And all without grandkid assist!

[Robin]

Finally got my on board network up and running. Our marina has wifi but connecting my wireless printer without it being available for all and sundry to use but easy for me proved troublesome. Iintitial solution was lappie talk to printer via phone hotspot internet via marina wifi direct, cumbersome, logoff one onto another press print, go other end of boat and find it didn't, back and do again with crossed fingers.....

Anyway bought a little netgear wifi extender gizmo and link that to marina wifi, then connect all on board stuff to said gizmo, bingo it works , plus the gizmo only drops the wifi signal rarely versus frequently when connected direct from laptop £16 well spent.:encouragement: My geek rating on the dock has hit record highs.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NIUHAG6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[lindsay]

Very interested in the Netgear gizmo since my much touted Med marina wifi does not stretch to all berths, including mine.

I clearly do not have your tecchie skills and my grandkids are 400 miles away.

Does this mean that a click or two on Amazon could actually solve the problem? Would it also work at an anchorage close to, but not close enough, to a beach restaurant eqipped with wifi. Sounds too good to be true! What is the catch?

 

[Robin]

Very interested in the Netgear gizmo since my much touted Med marina wifi does not stretch to all berths, including mine.

I clearly do not have your tecchie skills and my grandkids are 400 miles away.

Does this mean that a click or two on Amazon could actually solve the problem? Would it also work at an anchorage close to, but not close enough, to a beach restaurant eqipped with wifi. Sounds too good to be true! What is the catch?

Limited geek skills here, just trial and lots of errors. To get the netgear gadget initially hooked to the available wifi, it needs a decent signal. instructions say plug it in close to the router, clearly not fesasible unless you take it and a laptop or similar ashore. In my case the direct signal in our berth is strong enough, just intermittent, especially at busy times like weekends. I just plugged into a high point socket in the main cabin and looked for signals on the laptop, clicked on the main marina one and followed on screen instructions, including entering the provided wifi access code. the gadget then calls itself the same name -EXT, which you can rename in set up, I added my boat name. Once there you can access it from any phone, computer, notebook, printer etc. I chose not to separately password protect the extender as it has limited range itself so little use to others unless right alongside us and the main access wifi asks anyway if it thinks to irritate, like after a power outage. I tested a neighbour's similar extender, and whilst connected to that could do no more and it asked for his main code (they are all different and time limited, to one or 6 months)
Since installing our connections have been hugely better, mostly the extender shows a constant green light, but over the weekend when the local holiday apartments are in use, we saw intermittent red (no internet) lights but usually for only 20 seconds or so before going green again. The real joy is having the printer/scanner on the same network and immediately available. Internet speds seem good, possibly a tad slower than a direct connection but with no intermittent stops, and using a laptop in the next cabin and SWMBO streaming music videos same time. My phone wifi test app said 70b/s next to the extender haven't tried it moving around though.

 

[lindsay]

Many thanks for the detailed reply. Will give it some thought and experimentation.

GOOD SAILING!