Best Marina WI FI

Nostrodamus

Nostrodamus

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7 Mar 2011
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www.cygnus3.com
I have found that a lot of Marina Wi Fi is expensive and very often very poor and slow.
What marinas do you know with wi fi and what is it like
Fox’s marina at Ipswich is free but can be slow.
Hull is “I need broadband” which is expensive, looses signal or is week.
St Kats is Spectrum which is pretty fast but expensive.
 
WiFi in my marina at Marmaris is a bit patchy, and WiFi outside very variable. This year I bought a WiFi dongle that gets its signal over the Turkcell mobile phone network, which has excellent coverage all round the coast. I am pretty sure that something similar from Vodaphone, Orange etc would solve most problems in the UK.

P.S. Does anyone know if the program is on the dongle or the sim? If its on the sim perhaps I could buy a local one when in France or Italy.
 
sarabande said:
wifi Spark every time. They are in MDL.


http://www.wifispark.com/


Good functionality; good UK coverage. excellent support.
Click to expand...

I've had issues with Wi-Fi Spark. It was not clear how to logoff so was being logged for an hour even after 5 mins use (to be fair they credited me for lost hours and I now know what to do...but it's not intuitive) and although it's fast for a minute or so, it then slows right down. I get better performance from my Three and Vodafone dongles.
 
Norman_E said:
WiFi in my marina at Marmaris is a bit patchy, and WiFi outside very variable. This year I bought a WiFi dongle that gets its signal over the Turkcell mobile phone network, which has excellent coverage all round the coast. I am pretty sure that something similar from Vodaphone, Orange etc would solve most problems in the UK.

P.S. Does anyone know if the program is on the dongle or the sim? If its on the sim perhaps I could buy a local one when in France or Italy.
Click to expand...

The connection program is on the dongle. However, provided the dongle is not locked to a particular provider (you can download a program from the net to check if it is) you can just insert a sim from a different provider. If the dongle is locked you can usually unlock it with a code - just search the web.

The connection program on the dongle is usually a cut-down version. Check the website of whichever company provides the software and you can probably upgrade to a full-functionality version for free. You should get a faster and more stable connection.

Richard
 
Rather than using the marinas own wifi which I refuse to use at the prices they charge, I use the various BT Openzones / BT Fon hotspots as I travel.

If you are a BT broadband customer then you can get free access to BT Fon/Openzones (as long as the Openzone/Fon hotspots are enabled on your BT Router), if your broadband provider is someone other than BT you can purchase an access point to leave connected at home to create a BT Fon public hotspot for others to use (check your ISPs T&Cs) whilst you are travelling and then connect to other BT Fon spots for free while you are travelling.

I use a long range Ubiquity Bullet 2HP pulled up to under the shrouds to give me a good sensitive wifi receiver that is able to pickup weak/distant hotspots and so far around the Solent I have not had to break out my 3G dongle once in 2011! I was particularly impressed with it finding a connection all along the Beaulieu River where I was expecting not to get anything.

All up, my setup has cost me approx £150 for the bullet, an 8db omni antenna, cat5 cable and a 12v power injector. I am very pleased with this setup and recommend it although it has been noted in the past that the Bullet does need a little technical knowhow to get configured initially. At the prices the marina wifi providers charge, I am hoping to be better off very soon!

If you’re not a BT customer, the Fonera SIMPL (https://shop.fon.com/FonShop/shop/GB/ShopController?view=product&product=PRD-023) costs £34 which for unlimited access to other FON hotspots I think is good value. You can also use the BT Fon network to connect your smart phone etc too whilst you are out and about.

More info about the BT Fon network can be found at: www.bt.com/btfon

I hope this is of some use
Simon
 
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Brest was good and free, and Les Minimes and La Corruna good for 1 Euro a day. Other places were pattchy, reception was berth dependant and I would recomend always having an amplified antenna to get the best out of the service.

In the UK I used a 3 dongle, much faster and more reliable, and you can use it at sea too.
 
Help with wi fi

Not sure on what to do, complete idiot when it comes to this sort of thing.

Going from the East Coast down to SW and or France this coming weekend for three/four weeks. Assumed I can just take wifes laptop which is set up for wireless connection at home and automatically access the net in a wi fi marina, is it as simple as that?
 
tidclacy said:
Not sure on what to do, complete idiot when it comes to this sort of thing.

Going from the East Coast down to SW and or France this coming weekend for three/four weeks. Assumed I can just take wifes laptop which is set up for wireless connection at home and automatically access the net in a wi fi marina, is it as simple as that?
Click to expand...

You might well have to pay unless you can find a free wifi hotspot. Go into "connect to a network" by right-clicking on the network icon in the system tray. Try all the networks that appear and see if you can connect to one which doesn't ask for a password or want your credit card details.

