G3/G4 and WIFI access point in one box ?

[BartW]

On the boat I have this G3 modem, wifi network box:

http://www.vololink.com/ez-live/site/index.php/eng/Products/VoloAccess/VoloAccess

inside the box is a sim card, with a rechargeable data account,
so on the boat I have a ethernet / wifi network, connected to the internet through the G3 data connection.

many marina's have a local wifi network, so I would like to have a box or a solution,
that my Blue Angel Wifi network can be connected to the internet either via the G3 data card, OR via the local Wifi network where available

I prefer to alway's work via my local Blue Angel wifi network, because in the network are different units that can communicate via the network, ao:
- me and swmbo's Labtops
- the printer
- a Sonos sound system
- a Blue Angel Ipad, with weather pred. , music, etc...


any idea's ?

 

[EugeneR]

Your existing box has a WAN failover feature which provides Internet connection redundancy using a 2nd internet connection which can be an USB modem (3G or 4G maybe) or another device connected to the WAN port.

What I would do, is connect a long-range WIFI device to the WAN port. When you disable the built-in 3G connection, your box will fail over to the WIFI device which, of course, will need to be re-configured to connect to the marina wifi just like any other device. So, not automatic, but you get the benefit of fail-over and high power/sensitivity WIFI and do not have to re-configure your PC's etc.

 

[BartW]

Your existing box has a WAN failover feature which provides Internet connection redundancy using a 2nd internet connection which can be an USB modem (3G or 4G maybe) or another device connected to the WAN port.

What I would do, is connect a long-range WIFI device to the WAN port. When you disable the built-in 3G connection, your box will fail over to the WIFI device which, of course, will need to be re-configured to connect to the marina wifi just like any other device. So, not automatic, but you get the benefit of fail-over and high power/sensitivity WIFI and do not have to re-configure your PC's etc.

great idea,
I know the failover feature, good!

what kind of Wifi device would that be ? can you give an example ?

 

[jfm]

By coincidence I am also thinking about the same thing BartW, though for me access to the marina wifi is "nice to have" not "must have" because I've never found marina wifi with useful bandwidth. I seem always to be sharing a small connection with 100 users

Anyway, the hardware exsits eg this http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc.../800-series-routers/datasheet_C78-721036.html but it might be easier cheaper to keep your existing router and plug in a link to the marina wifi. I'm no expert so I am following this with interest.

Later on, if you don't mind me drifting/expanding the topic BartW, when your question has been answered can you tell me what SIM card/contract you use in France? I want a new 4G contract this summer (I have a French bank account and house so can get a full contract if needed) and would like to get this at sensible cost of course

 

[admillington]

I have just had one of these fitted:-

http://www.yachtrouter.com/index.php/models/yacht-router-micro

With an external antenna for both the Wi-Fi and Cellular. Having a few issues at the moment and will let you know when it is working correctly.

Regards


Andrew

 

[jfm]

I have just had one of these fitted:-

http://www.yachtrouter.com/index.php/models/yacht-router-micro

With an external antenna for both the Wi-Fi and Cellular. Having a few issues at the moment and will let you know when it is working correctly.

Regards


Andrew

That looks good Andrew apart from the fact it has only 1x LAN port (I need 2 on the boat to transfer content to B+O music server; I suppose I might be able to buy a LAN hub/switch thingy but that feels like another difficult-to-configure item). Anyway I'd be interested to hear how you get on

 

[BartW]

By coincidence I am also thinking about the same thing BartW, though for me access to the marina wifi is "nice to have" not "must have" because I've never found marina wifi with useful bandwidth. I seem always to be sharing a small connection with 100 users

Anyway, the hardware exsits eg this http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc.../800-series-routers/datasheet_C78-721036.html but it might be easier cheaper to keep your existing router and plug in a link to the marina wifi. I'm no expert so I am following this with interest.

