Enhancing wifi below decks

[MiracleMaud]

Good afternoon. I am hoping the collective knowledge of the forum will be able to give me some useful pointers to improving the wifi down below on our boat.

Our boat is a nice sturdy ketch, and without help, we have always had limited success picking up wifi from down below. A few years ago we bought a Digital Yacht WL50 (affectionately known as the light sabre), which transformed the use of the internet below, but this is a USB connection, and therefore available on one laptop. We have tried Connectify to share the connection wirelessly from the connected laptop, but we have found this slows things up dramatically – at best. The wifi available is only c1.5mb, so any slowing up is very noticeable.

Recently, we have invested in a Slingbox in order to enjoy UK tv on the boat (which is outside UK). It works well, but watching at the nav desk, where the light sabre is wired too isn’t wholly convenient.

Are there any things we could do to “collect” and ideally boost the wifi available, and have a wifi signal below? Ordinarily, there is one laptop (with a b/g/n capable wifi card), an iPad and an iphone aboard. When I am there, there are double the gizmos and 50% of the patience.

Thanks in anticipation.

Maud

 

[MrCramp]

I don't know owt about this but maybe something in this post will help.
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?353252-Using-2-computers-from-one-wifi-signal

 

[nigelmercier]

I don't know owt about this but maybe something in this post will help.
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?353252-Using-2-computers-from-one-wifi-signal

Good call, look at my post #3

 

[MiracleMaud]

Good call, look at my post #3

Thank you both for your responses.

In order to be connected to internet below (in any usable form), we use the light sabre. I'm assuming you were meaning bringing the wifi below using the light sabre, then sending it around the cabins via the internal card? Unfortunately, to use the light sabre, we find we need to turn the internal wifi card in the laptop off, so that would prohibit using the wifi card as a sharing medium.

If I could be so bold as to ask:

- When on shore power, would a domestic styleeee of access point work? Would the signal we receive be weakened by "passing through" the access point? Or indeed, could it be boosted in any way?
- If an access point would work, what sort of thing would you recommend? We would need to find something either dual voltage of 110v, but that translation could be simple enough with a known manufacturer?


When outside the limits of shoreside wifi, we accept that a 3/4G card is the way forward, but that is a very expensive option for streaming video, so for now, we'll stick with improving the access to shoreside if we can.

Thanks again.

 

[deuc02]

At the moment use the WL500 which I think is just the WL50 with the amp and antenna split. The onboard pc has no in-built wi-fl so use a USB wi-fi dongle. Connectify is set to use the 500 as the incoming signal and the dongle as the sharing signal. Works well (bar Connectify stability issues) with no loss of signal when shared. Don't understand why you have to turn the wifi card of to use the WL50, but I guess the way round it would be to invest in a USB wifi dongle. Don't know what OS you're using but this all works ok on Win 7.

 

[Squeaky]

Good afternoon. I am hoping the collective knowledge of the forum will be able to give me some useful pointers to improving the wifi down below on our boat.
Maud

If you are successful in increasing the bandwidth available below decks it seems to me that you will be reducing the bandwidth available to the people who own the modem and ADSL/Wi-fi service you are tapping into.

It does not seem fair that someone who is using an open Wi-fi outlet should "hog" the entire output.

I have my own land line and modem and would be annoyed if anyone I gave the password hogged most of the bandwidth.

Cheers

Squeaky

 

[Tony Cross]

<snip>

We have tried Connectify to share the connection wirelessly from the connected laptop, but we have found this slows things up dramatically – at best. The wifi available is only c1.5mb, so any slowing up is very noticeable.

<snip>

I think Connectify is your best option for sharing a single wireless connection. The "slowness" you are seeing is most likely a problem with the laptop running Connectify, it may be under-powered (slow CPU, not enough RAM) or it may be bottle-necked by running other applications at the same times as Connectify. Before I went the 3G MiFi route I ran Connectify on a fairly low-end Compaq Presario (1.5GHz dual-core Centrino CPU and 2GB RAM) and there was no "slowness" observed on either of the other laptops connected to it via Connectify.

