Spectrum Marina wifi

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harstonwood

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Live Staffordshire Moorlands/Boat Pwllheli
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Last two times up at the boat in Pwllheli, the wifi was slow and the signal weak.

Tried to call Spectrum.............on hold, for ages, never answered.

Emailed.........no reply


Anyone had good/bad experience with Spectrum? would vote with feet, but no 3g on my pontoon ( not Orange anyway) so would prefer to sort it out..........if I could talk to some one!!
 
Mostly rubbish, variable wifi service. Check that they are not charging you for the help. I recall that they have a 'per minute' charge for telephone support. I usually use my Vodafone dongle thing now as it is more reliable.
 
their latest scam is to advertise ipass logins should work, but when you try to use it - they check your password (which means ipass bills you) but then don't allow you access. they ignore e-mails about this too.

marina wifi must be on its way out, given mobile phone data works almost everywhere and is often less than wifi charges
 
Go to the head honcho - that's Steve Ellis (Head of IT)

via their Head Office on 01442 205 500

and BTW; it is possible to get good BTOpenzone in a marina. It's taken some time but I've got them to force the routers here to use specific channels (not hunt) and to wind up the power output to provide a consistent strength so it's now robust and reliable :-)
 
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harstonwood said:
..... but no 3g on my pontoon ( not Orange anyway) so would prefer to sort it out..........if I could talk to some one!!
Click to expand...

Order whatever wifi dongles you want to trial - for the main order online so you are protected by Distance Selling Regs (return for a refund - just because you can) although some ISP's eg 3 - you can buy in shop and they refer to a "happiness guarantee" whereby if you're not happy with it's delivery you can take it back (within 7 days) for a refund.
 
You might not even need a wifi dongle for your laptop. If you have a smartphone, some of them (ie HTC android) can act as a wifi hotspot and talk directly to your laptop using the laptop wifi connection. Only discovered this recently (although had the phone for a year!) and it works really well. Don't start fownloading videos though unless you have a huge internet allowance on yr phone! For normal surfing it costs a few pence per time usually.
 
yesod said:
marina wifi must be on its way out, given mobile phone data works almost everywhere and is often less than wifi charges
Click to expand...
Been thinking the same for a long time. Credit to all the marinas who have had it installed, at quite some expense I should imagine. They were caught out by the amazing rate that technology keeps improving, so they might have saved that expense. Speed tests indicate that in my marina, the "Three" dongle on my laptop is much faster than WiFi.
 
WiFi is great for the house, but hopeless for a marina.

I too am getting much better results from a "3" data sim than I ever got from WiFi, and so much less hassle: not having to type in personal details and credit card numbers each time etc. etc.
 
Our marina wifi works brilliantly, at least so far. only thing i get p'd off about is it counts down even when logged off which is a rip off imo.
 
lisilou said:
Our marina wifi works brilliantly, at least so far. only thing i get p'd off about is it counts down even when logged off which is a rip off imo.
Click to expand...

It was a long time ago but I seem to remember that you can logoff from WiFiSpark by running your browser and navigation to 0.0.0.0 in the address bar. In those days, it didnt count down until you relogin.
 
I find Wifi in my marina to be very good and no compliants, I have been using it for a few years now.

For me at an MDL marina the first 50hours are free each year for berth holders and I haven't gone over that yet, not a heavy user but works everytime I need it.

Performance wise again no compliants and watched a few programmes on IPlayer without any problems.
 
Whilst on our boat during August I changed my iPhone contract to allow tethering which worked very well indeed. The best place we found for wifi was Cowes Yacht Haven. Free of charge and usually pretty good connection.

Henry :)
 
WIFI

I have the same experience of the wifi in Pwllheli. Often low signal, always slow speed and never any support. Stopped using it when T-Mobile 3G became available in Pwllheli, works perfectly, really quick.
 
Harstonwood
I don't think you mentioned what laptop or operating system you are using on WiFi but have you tried updating the Wireless 'drivers' for your particular laptop.
Even with a brand new laptop and up to date version of Windows, the actual drivers could be a few years old. The drivers are the little bit of software that makes the wireless chips in the laptop actually talk to Windows. They should be available on the manufacturer website.
Updating my drivers took my wireless from good signal (but unusable unless on the pontoon near the wireless mast) to full signal and full speed whilst on board at the saloon table.
Any questions about this - just ask.
 
Thanks Martin
No problem with my laptop.............indeed I am typing this in Bangalore India, using wifi at blistering speeds. I log onto probably 10-20 different wifi networks every month, with no probs

The problem is Spectrum, not only the rubbish signal etc at Pwllheli, but the absolute complete lack of customer service!! I have voted with my feet

Guess no one from Spectrum will read this, but if you do.............answer phone and emails please!
 
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