GRIB 1 graphical readers

Spurred on by stories of successful use of UGrib I decided to have another go at installing UGrib on my new laptop. As usual I am asked for my email address to register. Result = Validation Fails.

I have exceeded the number of times I am allowed to register the program from computers and IP addresses. Now I am unable to use UGrib. Fortunately, I think zyGrib is a better program. It is more flexible and can deliver smaller downloads, which suit me when I am using restricted bandwidth.
 
It sounds as though the original posters problem was mis-described and possibly sensationalist? It would appear that the issue he is facing is either creating a new registration with ugrib or entering details for his registration? I'm sure it's frustrating, but I think the post would be better directed to ugribs support email rather than declaring the whole system dead on an unrelated public forum?

In any case ugrib is only passing through freely available data from the US NOAA model and only some of the data at that. There are plenty of other places you can obtain that data and plenty more viewers (including the unregistered ugrib software) which can be used to view that data.

The best known free sources for the NOAA data are (in no special order):

- Saildocs (http://www.saildocs.org)
- MailASail ( http://weather.mailasail.com/Express-Weather/Express-Weather-Usage )
- GMN (forget the URL)
- UGRIB (http://www.grib.us)

Please be really clear though that none of the sites above generate the data and all of them simply re-provide the GRIB data that comes out of one of the NOAA models. In fact many of the options above let you pick other models than just the GFS data which UGRIB is limited to...

You can find lots of other viewers listed on our MailASail page above and also Frank Singleton's pages will give you a lot of background on all the sources of weather available (everyone does realise that you can get GRIB data from other people than just the americans right?)
http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather

Personally I feel that whilst UGRIB is very easy to use, it's not always the fastest and cheapest tool because it seems to spend quite a bit of time preparing data for download and if you are paying for the download then this is potentially of significant cost

However, please try several options and see which suits YOU best - there is no right choice, only what works best for you

Good luck
 
There is a lot of people on the ugrib forum that asks for help but no one is getting any help. It really starts to look like ugrib is abandonware.
Personally I had to reregister a few times last summer and that is a real PITA when you have a slow internet connection and just want the weather.
I have downloaded zygrib and it works fine. I'm not going back to ugrib even if they fix their problem.
 
MailASail said:
It sounds as though the original posters problem was mis-described and possibly sensationalist? It would appear that the issue he is facing is either creating a new registration with ugrib or entering details for his registration? I'm sure it's frustrating, but I think the post would be better directed to ugribs support email rather than declaring the whole system dead on an unrelated public forum?

In any case ugrib is only passing through freely available data from the US NOAA model and only some of the data at that. There are plenty of other places you can obtain that data and plenty more viewers (including the unregistered ugrib software) which can be used to view that data.

The best known free sources for the NOAA data are (in no special order):

- Saildocs (http://www.saildocs.org)
- MailASail ( http://weather.mailasail.com/Express-Weather/Express-Weather-Usage )
- GMN (forget the URL)
- UGRIB (http://www.grib.us)

Please be really clear though that none of the sites above generate the data and all of them simply re-provide the GRIB data that comes out of one of the NOAA models. In fact many of the options above let you pick other models than just the GFS data which UGRIB is limited to...

You can find lots of other viewers listed on our MailASail page above and also Frank Singleton's pages will give you a lot of background on all the sources of weather available (everyone does realise that you can get GRIB data from other people than just the americans right?)
http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather

Personally I feel that whilst UGRIB is very easy to use, it's not always the fastest and cheapest tool because it seems to spend quite a bit of time preparing data for download and if you are paying for the download then this is potentially of significant cost

However, please try several options and see which suits YOU best - there is no right choice, only what works best for you

Good luck
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Thanks for your insight - perhaps before passing judgement you should visit the Ugrib forum and see for yourself, what is happening.

Essentially the system they're using is flawed and that has led to a lot of angst amongst ex-users.

For most of these the site is broken...

http://www.grib.us/Forum/tabid/55/Default.aspx
 
Charles, without reading all the posts on that forum, what exactly is the issue? It seems they have clamped down on free registrations which their system notes has had multiple computers. This could be due to people migrating to different computers, or simply roaming from one ISP to another, which for liveaboards the latter could be a real issue? I haven't read all those forum threads in the link, as I simply don't have time, but it sounds like they either don't have the infrastructure in place to cope with multiple changes. There are solutions, but most of them would involve more resources and paying a charge to pay for those resources. Would most users pay a charge for the service? Really to bring it up to commercial standards
I haven't looked at the licensing conditions, but even if still freeware, an enterprising individual or company could probably provide a service to help, but only if it was cost effective (not me!)
 