 

[Conachair]

Not an answer but netlimiter moniter is free and will let you see what is going in and out of a laptop and how much each prog is using. Really useful bit of software.

http://www.netlimiter.com/download.php

 

[MiracleMaud]

If you are successful in increasing the bandwidth available below decks it seems to me that you will be reducing the bandwidth available to the people who own the modem and ADSL/Wi-fi service you are tapping into.

It does not seem fair that someone who is using an open Wi-fi outlet should "hog" the entire output.

I have my own land line and modem and would be annoyed if anyone I gave the password hogged most of the bandwidth.

Cheers

Squeaky

Squeaky - Which part or parts of any of my posts leads you to believe that I am stealing anyone's bandwidth? On that matter you are completely wrong, but do feel free to make a constructive contribution to the thread.

 

[MiracleMaud]

I think Connectify is your best option for sharing a single wireless connection. The "slowness" you are seeing is most likely a problem with the laptop running Connectify, it may be under-powered (slow CPU, not enough RAM) or it may be bottle-necked by running other applications at the same times as Connectify. Before I went the 3G MiFi route I ran Connectify on a fairly low-end Compaq Presario (1.5GHz dual-core Centrino CPU and 2GB RAM) and there was no "slowness" observed on either of the other laptops connected to it via Connectify.

The laptop on board is a fairly new Dell. I can't recall the processor speed, but it is running Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit), with 8gb of ram. The incoming broadband speed is just about 1.5meg, so there's not too much to work with.

 

[MiracleMaud]

Not an answer but netlimiter moniter is free and will let you see what is going in and out of a laptop and how much each prog is using. Really useful bit of software.

http://www.netlimiter.com/download.php

Thanks. We'll have a look a that.

 

[nigelmercier]

Unfortunately, to use the light sabre, we find we need to turn the internal wifi card in the laptop off, so that would prohibit using the wifi card as a sharing medium...

So you didn't read my post #3 then?

 

[MiracleMaud]

Apologies. I'll re-read.

 

[deuc02]

From Digital Yacht website

If you are using one of our WL products at the same time as the internal WiFi, it may cause problems, your best option is to turn off the internal adaptor in the Wireless Network Adaptors section of the Control Panel and just run with the WL.

Other common factors are if you are using a USB extension cable, this will lose signal the longer the cable is, the 5m cable supplied being the recommended length. We do offer a 5m-extension cable but you should only fit one of these, otherwise you start to get loading and latency problems.

Lastly the Wireless Router you are connected to may be a cause, as some marinas still use old technology with limited range.

Date created: 2011-06-08 09:52:04

Which probably explains why their aqua nav pc's don't come with internal wi-fi. So your cheapest solution is probably a USB wifi dongle for sharing the signal through connectify. That set up works fine

 

[nigelmercier]

Apologies. I'll re-read.

I've just re-read it myself, it rather relied on the previous post, so I've made it a bit clearer.

 

[KellysEye]

We bought a high gain antenna, a long extension lead for the USB port and tied the anenna to the boom. Reception levels and range rocketed.

 

[nigelmercier]

From Digital Yacht website... if you are using a USB extension cable, this will lose signal the longer the cable is...

What total nonsense.

 

[Tony Cross]

What total nonsense.

The maximum length of 5m for a high-speed USB cable is indeed not signal attenuation it's signal timing issues. See http://www.usb.org/developers/usbfaq#cab1

 

[superheat6k]

My iPhone 5 provides a Personal Hotspot as long as it as a 3G connection on its display.

Works well for email in and out of my IPad and I can hook several devices to it apparently.

Not yet tried it on the boat as last time out Lymington Yacht haven gave us free Wifi access with our visitor stay fees. Not sure how much the data will lad the bill so I am waiting for my firms mobile account manager to moan at me if it is expensive. Our mobile provider is Vodafone, but I understand this work on lots of networks, and monthly data costs may be cost effective as an add on.

 

[nigelmercier]

The maximum length of 5m for a high-speed USB cable is indeed not signal attenuation it's signal timing issues. See http://www.usb.org/developers/usbfaq#cab1

And easily fixed by 5m - 15m active extension cables or repeaters:

http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg90599/lead-usb2-0-active-extension-5m/dp/CS22109?
http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg90601/lead-usb2-0-repeater-10m/dp/CS22120?
http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/psg90602/lead-usb2-0-repeater-15m/dp/CS22121?