Broadband internet

[robertevans]

I am half way to buying a 50ft sail boat, my intention is to live on her, and sail round med for 3 years with wife and 2 kids, want broad band to stay in contact with family work and information.
The cost of self positioning dish for sat broadband £10000.
The cost of a gimbeled tracking self position dish for sat broadband £36000.
both of these are to costly for me.
has anyone used a shore based system to position when stoped, is this possible help me please.

 

[MedMan]

Re: Broadband Internet

There is currently no economic way in which you can have a broadband connection where ever you are. WiFi is becoming available in more and more places and 3G still holds out the promise of a mid-band connection - but only a promise. In many places, especially if you intend to anchor up in remote bays, 56K on GPRS is as good as you can hope for and you won't always get that.

If you follow the link below to my website you will find a paper on Communication in European Waters which you may find helpful.

 

[robertevans]

Re: Broadband Internet

Thanks for the info, but untill some tells me why i canot set up a land bast broadband sat dish when i stop i realy want it.
Even better some who has done it and what thay used.
info would be gratfull.

 

[vyv_cox]

Re: Broadband Internet

You could look at http://www.kvh.com/kvhinternet/ Too expensive for me.

 

[roly_voya]

Problem with using land based stuff even at anchor is that the boat swings so you constantly loose arial alignment. Havnt tried broad band but this is a prob lem with TV/radio so guess it would be the same. In a marina you might be still enough but are then sarrounded by masts which block the signal. Would definately say 'try before you buy' Have you looked at internet cafes ie do you need to be always on line or could you do say one session per week on broad band and use GSM for emails in between?

 

[robertevans]

Hi thanks for input do you think it may work if i put 2 anchors down one at the bow and one at stern hold them tight as there is no tide in med.

 

[robertevans]

Re: Broadband Internet

yes i agree too expensive these are £36000

 

[gfbalduc]

As far as I know, land-based broadband systems are generally unidirectional, i.e. you get only the "down" link via satellite, while the "up" link is via a conventional land-line (which may be the difficult part, even if you reside in one location for a long period).
There may be other technical snags as well (coverage limitations, access allowed only from the country of subscription, etc.).
If you are serious about internet access for professional use, then you may consider Regional RBGAN: simple equipment in the range of 500 quid, and traffic at about 10$/Megabyte: not cheap, and not really broadband at 144kb/s, but much better than GSM/GPRS (the latter seldom available away from major towns) and you get coverage also from deserted coves (like in Corsica) where GSM may be absent.
You need the boat to be reasonably stable, though.

We common mortals normally stick with GSM (coastal coverage almost everywhere in the Med), SSB e-mail only services, Iridium or other satphones, depending on budget.
(not mentioning internet cafes as they do not address your type of need)

 

[finnlou]

http://www.orbitresearch.co.uk/docs/satellite_adsl.html

only £1000 to buy, but still costly to use at
Per Megabyte (MB) $10.80

 

[claudio]

Some providers do uplink as well. You need a stable base for the dish. see here for info. I have used them on a land based setup when broadband would be otherwise unavailable. Reliability is unpredictable, latency is high (forget VOIP)

 

[Talbot]

I will pass on your request for data to abnera (I have a contact with them) to see what they can do.

 

[TonyMS]

On our river barge, we use satellite for radio reception. The dish is fixed to a fencepost on the bank. I set it up myself, and can reset it in 10 mins or so without any special equipment. I reckon you could get adequate alignment when moored to a quay.

As for doing broadband, this http://www.europeonline.com/ might be an economical possibility. However it only deals with download, and I reckon upload takes a surprising quarter of the total volume when browsing.

 

[Vindleka]

We have been in the Med since August and have needed to connect regularly to the internet for work and all the other normal reasons. We have found that a combination of laptop-friendly internet cafes and wifi connections, when available has worked pretty well for us. We are currently in Viareggio, Italy for the winter, working on a wifi connection that costs €2 per day.

In our experience, it is hard to imagine any land-based system working in the places we have visited. In most anchorages, and some marinas, you would probably need an anchor on either side of the boat, as well as front and back, to keep the boat anywhere near stable!

We have a list of the internet facilities we have found useful on the 'information' section of our website www.vindleka.com

 

[Vindleka]

Re: Broadband internet *DELETED*

Post deleted by keithwalker

 

[claudio]

I was not suggesting that a land based system would work on a boat. I was offering information on a two way system (i.e. with satelite uplink). There may be a possibility of using the system on the quayside (stable). The system is definately NOT suitable for a boat as it is not gyro stabilised. Tying the boat down with anchors will not get a suitable signal.

 

[robertevans]

Thanks for your input
but the land based system i an looking at will connect 2 way to the same sat as the one for sea at £59 per month as I would spend half this on one phone call with my mum (she can talk) plus to webcam frends download tv ect at a fixed price

 

[robertevans]

tooo costly i would spend alot on Megabytes

 

[robertevans]

thanks but i do need two way broadband,
I too have set a dish but for sky, becouse it was second hand i tryed the dish on a rocking chare in room pointing out of window, after it being there and my kids playing moving it to change signal my son 4 at time could aline dish in mins. for sky 1-2 deg out still gave a signal. i need to know would a 50ft boat in a shelterd location well ancherd well move more than this

 

[robertevans]

thanks

 

[ccscott49]

Yes, a 50 footer in a sheltered location would move more than that. The main problem is not recieving, it's transmitting. Sky is much more forgiving than a comunications satellite, also sky is not forgiving in the meddy, anywhere and you need a bigger dish in the med for sky. I tried using a land based mini "M" system in the med on the boat, no good atall. Nor was Mini "M"4. I use wifi when available and gsm when not, dont know about all this gprs and the new one 3G etc. Havent spoken to anybody using it down here. Probably too expensive anyway! Definitely not broadband either. If there's anybody out there who can explain the syatem to me, in simple terms and can point me in the right direction for a syatem which works in Spain and the ballearics, I would be interested.