kcrane
Well-Known Member
Those following the threads on finding ways to get better internet access on the boat will know I tried a 3G booster with no success. Piers of Fleming fame has been running a similar thread and he gave up as the supplier could not guarantee the 3G signal boosting kit was legal.
I've since tried a different tack, this time with some success 'on the bench' and I'll be trying it live in a week or so.
The 2 part kit is from a Tiawanese firm - ALFA.
The first part is what they call a Long Range WiFi Adapter, for shorthand a 36NH. A small box (matchbox size) with a chunky aerial. You plug it into a laptop via a USB cable. I bought the more powerful version with an additional higher gain aerial (9dB) and a suction holder to fasten it to a window, for £30 from Amazon. It requires no separate power supply.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0038Q4AIG/
Using a standard laptop at my house I can normally see my own wifi and several other access points, but only one strong enough to connect to. With this ALFA box plugged in via USB and using the supplied driver I could see twice as many access points and most strong enough to connect.
If all you do is connect one laptop to shoreside wifi, and sometimes have problems with signal strength, then this adapter might help. It was no problem to install, worked out of the box, everything supplied for £30.
However what I want is to give a PC plus 2 or 3 iPhones and iPads a decent connection.
This is where the second box comes in, an ALFA R36, at £55. This box they describe as an extender.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004ZF0I3U/
This is a more sophisticated thing, about the size of a pack of cards, again with a chunky aerial.
It's job is to take an incoming internet connection and re-broadcast it through it's own aerial to create a new wifi access point.
Where does this 'incoming internet connection' come from I hear you ask.
Well you can plug an existing wired internet connection into the R36 using an ethernet cable. Useful at home to add wifi if you have a wired internet. Not much use on a boat though!
You can plug in a 3G USB dongle. The type like a USB memory stick, the sort of thing you would otherwise plug directly into a laptop. But if you have that, why not just plug it into your PC? Well, if you plug it into the R36 it creates a wifi access point from it, so more than one device can share, including those with no USB socket, such as iPads. I have not tried this method, though I may have a go. The instructions don't look like it is plug & play, but equally are not completely arcane. What you've done is create what is often called a MiFi. The advantage of the R36 is that not every phone network provider sells a MiFi, but pretty much all of them sell a simple USB stick. In different countries the idea is you unplug one and insert another. Not much advantage if you are only ever in one place.
Last, but not least, you can plug the 36NH (long range collector of wireless internet connections) directly into the R36. This means that through the 36NH's big 9Db aerial the R36 sees more wifi options around the marina than the tiny aerial in your iPhone or PC would on their own.
As an example let's say we're using the wifi access provided by the marina itself. The R36 can make one strong connection and then create a secure local wifi network on your boat using the marina wifi as it's internet connection. You can now share that one connection with your iPads, phones etc.
I have tried this at home and it works. My home wifi is 54mbps and I just left that running. I then used the R36/36NH combo to connect to a public BT wifi point that I would not normally 'see' and I got a connection at 74mbps (the public point runs faster than that, my connection to it wasn't full speed given the range). I then had two wifi hotspots in the house, my usual connection and this new one via BT.
Next step is to try this in Jersey. The marina supplies free wifi. It's OK'ish on the berths for locals (visitors not so lucky cos further away) but it isn't reliable below decks. Hopefully the 36NH will connect with the marina far better than an iPhone could and then the R36 will re-broadcast that connection around the boat for all of us to use.
Oh, did I say the R36 requires a power supply? The power it requires is fortunately 12v, so should be able to be plumbed in if it is OK. I have in mind fixing the 36NH on a saloon window (using the supplied suction holder) and running the USB cable to the R36 sited maybe behind the dash, where I can give it a suitable power supply.
The R36 is effectively a router and is not quite as simple to use as the 36NH. At first it would not 'see' access points. It turns out I had to upgrade the firmware to make it compatible with the far newer 36NH. Why it was sold with 2011 firmware I don't know. The ALFA support people are quite responsive and reply via email from a named individual, in my case William.