Later on, if you don't mind me drifting/expanding the topic BartW, when your question has been answered can you tell me what SIM card/contract you use in France? I want a new 4G contract this summer (I have a French bank account and house so can get a full contract if needed) and would like to get this at sensible cost of course

until now I never had marina wifi,
Port Toulon doesn't have it,
and in other marina's I didn't bother to asc, but I understand your remark about speed, and didn't think about that.

the last two seasons I had a Orange prepayed data card (mobicarte, 3G+)
which worked quite well,
for a weekend I took 1G, 10 euro (1 week valid)
for longer periods I took 2G, 20 euro, (1 month valid) this lasted for approx 2 weeks
alway's had a spare recharge.

It was silly that I had to buy a recharge in the Orange shop, although there was a link to the online shop, this didn't work,
the people at the Orange shop couldn't make it work online either, (for that typical data recharge)
so each time I bought a recharge in the shop, code to be sms'd with a phone. (sim card remains in the modem)

also available in the tabac store, but the sellers have to be made aware of that special recharge type, 'data" only, (3G+)
they don't sell that often so don't know very well.

on the sonos system we can listen to internet radio (from Belgium fe),
if that is permanently on, it makes sense to have a unlimited data internet connection,
thats why this idea to integrate marine wifi came up.

there must be good local deals as you have a adress in SOF,
my friend in Cassis has TV, unlimited internet (fixed line), unlimited phone calls for a fixed price of 50 euro/month iirc
not sure about mobile internet,
better asc locally

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

By coincidence I am also thinking about the same thing BartW, though for me access to the marina wifi is "nice to have" not "must have" because I've never found marina wifi with useful bandwidth. I seem always to be sharing a small connection with 100 users

Anyway, the hardware exsits eg this http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/produc.../800-series-routers/datasheet_C78-721036.html but it might be easier cheaper to keep your existing router and plug in a link to the marina wifi. I'm no expert so I am following this with interest.

Later on, if you don't mind me drifting/expanding the topic BartW, when your question has been answered can you tell me what SIM card/contract you use in France? I want a new 4G contract this summer (I have a French bank account and house so can get a full contract if needed) and would like to get this at sensible cost of course

The Port Vauban marina wifi is heavily throttled to 1mbps per connection, and the latency is poor so it's not that useful. Iirc they also block vpn traffic.

For the last couple of years I've been using the Orange mobicarte Internet Max, but again this has been wound into the ground, so I'm currently with joemobile.fr which is 20euro per month for 3GB of 4G connectivity. In practice it is quite quick, definitely better than Orange, but still has noticeable latency. Joemobile is a virtual network, the physical network is SFR. Joemobile also has the advantage (not applicable to you jfm, I realise) that you can pay for it with a UK credit card.

 

[admillington]

http://www.yachtrouter.com/index.php/models/yacht-router-standard

The next one up has more LAN ports but as you say you can use a hub but personally I think the less devices the better!

I got an unlimited data from EE for £16 a month - only 3G at the moment as little 4G coverage locally.

-Andrew

 

[admillington]

Update:

Yacht Router is distributed and supported by C A Clase so as you would expect the service is excellent. They have just been on the phone and the issue might be a problem with some APN settings and an ! in the Wi-Fi password for the on board network. They are going to the boat tomorrow morning to re-install the unit and test.

Will let you know the outcome after I test over the long weekend.

-Andrew

 

[jfm]

Great info from everyone (thanks!)

FWIW I'm also in the process of installing a new router on the boat. Asus RT-N66U which I'm told is very good indeed, and my son is setting it up for me this week (or already has done). I'll report back. I'm thinking it maybe does wifi in the way BartW is seeking, but I'm not sure. Otherwise it seems very good- 3or4G phone via a plugged in dongle, 4 LAN ports, and 2 USB ports so as well as the 4G dongle you can easily keep all your boat files and photos on a USM memory device plugged into the unit. It is 2.4+5Ghz radio so is superfast I think. Though anyone feel free to correct me!