I think most of the paid wifi points are a rip-off because you pay for an hour or 24 hours (or whatever) from the time you connect even if you are online for just a few minutes to check a weather forecast. Try and store up all the things you want to do online to make the most of your allotted time!

A local 3G dongle is much better because you only pay for actual usage in megabytes. However, if you have a non-local dongle, you end up paying international roaming charges which are another rip-off! :mad:

Richard
 
Breskens - at €40 for the season April to October is good value for money, fast and reliable. The yacht club bar network is free but my screen always gets a bit fuzzy after a few hours - or is it a few beers..............
 
bluedragon said:
I get better performance from my Three and Vodafone dongles.
Click to expand...

We also make use of MDL's spark WiFi service, but extremely rarely use it. Did a speed test comparing speeds with my Three dongle once - the dongle was much faster, and of course less hassle.

My Firefox browser will place a small window giving time connected, plus a log-off button while using Spark WiFi. Otherwise you can disconnect by placing something like this in the address location: 1.1.1.1.
 
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Yacht Haven have free wifi for annual bertholders, a unique code is obtained from the marina office. It's as fast as home broadband and the signal is excellent. I believe it is available across all yacht haven marinas and is also available for visitors.

I think the service is provided by "spectrum wifi".

Ian
 
Spectrum StKats. 5145kbps. Just tested it.
HD iplayer without glitches. Love it. 50quid for 3 months. Everything is St Kats is expensive short term.

Apart from beer.

WHich is expensive long term as well :)
 
PhilipF said:
My Firefox browser will place a small window giving time connected, plus a log-off button while using Spark WiFi. Otherwise you can disconnect by placing something like this in the address location: 1.1.1.1.
Click to expand...

Both Chrome and the latest IE seem to block that window, which was my issue. The fix is to go to the spark wi-fi home page and there you'll see the disconnect button. When I asked Spark if this was explained anywhere, the answer was "Errr...not sure". I suspect a lot of people are having their hours sucked up in this way. It can't just be me.
 
There are about 26 good signals I get from various units around St Kats all of which are blocked apart from the pay ones.
What happened to those days when people did not understand wi fi and they did not lock them? (not that I would ever for one moment think about using them). A lot of the wi fi here are bars and buisnesses. It would be nice if they would leave them open after they had gone home.
 
tidclacy said:
Not sure on what to do, complete idiot when it comes to this sort of thing.

Going from the East Coast down to SW and or France this coming weekend for three/four weeks. Assumed I can just take wifes laptop which is set up for wireless connection at home and automatically access the net in a wi fi marina, is it as simple as that?
Click to expand...

'.... is it as simple as that?'

Just about.

Go to the marina office and see if they have wi-fi and they will sign you up for it. In some places it's free, e.g. Cherbourg and Loctudy. In other places you pay for the time you are connected.

There is a company called Netabord that offers the service in several marinas and you can also deal direct with them. You buy a certain amount of time and pay with a credit card. When it runs out you just top it up. a few weeks ago I think it cost me 6 Euros for 4 hours.

http://www.netabord.fr/index.en.asp

To save expense it's worth composing your emails before going on line, then sending them off in one burst.

Also many cafes and bars ashore offer free wifi to customers and some marinas (e.g. Port Haliguen) have computers in the capitenerie for visitors to use f.o.c
 
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Just back from a holiday up the west coast of Scotland, specifically from Islay and the Sound of Jura, north, to Oban.

Port Ellen, Islay. 3 dongle worked fantastic. BTOpenzone available onshore.
Ardminish Bay, Gigha. BT OpenZone from a few places on the island but while our external wifi aerial picked up the signal, we could not connect until onshore. Well worht being a bt customer for this reason alone !
West Loch Tarbet. At the head of the loch you can just get 3 dongle to work. There were 2 wifi hotspots called west loch wifi or something but both were encrypted - not sure what these were.
Tayvallich, Loch Sween. BT Open Zone from the cafe, we anchored outside the inner bay due to limited swinging room but I suspect you could use BTOpenZone from on board.
Crinan anchorage. Free wifi from Crinan Boatyard. Limited 3 dongle coverage.
Ardfern Marina, Loch Craignish. BTOpenZone using external high gain aerial.
Craobh Haven. Free wifi from marina, encrypted. Didn't work with external aerial as Edimax Access Point we use didn't like the encryption. Good signal from marina for below decks. BtOpenZone from shore or SpeedTouch unencrypted worked fine :-)
Melfort. Free wifi from yacht club (seemed to turn off at night??)
Kerrera marina, Oban. 3 dongle worked great, never tried wifi. BTOpenzone from mainland only.

I think the key is to be flexible with the way you can connect so that those all important grib files can be downloaded quickly if coverage is limited.

Hope this is of help to some.


Mark
 
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