horatio_nelson
Well-Known Member
Cherbourg, St Vaast and others use netabord, I've always been pretty happy with it. €10 for decent wifi in a host of places for 3 months, pretty good imo
Useless marina WIFI
- Thread starter Daydream believer
- Start date
doris
Well-Known Member
We seem to get fantastic reception in Berthons
awol
Well-Known Member
Oban used to be good giving good reception across in Cardingmill Bay but like so much there has changed for the worse - this year now needs a password but still doesn't work.
laika
Well-Known Member
Fair share queuing algorithm based on something like flows tagged by mac address? Yes you can't have 100 people streaming the world cup on a 2Mb/s link but with the right software it's surely possible to minimise the impact of those 100 people on the person who's just reading a news site or sending some email. Do marina wifi companies consider that most punters don't play well with others when it comes to bandwidth sharing and do anything to address that problem?
RobbieW
Well-Known Member
This is a multi layered problem, some of those layers have already been mentioned.
There is the difficulty of connecting with a WiFi network in the first place, especially in an area with many metal distractions - masts etc.
Then there is the capacity of the connection from the site to the 'internet', and the number of folk your sharing with.
Then we have the idea of 'fair share' queuing, or QoS in router speak, to share out the available bandwidth to all users - if your mobile providers didnt do this thered be a lot more squeaking about poor performance. As it is 3G is often slow at peak times, 4G will become slower as usage increases and prices come down so that more people are using it.
Finally we have the stratospheric increase in our expectations based on either home or current mobile capacity to stream TV/Video/whatever other hi bandwidth data on demand.
All of these require careful design and implementation, then ongoing measurement and manipulation to meet changing expectations. Ask your marina what actions they take on a regular basis to maintain your access and how the network has been enhanced over, say, 3 years.
Like quite a few others, I mostly use a 3G connection now - rarely even bother looking for a WiFi connection, but mostly thats not in the UK. The same problems with coverage occur wherever so it pays to look at where you might need to connect and buy a service that covers the geography. Finally I have an onboard router acting as a central hub that distributes whatever connection is in use to all onboard devices, so one SIM or WiFi extender is all thats needed. If there was a need I could even implement QoS on that hub
There is the difficulty of connecting with a WiFi network in the first place, especially in an area with many metal distractions - masts etc.
Then there is the capacity of the connection from the site to the 'internet', and the number of folk your sharing with.
Then we have the idea of 'fair share' queuing, or QoS in router speak, to share out the available bandwidth to all users - if your mobile providers didnt do this thered be a lot more squeaking about poor performance. As it is 3G is often slow at peak times, 4G will become slower as usage increases and prices come down so that more people are using it.
Finally we have the stratospheric increase in our expectations based on either home or current mobile capacity to stream TV/Video/whatever other hi bandwidth data on demand.
All of these require careful design and implementation, then ongoing measurement and manipulation to meet changing expectations. Ask your marina what actions they take on a regular basis to maintain your access and how the network has been enhanced over, say, 3 years.
Like quite a few others, I mostly use a 3G connection now - rarely even bother looking for a WiFi connection, but mostly thats not in the UK. The same problems with coverage occur wherever so it pays to look at where you might need to connect and buy a service that covers the geography. Finally I have an onboard router acting as a central hub that distributes whatever connection is in use to all onboard devices, so one SIM or WiFi extender is all thats needed. If there was a need I could even implement QoS on that hub
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Angele
Well-Known Member
Is it? Not where my boat is parked. I often have to go and sit on the benches by Banana Wharf to avoid losing the connection every couple of minutes (if I'm lucky enough to get a connection in the first place).
Interestingly, it works better on my old iPod than it does on my new iPad.
BlueSkyNick
Well-Known Member
You should do, there are 12 Access Points across the marina, with the levels jacked up to maximum, designed to enable best possible signal strength and quality even down below. There is a lot of bandwidth available too.
Tempus
Well-Known Member
Agreed, It's a broken business model. There is almost no revenue from visitors, it's all in the contract with the marna operator. Against that its a massively complex installation and maintenance environment. Compare and contrast to a coffee shop - one router, lots of punters, no issues!
The contracts tended to be agreed some years ago when all anybody did was read the paper or download emails. There has been a 20times explosion in data use over the last 2 years as people have more devices and more services. However while the Wifi is free to berth holders, we'd get no extra revenue from the massive investment required to respond to that and despite our suggestions the marina operators don't want to either increase our payments or share the cost. As you say, it's our service, hence we're thinking of ceasing to offer it. Really it's the marina operator's service - they are providing it as a freebie, and as I said, don't think its worth upgrading.