If I get the time I'll go to the Orange shop this weekend and see what contract I can get for a 4G dongle. I'd like to get nearly unlimited monthly data. I'll report back

 

[Robg71]

Im currently working on similar.
At home, i have two broadband connections, which gives me a total of 3meg... Yep... That good...
Draytek produce some very good enterprise quality router etc.
I am trying a multiple WAN gigabit router at the moment. It also has dual usb ports,
Port 1 adsl WAN
Port two is gigabit WAN (connected to adsl via ethernet modem
Port three USB 4 G Dongle. I have a Huawei 4g dongle, with external mimo antenna. downward compatible. 3g is still capable of over 20meg
In the port two connection, i have a ubiquiti m2plus bullet. This is your long range wifi receiver, connected to a shakespeare galaxy antenna, via six meters of antenna cable.
I have not fully fettled the long range wifi yet, but will update next week when i get home...
So far looks promising. I like the fact i have eneterprise quality firewall and its inbuilt saftey.

Solwise.co.uk do sell a three g modem router, with built in wifi, and external antena for 3g....

 

[pan]

+1 for Draytek, we use these in the stores, very reliable & durable broadband connections, excellent set-up parameters and wifi range.

 

[EugeneR]

There was a thread about high-power wifi a few weeks back, which I found quite useful with several examples/recommendations, Bart. *on mobile so can't link to it now sorry) You may be able to use USB ones although Ethernet/RJ45 ones are almost certain to work well. In principle, if you have higher power and receiver sensitivity, you go beyond the marina's wifi to coffee shops and the like, often with better bandwidth - although my experience is limited to more crowded places eg Solent maybe.

Draytek is excellent for techies - I have one running 60 ips, 1xVDSL, 1xADSL including 12 public facing servers and home made gadgets, porn filter, vpn, guest hotspot, firewall, etc and no - but not sure why they would add more value in this scenario.

 

[MapisM]

2 USB ports so as well as the 4G dongle you can easily keep all your boat files and photos on a USM memory device plugged into the unit.

Apologies to B for further drifting a bit, but did you try by chance to use a connected USB hard disk also for video streaming?
I'm asking because I have a similar router, which does what you are suggesting, but in spite of being gigabit-rated, it's practically useless for videos.
I mean, it does work as a sort of network server, allowing each connected PC to share the files stored in the USB drive, but it's not fast enough for video, thus requiring to copy the file locally first, and then see it directly from the notebook HD/SSD.
Which is no big deal of course, but if there's a router fast enough for sharing USB devices also for videos, I'd be interested.

 

[RobbieW]

Your existing box has a WAN failover feature which provides Internet connection redundancy using a 2nd internet connection which can be an USB modem (3G or 4G maybe) or another device connected to the WAN port.

What I would do, is connect a long-range WIFI device to the WAN port. When you disable the built-in 3G connection, your box will fail over to the WIFI device which, of course, will need to be re-configured to connect to the marina wifi just like any other device. So, not automatic, but you get the benefit of fail-over and high power/sensitivity WIFI and do not have to re-configure your PC's etc.

There are a couple of devices I can think of that will fit this role, the Ubiquiti Bullet and the Solwise Patriot. Both use power-over-ethernet (PoE) so you'd need to factor that in, the Solwise device comes with an adapter for PoE, and an antenna. Neither are very hard to configure but I think the Solwise has the edge, if you decide to go that route PM me and I'll try to talk you through a configuration.