I am not the first to come across the ALFA kit. In the US there is a company selling something called the 'Wirie'
www.thewirie.com
They've put the two boxes pre-packaged into a waterproof casing.
I'll add an update when I try it in anger.
I've since tried a different tack, this time with some success 'on the bench' and I'll be trying it live in a week or so.
The 2 part kit is from a Tiawanese firm - ALFA.
The first part is what they call a Long Range WiFi Adapter, for shorthand a 36NH. A small box (matchbox size) with a chunky aerial. You plug it into a laptop via a USB cable. I bought the more powerful version with an additional higher gain aerial (9dB) and a suction holder to fasten it to a window, for £30 from Amazon. It requires no separate power supply.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0038Q4AIG/
Using a standard laptop at my house I can normally see my own wifi and several other access points, but only one strong enough to connect to. With this ALFA box plugged in via USB and using the supplied driver I could see twice as many access points and most strong enough to connect.
If all you do is connect one laptop to shoreside wifi, and sometimes have problems with signal strength, then this adapter might help. It was no problem to install, worked out of the box, everything supplied for £30.
However what I want is to give a PC plus 2 or 3 iPhones and iPads a decent connection.
This is where the second box comes in, an ALFA R36, at £55. This box they describe as an extender.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004ZF0I3U/
This is a more sophisticated thing, about the size of a pack of cards, again with a chunky aerial.
It's job is to take an incoming internet connection and re-broadcast it through it's own aerial to create a new wifi access point.
Where does this 'incoming internet connection' come from I hear you ask.
Well you can plug an existing wired internet connection into the R36 using an ethernet cable. Useful at home to add wifi if you have a wired internet. Not much use on a boat though!
You can plug in a 3G USB dongle. The type like a USB memory stick, the sort of thing you would otherwise plug directly into a laptop. But if you have that, why not just plug it into your PC? Well, if you plug it into the R36 it creates a wifi access point from it, so more than one device can share, including those with no USB socket, such as iPads. I have not tried this method, though I may have a go. The instructions don't look like it is plug & play, but equally are not completely arcane. What you've done is create what is often called a MiFi. The advantage of the R36 is that not every phone network provider sells a MiFi, but pretty much all of them sell a simple USB stick. In different countries the idea is you unplug one and insert another. Not much advantage if you are only ever in one place.
Last, but not least, you can plug the 36NH (long range collector of wireless internet connections) directly into the R36. This means that through the 36NH's big 9Db aerial the R36 sees more wifi options around the marina than the tiny aerial in your iPhone or PC would on their own.
As an example let's say we're using the wifi access provided by the marina itself. The R36 can make one strong connection and then create a secure local wifi network on your boat using the marina wifi as it's internet connection. You can now share that one connection with your iPads, phones etc.
I have tried this at home and it works. My home wifi is 54mbps and I just left that running. I then used the R36/36NH combo to connect to a public BT wifi point that I would not normally 'see' and I got a connection at 74mbps (the public point runs faster than that, my connection to it wasn't full speed given the range). I then had two wifi hotspots in the house, my usual connection and this new one via BT.
Next step is to try this in Jersey. The marina supplies free wifi. It's OK'ish on the berths for locals (visitors not so lucky cos further away) but it isn't reliable below decks. Hopefully the 36NH will connect with the marina far better than an iPhone could and then the R36 will re-broadcast that connection around the boat for all of us to use.
Oh, did I say the R36 requires a power supply? The power it requires is fortunately 12v, so should be able to be plumbed in if it is OK. I have in mind fixing the 36NH on a saloon window (using the supplied suction holder) and running the USB cable to the R36 sited maybe behind the dash, where I can give it a suitable power supply.
The R36 is effectively a router and is not quite as simple to use as the 36NH. At first it would not 'see' access points. It turns out I had to upgrade the firmware to make it compatible with the far newer 36NH. Why it was sold with 2011 firmware I don't know. The ALFA support people are quite responsive and reply via email from a named individual, in my case William.
I am not the first to come across the ALFA kit. In the US there is a company selling something called the 'Wirie'
www.thewirie.com
They've put the two boxes pre-packaged into a waterproof casing.
I'll add an update when I try it in anger.
