On board gadgets

nigelm

nigelm

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11 Aug 2008
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me - hornchurch , boat - river crouch.
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Morning all ,
Although we don't live on board at present time I thought you guys would be best to ans my question
Does marina wifi cope with online gaming ? , having 2 teenagers and trying to keep them happy is proving difficult , to prevent a mutiny taking the xbox has been suggested ( better than a noisy outboard in a marina) , will this work or is there dongle type device that would work ?

Ps leaving them at home is not a option at this present time .
 
For wifi access on board, your best bet is a Vodafone portable Hotspot as this will work up to five connected devices at the same time. Marina wifis are rarely that fast and if access is not free, can be very costly. This based on East med. marinas.
 
From what I've seen all of the mobile dongle offerings have a monthly limit on data.

If you can get coverage on the Three network then they offer an unlimited tariff (One Plan) for about 20 quid a month, that allows tethering so, rather than get a dongle, just use an old iphone/smartphone and set that up as a hotspot.
 
abraxus said:
From what I've seen all of the mobile dongle offerings have a monthly limit on data.

If you can get coverage on the Three network then they offer an unlimited tariff (One Plan) for about 20 quid a month, that allows tethering so, rather than get a dongle, just use an old iphone/smartphone and set that up as a hotspot.
Click to expand...

That's my experience so far.... Until someone shows me different.

Not sure a Three mobile hotspot would keep up with a couple of kids gaming over the information superhighway.... But it's probably the best you can do. Definitely unlimited and tetherable on The One Plan, but Search for Traffic Sense on the Three web site... Just so you are aware that speed can be throttled between 3pm and midnight. Not everyone experiences this, but I definitely do.
 
Richard10002 said:
That's my experience so far.... Until someone shows me different.

Not sure a Three mobile hotspot would keep up with a couple of kids gaming over the information superhighway.... But it's probably the best you can do. Definitely unlimited and tetherable on The One Plan, but Search for Traffic Sense on the Three web site... Just so you are aware that speed can be throttled between 3pm and midnight. Not everyone experiences this, but I definitely do.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure about gaming speeds, so can't help there.

What I can say though is that it's much better than the marina wifi. I use it for streaming films to my tv via Netflix, BBC iPlayer and from my home PC. Not sure about the first two, but some of my own films are high definition, and so far I've had no problems. I use it mainly between 6pm and 2am, and on some nights can stream several gb (that's what caused O2 to limit my "unlimited" tariff) and have not noticed any throttling as yet, but maybe I've been lucky.
 
Richard10002 said:
That's my experience so far.... Until someone shows me different.

Not sure a Three mobile hotspot would keep up with a couple of kids gaming over the information superhighway.... But it's probably the best you can do. Definitely unlimited and tetherable on The One Plan, but Search for Traffic Sense on the Three web site... Just so you are aware that speed can be throttled between 3pm and midnight. Not everyone experiences this, but I definitely do.
Click to expand...

Take 'em ashore to a café with free wifi every now and then. THEY get really good ice cream and YOU get a much reduced comms bill! There are SO many such places all over the Med tese days.
 
You need 4G to get low enough latency for decent online gaming.

Marina wifi's are usually servicing 50 or more boats at a time, people streaming movies, porn, email, news, skype calls, their cloud backups and all manner of other stuff. You are expecting a lot of it to add gaming and expect a decent response.

Teach them to knit! :)
 
abraxus said:
From what I've seen all of the mobile dongle offerings have a monthly limit on data.

If you can get coverage on the Three network then they offer an unlimited tariff (One Plan) for about 20 quid a month, that allows tethering so, rather than get a dongle, just use an old iphone/smartphone and set that up as a hotspot.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that 3 have stopped doing a consumer tariff with unlimited tethering and data. I don't know how that affects existing contracts though.

I have a business three account which still has unlimited data/tethering but it is more like £40 a month.

Was in Anstruther at the weekend and just managed to stream the England match onto a laptop over my phone but reception was a bit patchy. Bearing in mind the final score I shouldn't have bothered!!

Cheers

Rob
 
We have just brought our first boat to become our first live aboard...
We both use the Net a lot, not for gaming but for Netflix, google, facebook, Youtube etc. so the internet was a must of me!
Ive just got the new in car dongle from EE.. its the first ive ever seen anything like this..
ITs a dongle that allows you to have up to 10 items connected, runs 3g or 4g if you within range (which you can check with them)
but it also had a 12v adapter.. so we can have it plugged into the boat anytime.
We are not living aboard just yet, but ive had it streaming music from the internet through my phone without any buffering.
Im not to sure what the range would be on it it working out at sea.. But will work perfect for us in the Marina.
When I got this a couple of weeks ago they were doing it at £15 for 3gb of data or £20 for 15gb!! This was for a two year contract.
Hope this helps!
(im no way connected to EE, I just really like this product!)
 
roblpm said:
I'm pretty sure that 3 have stopped doing a consumer tariff with unlimited tethering and data. I don't know how that affects existing contracts though.

I have a business three account which still has unlimited data/tethering but it is more like £40 a month.

Was in Anstruther at the weekend and just managed to stream the England match onto a laptop over my phone but reception was a bit patchy. Bearing in mind the final score I shouldn't have bothered!!

Cheers

Rob
Click to expand...
I think you're right, in that the unlimited data tariff (now £20 a month) is unlimited when used directly, but tethered data is capped (2 or 3gb I think). I don't know if the restriction is retrospectively applied to existing contracts, but thankfully I only use tethering for my laptop for browsing and email, and video streaming I do direct from the phone to my tv.
 
Having done a bit of digging, it seems that unlimited tethering still applies to legacy contracts (pre March 2014 start date). It also seems that there is still unlimited tethering on the One Plan, sim only rather than with a phone, 12 month contracts. That said, the 3 website is far from clear, so probably best to clarify in a shop.
 
nigelm said:
Morning all ,
Although we don't live on board at present time I thought you guys would be best to ans my question
Does marina wifi cope with online gaming ? , having 2 teenagers and trying to keep them happy is proving difficult , to prevent a mutiny taking the xbox has been suggested ( better than a noisy outboard in a marina) , will this work or is there dongle type device that would work ?

Ps leaving them at home is not a option at this present time .
Click to expand...
i'm if you kids are not into sailing then trying to recreate a land based lifestyle on a boat will lead to tensions and resentment. better to wait until they are old enough to leave at home. Then give them the opportunity to choose what to do.
e
 
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