Internet Access whilst afloat

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agstrang

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Does anyone have experience getting higher speed internet access - such as through one of these Vodafone PC Cards - whilst afloat, rather than using the slower GPRS mobile phone links.

Obviously, we will be in an area where the marina is not wireless equiped.

Recommendations?
 
ipswich haven marine has wifi. at present speeds are rubbish.
broadcast speed is upto 54mbps but the landline link is 1mb. even so, its much faster than vodaphone.
it costs £5 a day for 24hours use upto £100 for 0.5+million minutes.(368 days)
they are upgrading to 10mb from feb. so sidestep tv viewing becomes a possibilty.
other marina are linking up too.
i hear italy is reasonable. 20euro sim card for 20 hours surfing.
wifi is the answer.
 
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I'd be interested in that too. Keep our boat in France and sick of paying £10 per Mb on GPRS UK mobiles.

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All large French marinas have Internet wifi access for around €1 per day.. Stack of french cafes have wifi open for free in them.. In the last couple of years the French have mainly abandoned Minitel in favour of stacks of wifi areas...
 
The problem with WiFi is that all the metal work around a marina tends to limit the range. I am only a couple of pontoons away from a network point in Cherbourg marina but there isn't sufficient signal strength to connect. I use a mobile PC card from Orange (I think it is the same kit as Vodafone) and this works well - it gives me the option of WiFi if it finds it - otherwise it connects to the mobile phone network at the highest sustainable speed. Orange in France charge by connection time rather than data volume. I pay €75 per month for unlimited access which is not too bad. There are cheaper options for limited time access.
 
Last year when I checked out the deal with Orange France, it seemed to still be a limited access for around 75 euros a month. Can you please give details of your present unlimited access deal and where to buy it. Any other info would be useful.
 
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Last year when I checked out the deal with Orange France, it seemed to still be a limited access for around 75 euros a month. Can you please give details of your present unlimited access deal and where to buy it. Any other info would be useful.

[/ QUOTE ]Try link to Orange. If that doesn't work go to www.orange.fr and search for 'haut débit mobile' - it is a pretty convoluted site so isn't easy. It is currently offered at €70 per month with 2 months free - this is for a two year subscription. It increases to €74.50 for one year. You can reduce to a lower tariff at any time. The card itself is not included in the offer – it is an additional 1€ on special offer (it claims to be €49 otherwise).

I have found Orange, aka France Telecom, a difficult company to deal with. Their persistent, pasted on smiles, cover fangs dripping blood – some of it mine. They charge you when you report a fault to them! They are inclined to tell you that things don’t exist because it is easier than finding what you want.

It may be that you need a French bank account to set up the account with Orange – I haven’t succeeded in setting up a payment from my UK account.

Speed is good in 3G areas and acceptable in Edge areas. Outside these areas email is OK but anything more demanding is tedious.

I’d be happy to offer more information as needed via PM.
 
We've used a Vodaphone card in the laptop for last year when cruising, but apart from its ability to handle the faster G3 when available (and it ain't available in many places we've been), its costs picking up via GPRS networks is the same as via a GPRS mobile phone.
We've found we fall into using marina wifi for 90% of our internet access - even when not mooring there. We only used the card when underway or at a remote anchorage - but we found we adapted to try and get free access wheneer we could.
Can recall one instance where we reached about before a harbour entry for the 10 minutes needed to make airline booking on line last year....then sailed on to an anchorage for the nights stay!
Cheers
JOHN
 
I have a Wi-Fi radio/antenna that I got from Wi-Pipe.Com . Its on their home page - called a CB3 4040. It comfortably connects to an indoor wifi router about 400 metres away (I have permission!). It works as a bridge between my PC's network and the router. The bridge is in a watertight container so it could be hauled up the mast for better range. Mine works fine from inside the boat. It is powered over the ethernet cable from the boat's 12v supply. You can use it to scan for networks before setting it to connect to your chosen network.
 
A pal of mine in Grenada has a home-made parabolic dish antenna for receiving Wi-Fi from the shore - it is simply a rice seive / strainer which collects the wifi waves and then directs them to the receiver. and it works brilliantly!
Apparently a wok will also work well - and these receivers will pick up a good signal when the wifi unit on its own doesnt pick up anything.
 
They have a web site called rice products or such??My bookmarks are in a mess becouse im sitting or standing useing wi-fi and dont tidy them up later becouse of the power or lack of it!!

I posted a link for a good backfire antenna costing £29 now i have to find that!!Its in a thread i started on page 4 by now??

When i find power and or wi-fi again ill post a link!!
 
I tried that first. I made a parabolic reflector from perforated metal I bought in B+Q and I used a Netgear USB wifi device at the focal point of the parabola. I used two USB extension leads to get sufficient distance from my PC. It certainly worked better than the PC on its own, but it was not nearly as good as the unit I have now. For one thing, the WiFi radio in the "white box" is much more powerful than the usual indoor wifi equipment. In my case I certainly think it was worth the extra cost. I suppose the best evidence of the better performance is the fact I have my unit indoors whereas the DIY job only worked intermittently outdoors and 2 metres higher up.
 
Re: Increase WiFi from 100m to 8 miles

Another alternative for e-mail away from Wifi is Iridium. I was looking at alternative to HF/SSB and Iridium is not as expensive as it seems. I was quoted £1000 at the Boat Show on Saturday for a full marine installation, (compared to £1800 for an uninstalled SSB) £30 dollars a month and about 65p per minute - anywhere in the world. Using data compression you can send a lot of e-mail very quickly. however I am not so sure about full internet access internet.

Jonic - stopped by the Dufour stand - sorry couldn't find you. Guiness will have to follow.
 
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