Boat WiFi.

Allan

Allan

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On recent trips I've had problems maintaining connection to marina WiFi systems.
I am thinking of puting together a WiFi network on my boat. My plan is to have a mast mounted omnidirectional aerial feeding a booster box, possibly an Alfa unit as recommended on previous threads.
What I would like to do is connect this to a router, rather than directly to a laptop. My first question is whether this is possible? If there is a way of doing it, I would be interested to hear of any low consumption parts to use.
Allan
 
Can I first say I'm a bit of a luddite on this, yet trying to see the light.

I'm sure this is a problem that many cruising sailors experience, namely the marina wifi doesn't reach much further than the office and the use of just a smart phone is inadequate.

Whilst being abroad I have experienced the problem for a few months at a time, which can be more than inconvenient at certain times, as we sadly come to rely upon this method of communication for certain things.

Talking to others recently, I have been recommended the Alpha system and I already have bought through a forumite, one part of the Alpha system and I've also been told about the 'Red Box' system which has various forms, one of their latest systems can enable a phone or pad to be the control, see ....http://www.mailasail.com/Communication/Red-Box

I have also had the pleasure of meeting a lady called Mei, who has a mobile office aboard her HR and is (I say with great respect) a fanatic on knowing about communications systems. I do not have her expertise and cannot vouch for her information, but it certainly worked for her.
see........ http://www.whisperhr.com/?page_id=953

More than this, I know not. However, I will look at this thread with great interest.
cheers

S.
 
Routers are no problem.You can pick one up off e bay for about £10.
With a micro usb charging socket they will operate via a car charger with micro usb plug.
Mine can either operate as a bridge,wifi booster or stand alone router with usb socket,phone socket,and line link to network devices.
 
I got mine from crucialwifi. They explain what you need. Omni aerial to an alfa wifi device, then usb lead to an alpha r36 which distributes it on to a wifi hotspot that any device on the boat can use.

Works great to improve weak signals. I use mine in penarth, it saves having to login to marina wifi for each device.
 
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I have an Alfa wifi booster that I use occasionally but for the most part I use a wifi brick on the local 3G/4G network which will support up to five devices. About the size of a packet of cigarettes and tiny power consumption. I buy a local data SIM card when we enter a new country and top up as we use it. We have found wifi too unreliable and slow to be of much use, especially in comparison to the speeds we can get using mobile internet. It's not free but it does work the vast majority of the time.
 
We have used a Bad Boy (by Bitstorm, a Canadian company) unit for the last three years - it has an active antenna and provides a hot spot for multiple devices on the boat. We have used this in the Caribbean and points East to Europe. Can be 12v or 220v powered. It has certainly paid for itself since we bought it - before this we used Alpha units extensively, but liked the flexibility and reliability (Skype etc.) the device offered us.
 
dominick21 said:
Wifi is always a necessary thing for travel and especially in cruises.
Click to expand...

So what's the deal with these sorts of posts? Is there a certain number that get quarantined and the operators post stuff like this to get them to the point where they can directly post spam? And how come they get past moderation?

In other news...to +1 what others have said...not only is plugging your external wireless into a router possible, it's also desirable. You can buy big high powered USB wifi devices (my "wifi bat", the thing LadyInBed points to and several of the alfa devices) and plug them directly into your computer but then you have to faff with finding drivers for them (with alfa-derived devices you're stuffed for OS X more recent than 10.9) and setting up some way of redistributing data from the computer it's plugged into. Better to plug them into a router which knows how to use them. Not many do, but the R36 which everyone recommends knows how to use other alfa USB devices. Personally I use a Raspberry Pi but my solution is hardly "consumer". Note though that the OpenPlotter people are talking about adding routing capability which might make the using-a-pi-as-a-boat-router more accessible (it isn't implemented yet though):
http://www.sailoog.com/en/openplotter

In the USB device category some devices (like mine) have an integrated antenna on a long USB lead. This is not ideal for a couple of reasons. The USB cable is actually longer than allowed by the USB spec (but as Mailasail will tell you, it does in fact work OK: I think Ed has tested it at up to 4x the spec) but more awkwardly a USB-A connector is not something easily cut off and re-attached, so feeding it through the deck requires a bigger hole than you might like. Other devices (I think like some of the alfas: others with direct knowledge please confirm) have interchangeable antennae which might be easier to deploy (RF experts can expand on the tradeoffs).

Devices like the Ubiquiti Bullet (and, I'm guessing, the bit storm bad boy Peroo has) fall into a different category: They are complete routers bundled into the base of a device you deploy outside and can fit a choice of antennae to. They're powered over the same ethernet cable which transfers data to your below-deck devices. Cutting off an RJ45 and re-crimping it is easy enough so getting it through the deck should be no problem. These kinds of devices you can then plug into the WAN ("Internet side") port of a wide variety of home wireless routers. Don't know how they are for power but lots of people seem to use TP-Link products for cheapness. That set-up (Bullet/TP-Link router) was factory fitted in a new Allures the owner showed me round last year. The Bullet seemed to be widely recommended on cruisersforum a few years back.

The "Bitstorm Bad Boy" seems much more expensive than the Bullet but from the specs is several times more powerful. That may or may not be a good thing depending on whether you're more concerned about power consumption or reach. And of course you have to have something on board called a "Bitstorm Bad Boy" which might not suit everyone's aesthetic.

I'll happily defer to those who recommend the alfa+alfa combo on price/performance (I've not used it). What I have works but I wouldn't recommend it on price, deployability and user friendliness grounds. If I was to pick a solution for a friend who wanted an easy to deploy and understand set-up I think I'd go with the bullet/cheap router option. Having looked at the AirOS manual (for the Bullet) it all looks very technically competent. Can't call that a personal recommendation as I don't have it but it is my armchair (well, saloon bench) research conclusion
 
In Spain this summer we used a British purchased '3' phone sim card as recommended by a forumite,

which had a package called 'As much as you can eat'. and for £20/month it gave us exactly that.

As much download as we wished for a modest sum with very good coverage as they used 'local

companies' to provide. e.g. Yoigo, Moviestar and Vodaphone.

This applies to a few countries in Europe and the cost can be justified easily even for moderate usage.

Just had this pop into my in box whilst typing my blog
http://www.digitalyachtamerica.com/...f-things-afloat-134800?utm_campaign=send_list
I have no other communications with DY other than having the cheapest of their old AIS receivers, which has very poor range.

S.
 
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