I have been to seem to have a very poor/slow setup. Good for emails etc but not for downloading a film or a lync video call to the office. That said its cheap so it has a role to play in the design but was not sure if it should be the primary connection to the net.
I had heard that the 4G networks were going to offer huge step up in speed and reliability and so being curious I decided to test it. Well WOW is all I can say.
I bought the EE 4G Alcatel dongle £39.99 and plugged in, it took a few calls to the router support team to get it online and out here in Herts where my house is I got a poor 1% connection strength... hence wasn't hopeful of any massive performance.
So was very surprised when fired up the Samsung Smart TV and connected to BBC Iplayer. Firstly it connected fine...secondly left it running for couple of hours, no buffering at all!
Then tried a test Lync video call to the office all good. YCAM security camera streaming good to. Sonos radio also good. various combos no problem..
I am so impressed at the Umph in this test that am thinking of doing away with marina wifi option and investing in another dongle (the draytek router can support two USB dongle connections) from a different network provider and getting the router to load balance/fall back across the two connections. That way if we have a problem on one network it should switch to the other without interrupting throughput. Anyway just thought I would share as could be useful for a few of the tech types.
