WI-FI Spark .com

[johnwest]

I understand that the marina my boat is in is looking at installing a wi-fi system by the above company.
Do any of the esteemed members have experience of using this system on their boats.
I understand it is in MDL marinas.

Thanks

j

 

[skip50]

It is in Mayflower, Plymouth, seems ok, a bit slow to log on/make connection etc, but once on it seems fine. I haven't tried streaming video through it.

Spark seem to be in a lot of marinas etc (e.g. the Bag at Salcombe), however your login, password seem to be unique to your 'base'. To log in elsewhere you have to pay.

Mayflower are looking into this, but haven't heard anything as yet.

 

[Seven Spades]

I thnk that if you are with MDL the login works throughout MDL. My recommendation is to buy a 3G dongle. It is faster, connects nearly everywhere there is a 3G signal and at £15 a month BT can be used everywhere even the car.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

buy a mifi modem from ebay, and fit it with a 3.com payg data sim. 1gb of data is £7.50 10gb is £ 15 and the three network is good for data. Or even tether your phone and use that as a modem.

 

[fishz]

I have some very bad experience with WiFi from this company. Literally unusable. I use my 3G MiFi device in the marina and it's much faster than the WiFi Spark "service."

 

[Grumpybear]

We used it when in Sutton Harbour, Plymouth. A bit slow initially but otherwise OK; by the time we moved elsewhere we had given up on it entirely. I would rather have had a small discount on my fees than struggle on. Waste of time and money in my experience.

 

[[2574]]

We used it when in Sutton Harbour, Plymouth. A bit slow initially but otherwise OK; by the time we moved elsewhere we had given up on it entirely. I would rather have had a small discount on my fees than struggle on. Waste of time and money in my experience.

Seconded, it is worse than useless. We've given up with it and gone to 3G.

 

[sarabande]

I used it for work when in Penton Hook years ago. Weekends were a bit slow bcs of contention, but during the week it was fine. Their support service is really good.

 

[BlueSkyNick]

I understand that the marina my boat is in is looking at installing a wi-fi system by the above company.
Do any of the esteemed members have experience of using this system on their boats.
I understand it is in MDL marinas.

Thanks

j

I have spent a lot of time over the past year researching wifi fo a marina and completed a brand new installation 2 weeks ago. I would strongly recommend keeping it all 'in house'

Happy to reply to PMs on specific details

 

[Carver]

I use them in and around Torquay and the Dart. The service is fine and you can 'roam' between non MDL marinas with the same login. Also roam within MDL. I think they limit bandwidth to support lots of users, so it can seem slow but is fine for most uses. Sarabande is right, excellent support service.

 

[Boreades]

I agree with MoodyNick that commodity WiFi gear is good enough to do it all in house, including repeater access points, if you are confident and experienced enough.

Whereas Mayflower was happy to pay WiFiSpark to do it for them some years back, as Mayflower didn't have anyone in-house that was confident and experienced enough.

The coverage in Mayflower has improved since they added more access points. We are close enough to be able to watch iPlayer, but those at the far-end of the pontoons may be getting a weaker signal. Which I guess would be the case regardless of who did the installation.

 

[Sandyman]

I can't be bothered to go into detail other than to say they bare ****e.

 

[Carver]

Works well for me in Torquay area and up and down the Dart. No problems.

 

[Cardo]

They have this at Universal. It's very hit and miss. Sometimes it works great, other times it's just utterly useless. Sadly, it can't be relied upon, but it's ok for casual, non-critical use.

 

[maby]

Most of the time it's not bad - not the fastest I've ever come across, but not bad. The problem tends to be maintenance - when a base station goes down it can take a long time for it to be fixed. We spend a lot of time working from the boat and find that we do need to resort to tethering from our phones quite often in order to get a decent data rate.

I do get the impression that the standard of service has dropped recently - I've spent weeks working from the boat and had no problems a year or two ago.

 

[johnwest]

Thank you all for your replies and comments. All have been passed on to our marina management and will await developements.

j

 

[deuc02]

Thank you all for your replies and comments. All have been passed on to our marina management and will await developements.

j

Worth speaking to Moody Knickers. Berthons new FREE wifi is very good. Free film city down here