Tempus
Well-Known Member
Yes of course we do. We are very well aware of these algorithms use them extensively. It's a sticking plaster though when the bandwidth is as limited as it is to many many marinas.
laika
Well-Known Member
Interesting. What kit do you use for that?
KellysEye
Well-Known Member
>Most advertise WIFI. Some charge extortionate rates ,some claim to be free.
Don't ever use free wifi if it has no password it's a hackers dream. If the reception is bad buy a high gain antenna 10db plus and a USB extension lead to tie the antenna onto the boom. It doubled the wifi stations we could get and significantly increased the signal strength at not much cost.
Don't ever use free wifi if it has no password it's a hackers dream. If the reception is bad buy a high gain antenna 10db plus and a USB extension lead to tie the antenna onto the boom. It doubled the wifi stations we could get and significantly increased the signal strength at not much cost.
RobbieW
Well-Known Member
or use it with a VPN service, has the added benefit of appearing to be in a country you arent. Also runs on my onboard router so available to all connected clients
Otter
Well-Known Member
All marina wifi is utter pants but with all you can eat data plans from about £20 a month it doesn't really matter.
prv
Well-Known Member
Sounds like Tempus may actually be doing the right thing then, by getting out. Perhaps still a few years ahead of his time, but that's all. Not much business potential now in offering landline telephone connections to marina berths, which used to be a thing in some places, and I imagine in 2020 the idea of marina wifi will seem just as quaint.
Pete
nicho
RIP
Chichester Marina is very good on C pontoon, strong signal, and very quick - but weaker where we were on E pontoon, just 100 metres away? Odd. Premier give free access for a maximum of 4 hours a day, enough for our purpose, but you can get 24/7 for £8 per month
oldvarnish
Well-Known Member
How long before charts show the positions of WifFi antennas so we can choose a berth accordingly?
I've heard that in some Caribbean marinas there's a waiting list for WiFi berths, and when boats leave a Wifi berth others move in depending on where they are on the list.
This is not something I remember reading about in Claud Worth's Yacht Cruising.
I've heard that in some Caribbean marinas there's a waiting list for WiFi berths, and when boats leave a Wifi berth others move in depending on where they are on the list.
This is not something I remember reading about in Claud Worth's Yacht Cruising.
auditdata
Well-Known Member
We are in a Caribbean marina that has got it totally sorted. Cable internet on every berth for free. On our pontoon we all watched the World Cup live over the Internet. Downloading a film takes only 10 minutes. If they can do it here then what the hell are they doing in the UK! BBC iplayer works better than it did in my house! (PS don't ask how we get the BBC here!)
Tempus
Well-Known Member
It's perfectly possible, the technology exists and is in use elsewhere, with good siting of the attenna, and modern control systems you can even eliminate all of the dead-spots. There is one Marina in the UK about to go live with supefast wifi everywhere. But as has been said before, it's very expensive to install and expensive to run. Anybody above who has expressed a preference has clearly stated that they refuse to pay - ever!. You get what you pay for.
I suspect your Carribean marina has done this either to attract more visitors in a competitive market (see post #36, but few UK marinas business are under real competition for visitors), or they have lots of long-term visitors who are prepared to pay. Different market, different result, capitalism in action.
As an aside it's interesting to note that as soon as the line speed increases everyone starts downloading movies. Therein lies part of the problem, Few other external wifi environments (shopping areas, conference centres, even whole towns) are as data hungry per person logged in, and those that are (caravan parks, hotels etc) are prepared to pay.
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Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
But if you are swopping countries every few days over a fortnights holiday-- ???
ie france belgium holland - poss with the channel islands thrown in for good luck then back to uk
With EE that would be £30-00 per country
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
So most users agree with my first post -- it's a lottery!!!!
However, it must be possible to assist the signal aquisition by doing something at my Ipad end of the circuit & nobody has actually come up with the " idiots " guide in any of the above posts
so come on -- here is a challenge to the techies -- what do I do ( says he trying to get free info)
However, it must be possible to assist the signal aquisition by doing something at my Ipad end of the circuit & nobody has actually come up with the " idiots " guide in any of the above posts
so come on -- here is a challenge to the techies -- what do I do ( says he trying to get free info)