>Essentially the system they're using is flawed and that has led to a lot of angst amongst ex-users.

I'm not sure it's flawed as such. From the forums the issue is that you are given three licences i.e. you can put it on three different machines. If you try to put in a fourth it won't work but you can email them and ask for more licences. I suppose the possible flaw is using licences in the first place, but since they have had system abuse maybe they need the licences.
 
KellysEye said:
>Essentially the system they're using is flawed and that has led to a lot of angst amongst ex-users.

I'm not sure it's flawed as such. From the forums the issue is that you are given three licences i.e. you can put it on three different machines. If you try to put in a fourth it won't work but you can email them and ask for more licences. I suppose the possible flaw is using licences in the first place, but since they have had system abuse maybe they need the licences.
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The flaw, as far as I can see, is that the licencing system cannot distinguish between the machine in which it is resident and any machines (such as those controlling a WLAN) that may be used to access the site.
In my case it has only been installed on two computers (the second 3 weeks ago), however as I've used TIM mobile, Bouygues mobile and Vodafone Greece mobile as well as a number of hot-spots around the Med in the last two years my usage has been (apparently) tabbed as use in at least 6 computers.

All software is licenced in one way or another and the open-source licence would appear to have been a better choice for Ugrib, than the route they have chosen.

E-mails to the site administrator appear to elicit no response or action.

All very sad and aggravating - for all involved in the breakdown, especially Ugrib admin
 
>E-mails to the site administrator appear to elicit no response or action.

Try posting on the forum on their site explaining the problem and asking for more licences and any other suggestions. Others have asked to have their number of licenses increased and UGRIB have come back promptly to say it has been done.

Also bear in mind the service is free thus resources are probably limited and it's quicker to respond on the site than by email.
 
KellysEye said:
>E-mails to the site administrator appear to elicit no response or action.

Try posting on the forum on their site explaining the problem and asking for more licences and any other suggestions. Others have asked to have their number of licenses increased and UGRIB have come back promptly to say it has been done.

Also bear in mind the service is free thus resources are probably limited and it's quicker to respond on the site than by email.
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I tried that and got no response. I think if you are a new registrant then UGrib will work as your email and associated IP address are accepted. I was going to re-register with a new email address using a new ISP and a false identity. However, having used the better zyGrib I won't bother now.
 
KellysEye said:
>E-mails to the site administrator appear to elicit no response or action.

Try posting on the forum on their site explaining the problem and asking for more licences and any other suggestions. Others have asked to have their number of licenses increased and UGRIB have come back promptly to say it has been done.

Also bear in mind the service is free thus resources are probably limited and it's quicker to respond on the site than by email.
Click to expand...
Have done, awaiting response for 10 days
 
ugrib my silly mistake!

I tried it last night albeit on my usual Dell running XP. not asked for verification of email address this time.Grib delivered in short order time.

However I do recall having no luck at all another time after installation.Help online asked me to check the time on my machine. I glanced at the time and it was ok timewise.
However later I decided to check again and found the day was incorrect.
Bingo!
all singing, all dancing!

Sometimes its so simple?

Good sailing and boating to all!
 
charles_reed said:
Sadly it looks as though the Ugrib site is broke.

The clamour from the Ugrib forum of people who have been refused verification, persuaded me that my case was not an isolated one.

Has anyone had experience of Win 32 graphical readers OS XP and above.

The problem has arisen because the old box has had a terminal motherboard failure and I've had to purchase this MSI mini-notebook clone. It's running Win 7 Home Premium, an impressively opaque OS, and I've not yet installed Linux - 27Gb download on the Kalamata municipal WLAN is an unlikely feat.[/QUOT

Works fine for me on main pc, laptop and netbook , occasionally have to confirm email addrees again but not often.
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charles_reed said:
Sadly it looks as though the Ugrib site is broke.
Click to expand...
I had not used this site before, signed up, downloaded and installed s/w ok
Got the hang of it pretty quick, the only gotcha was the verify e-mail address box, it has to be done correctly on first attempt, which I didn't.
Starting the get data process again with my e-mail address in my paste buffer (so I could Ctl v it in) worked.
All looks good so far . . . .

Also tried the zygrib which IMO was a lot more fiddly, couldn't find it as an installed program and no uninstall in it's folders so ended up just deleting the folders and shortcuts.
 
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