 

[BartW]

Apologies to B for further drifting a bit,

no worry's P go on pls,

we have been considering a onboard camera streaming video to a online server,
for security / check the boat purpuses,
In Toulon, some months ago, we even considere fixing a wifi camera on the quay light pole, and take power from the nearby shore power box,
but a permanent, and reliable mobile internet connection for streaming the pics, was the bottleneck at that time


haven't used the network for storage yet, re backups and all that,
but good idea J to have all boat related documents on a hard drive in the onboard network.
for now I have it all on my laptop, wich is almost daily connected to the company network for synchronising and backup

 

[RobbieW]

...I'm also in the process of installing a new router on the boat. Asus RT-N66U which I'm told is very good indeed, and my son is setting it up for me this week (or already has done). I'll report back. I'm thinking it maybe does wifi in the way BartW is seeking, but I'm not sure. Otherwise it seems very good- 3or4G phone via a plugged in dongle, 4 LAN ports, ...

I use that ones little brother, the RT-N16. I also use a Solwise Patriot as a WiFi extender and a TP Link MR3020 running a firmware based on OpenWRT, ROOter, to handle the 3/4G connection. The RT-N16 provides the 'static' network for the boat and the WAN input gets plugged into the device providing the service I want to use, WiFi or mobile. Some of this is written up here, http://syspringdawn.blogspot.com/2013/08/connecting-to-interweb-ii_23.html, but havent got around to describing the 3020 yet as its new this year.

 

[jfm]

Apologies to B for further drifting a bit, but did you try by chance to use a connected USB hard disk also for video streaming?
I'm asking because I have a similar router, which does what you are suggesting, but in spite of being gigabit-rated, it's practically useless for videos.
I mean, it does work as a sort of network server, allowing each connected PC to share the files stored in the USB drive, but it's not fast enough for video, thus requiring to copy the file locally first, and then see it directly from the notebook HD/SSD.
Which is no big deal of course, but if there's a router fast enough for sharing USB devices also for videos, I'd be interested.

MM I think you are possibly blaming the router unnecessarily. I'm not as expert as others on here so I'll happily stand corrected on all this but broadly speaking...

1. 5GHz is much faster for two reasons, but it has much shorter range. I might not go thru a concrete house wall fe. But on a boat that is maybe ok (plywood bulkheads etc). So use 5Ghz. Best imho to set up separate SSID for the 2.4 and the 5 so you can select the 5 specifically

2. The two reasons are that the more normal 2.4Ghz is intrinsically slower AND it suffers from neighbour interference (unless you are anchored in a quiet spot!). The router has to adjust itself to cope with the fact everyone around you is on 2.4 as well. Thus, in a busy area, it will never hit the rated performance

3. Remember the speed claimed on the box is the absolute max - 3 channels and max bandwidth. You're unliley to have a triple aerial in your laptop and might have single, so that limits you to 1/3rd of the claimed rating right away. Secondly, in a busy area you probably have channel bandwidth of 20 and the thing might be set to that, so go into the router settings and choose 40 (to double your speed, compared with 20, if no neighbour interference). On super-new stuff there is now 80, as well as 20 and 40

4. Just to be clear, if you are on 20 not 40 and have one channel not 3, you have max 1/6th of the claimed rating!

So in summary put the laptop near the router so that the short range of 5Ghzdoesn't hurt you, then select the 5Ghz band via separate SSID for the 5 (to distinguish from the 2.4) and set the channel bandwidth to 40 (or at least 20/40 auto) and you should easily stream video (assuming the remote storage device that the video is stored on is itself fast enough, but you knew that!)

I'll make a few trials on mine and report back

Sorry for drift BartW but I hope it is all broadly the same topic and relevant

 

[maby]

I've been trying to get this working with a combination of a TP-Link 3G router, Three 3G USB modem and a Netgear WiFi to LAN adaptor. I believe it can be made to work, but getting all the various components configured to work together is a real pain. Both the 3G network and the marina WiFi network operate NAT and try to come up on the same 192.168 subnet which makes configuration difficult. Also, the marina WiFi operates on a captive portal making it difficult for the router to recognise that it is necessary to fall back to the 3G modem - I seldom fail to get a WiFi connection - far more often fail to get one that does anything useful!