Floating French Internet

SgtColon

SgtColon

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 Jun 2010
Messages
114
Location
Nr Manchester / boat at Cap D'Agde, France
Visit site
I have to admit that when it comes to gadgetry and especially the internet I am a dinosaur. I am capable of standing in PC World with a dazed stare and a total lack of understanding at what I am looking at or why I would need it. As my family no longer consists of teenagers to resolve my issues I feel the need to seek help from the forum where other dinosaurs may have been helped through similar technical matters by their teenage offspring.
This year I shall be taking my boat across the channel at which point I shall be throwing overboard my contract smartphone that I never fully understood and purchasing a cheapy pay as you go phone purely for phone calls within France
Question 1. Any advice which provider for best coverage. I shall be sailing through the rivers and canals down to Languedoc Roussillon where I shall be remaining.
Questions 2 (The main one) and 3. I want to fit the boat with equipment that will provide me with a reliable internet service. This will be my primary means of communication with home throughout the journey and at the end of that journey I shall be living on the boat for 6 – 12months whilst property hunting so the internet will be used extensively. What gadget do I need to fit to the boat to receive the internet signal (Can I buy it and have it fitted in UK or will I need to buy it in France)
and any advice about which internet service provider will be the most reliable for me in the South of France
Thanks
Graham
 
Previous threads that may be of some interest:-
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?417605-Yacht-Router-Micro-4G
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?395215-G3-G4-and-WIFI-access-point-in-one-box
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...)-any-good-Advice-and-starter-for-10-required
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?415149-Wifi-onboard-my-solution
More threads on the PBO Reader to Reader forum.

If I was in your situation I would think about putting good free WiFi near the top of my list of features to look for when selecting a permanent mooring. All the alternatives will cost you a lot of money in data charges. If looking at marina WiFi you need to discover (by experiment, not asking because the staff won't know the answers) the quality of the marina's broadband connection, the contention rate from users sharing that connection, and the signal strength and reliability on your own individual berth. Most marina WiFi is rubbish because of contention issues (too many people trying to share the connection). If staying somewhere inland for a long time you might do better to find a local business within range that would do a deal to let you install your own wireless router hanging off theirs. Very simple to do, I've just done it for someone who is staying with us at home, using one of these: http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/support/product/dir-605l-wireless-n-300-home-cloud-router

Alternatives include:
1. Don't throw away your smartphone. Instead, find a service provider that will let you tether (connect your phone to a laptop computer and use the phone to connect to the internet). Buy the necessary cable from Maplin - the shop staff will help you find the right one. I do this all the time.
2. Buy a WiFi router which takes a SIM card, better still one that takes two. On our boat we have this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Huawei-Unlocked-Mobile-Router-Genuine/dp/B013P15G4K - make sure you buy an unlocked router (ie: not tied to one service provider). We got ours from WiFi Onboard because they also supply booster antennae, you won't know if you need one of these until you test your connection in your berth. See http://www.wifionboard.co.uk/product-category/canal-boat-wifi/
Both these alternatives depend on having a good line-of-sight from your boat to the mast used by your network. So it's kind of like choosing the marina, if you really need the internet and you can't find good marina WiFi what you must do is find a berth with really good cellphone connectivity. You may even end up choosing your network based on the cellphone signal. Better to pay a bit extra per Gigabyte than save money on the SIM cards and find you have to walk a mile to the top of a hill before you can connect. At least that's what I think.
 
I use the €20/month sim-only from free.fr (widely available from vending machines, and can be paid with a UK credit card) and a huawei 4g mifi. All works very well.
 
Crikey, Thanks there’s some material to digest there. It’s going to be several weeks sailing leisurely through France before I arrive at anything resembling a permanent berth so that idea of tethering a smartphone on a French network provider to the laptop sounds promising. Thankyou
 
Simpler solution.

Take your laptop and passport to a French phone shop [ possibly Orange ] and ask for a data dongle. Looks like a memory stick but needs SIM card to function. Get a PAYG data SIM and ask them to set it up.

Then if you can't find a free WIFI signal plug in the dongle and if it can find a cell tower you are online.

If you are a heavy data user it may pay you to research a long term contract with unlimited data but these are hard to find in France and the French islands.
 
TQA said:
Simpler solution. Take your laptop and passport to a French phone shop [ possibly Orange ] and ask for a data dongle. Looks like a memory stick but needs SIM card to function. Get a PAYG data SIM and ask them to set it up. Then if you can't find a free WIFI signal plug in the dongle and if it can find a cell tower you are online. If you are a heavy data user it may pay you to research a long term contract with unlimited data but these are hard to find in France and the French islands.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. I should have thought of that. But I still say that if connectivity is important you MUST choose your long-term berth carefully. No point in buying a dongle and then finding that you can't connect on your berth. Doesn't matter while you are on the move but when you settle down for 6-12 months house hunting you are really going to curse if your dongle cannot "see" the network mast.
 
TQA said:
Simpler solution.

Take your laptop and passport to a French phone shop [ possibly Orange ] and ask for a data dongle. Looks like a memory stick but needs SIM card to function. Get a PAYG data SIM and ask them to set it up.

Then if you can't find a free WIFI signal plug in the dongle and if it can find a cell tower you are online.

If you are a heavy data user it may pay you to research a long term contract with unlimited data but these are hard to find in France and the French islands.
Click to expand...

Fabulous .... That sounds favourite for the journey down. May depend upon the final marina as to wether I can continue with this French Orange dongle or switch to Jimmy the Builders huawei 4g mifi to which I can if neccesary fit a booster ariel. Thanks all

Graham
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
I use the €20/month sim-only from free.fr (widely available from vending machines, and can be paid with a UK credit card) and a huawei 4g mifi. All works very well.
Click to expand...

How much data do you get with that Jimi? I am looking for a backup for our villa broad band that seems to have become increasingly unreliable lately.
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
Yep, as mcanderson says, it's 50gb on their native 4g network, 3gb when roaming (on 3g).
Click to expand...

I use Free with a 20 euro/month (actually 15 euros/month as I have it bundled with ADSL access at home). This gives free calls from the mobile phone to fixed lines in many countries (including the UK), internet access. Also the internet access is free and works in Spain (and probably many other places I have not tried).

I just tether to it and use it with my laptop for professional email, gribs, weather forecasts and accessing these forums when on the boat.

The internet works well in most places. I get internet access most of the time while at sea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

R
Moving on.
2
Replies
29
Views
1K
Greg2
Greg2
boatmike
Merry Fisher 695
Replies
3
Views
209
Bouba
Bouba

Share this page

Top