Wifi Bat and Mailasail Red Box v Digital Yacht equipment

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mark1882

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Hi everyone

This is my first post, so here goes.
I am currently preparing my boat Arrifana a Westerly Oceanlord for taking her to the Med in May and have started to look at on board communications in particular wifi and having an on board hotspot specifically I have looked at the Mailasail wifi bat and their red box router and Digital Yacht WL510 high power wi-fi access System and iNav Connect Wifi router. Does anyone have any experience of using these pros and cons and comparison as they both came out well in a PBO review in August 2014.

Many thanks

Mark
 
I have a wifi bat. It was an impulse buy a few years back with an attractive discount. It works fine but I think it's incredibly over-priced compared with what else is about today. On the installation side, unlike a network cable which you can cut and re-crimp after feeding it through the deck and routing it through the boat, cutting and re-attaching a usb plug is less of an attractive proposition. Not such a problem if, rather than having a neat permanent mount on an arch say, you hoist it up the mast on a halyard when using it. The red box which I don't personally have again seems incredibly over-priced to me and I suspect much of the magic is a bunch of heath robinson perl scripts but bottom line is it that it seems to do what many cruising folk want it to (including provision for adding 3G dongles and sat phones) and mailasail are excellent, in my limited experience, at customer support.

I have no experience of the DY stuff. Again it seems phenomenally over-priced to me.

Search back through PBO and you'll find all sorts of solutions for long range wifi / 3G with small domestic wifi access points. Really worth considering the much cheaper alternatives if you're half way confident with plugging networking kit together. Significantly fewer options seem to be regularly discussed for satphone connectivity (which I believe the redbox simplifies for the consumer).

Where's your boat based now?
 
A bit DIY but if you can handle simple wiring and a bit of faffing with software then I use:
An ASUS RT N16 running one of the Tomato variants as the central 'hotspot', feeding into that are
i) a Ubiquity Bullit as a Wifi extender, that hangs from the spreaders when in use but it (very) rarely gets used in the med - not enough wifi around
ii) a TPLink MR3020 with a 3G/4G dongle that handles mobile access - may be replaced by a WR703N running ROOter firmware this year

The central router runs things like a VPN client so all devices can utilise that service, it also runs kplex (qv Laika) which allows wireless transmission of NMEA. The router also allows me to broadcast my Navico radar signal to any device running OCPN with the BR24 plugin. I dont have a sat phone so havent thought about how to integrate that
 
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You could look at Alfa kit, starting at £20 for an AWUS036H (with Realtek 8187L chipset) + cost of an active USB cable.
This works well if you just want to pop the Alfa on coachroof when needed for a single laptop.

Or a package from someone like Crucial Wifi to creat a local hotspot for £100. Lots cheaper than kit you mention and might fit the bill.

£~100 Package
Alfa R36 (this links to dongle with SIM or Tube U G or AWUS036H)
1 x Tube U G (Realtek 8187L)
1 x 8m Y USB cable
9 dbi antenna AOA-2409MF
8 dbi Marine outdoor antenna AOA-2408R

It would probably be OK to leave out the AOA-2408R if you aren't bolting the antenna outside, so even cheaper.

http://www.crucialwifi.co.uk/Alfa_N...rine_Fibreglass_antenna/p740998_11881197.aspx

There are many differences between this and the kit you mention. However, it might give most of the functionality for 20% cost.

No connection with CrucialWifi but I have bought kit from them over several years.
 
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We have the Alfa setup as described by Mistroma. It works and it's cheap. I can't see a reason for spending 3-4 times as much on the systems you propose. My only reservation about the Alfa gear is the manuals (or lack of them) but much has been written here and elsewhere on the web that will get you through the installation.
 
We have an Alfa wifi booster and antenna which will pick up wifi signal over a couple of hundred metres or so. Cheap as chips but it'll only get you one machine access. Unsecured wifi in the Med is not as common as it once was so wifi access is not always available.

We use a Huwei mifi brick in Greece cost about €40 which will support about 5 devices. We usually just have it in the saloon but in very poor signal areas we hoist it up the mast to improve things!
 
We also use the Alfa set up , works fine when you can get a free signal and as some have already said it as cheap as chips . Bewhere the days have gone when you could sit in an anchorage and pick up free wifi , most cafe , hotel now narrow it down to their surroundings , and althought some time you can pick up a very good signal , you have to remember signal isn't every thing , if there is 10 people between you and the router the amount you will get will be very little if any thing .
MYFI , is one of the best way forward , we can log on to 4 PC with out losing any signal , we can take it with us where ever we go and have Internet as long as you can get A phone signal .
 
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We have used Alpha units, which are good, but limited to one per device, have used a Bat, with mixed results - networks kept appearing then disappearing even after changing aerial cables and any upgrades going, but have now gone for a Bad Boy and Bad Boy Unleashed (hot spot capability) which has been brilliant and reliable for the last 12 months - multiple devices accessing a wifi network, simple to install, configure and excellent throughput.

I managed to watch the Montreux performance of Rodrigues y Gabriel over marina wifi with no interruptions at all, for over 1 hour 30 minutes during the day - amazing. Might have grabbed the bandwidth though.........so sorry other marina folks........

No connection, but a brilliant solution for us.
 
The setup we use, as described by Mistroma above (including the R36 Router), gives you an on board hotspot with the possibility of using a 3G dongle as well. All for under £100. We have had 3 devices running through ours with no issues. Why pay more?

No connection / commission, just a happy customer!
 
Peroo said:
We have used Alpha units, which are good, but limited to one per device, have used a Bat, with mixed results - networks kept appearing then disappearing even after changing aerial cables and any upgrades going, but have now gone for a Bad Boy and Bad Boy Unleashed (hot spot capability) which has been brilliant and reliable for the last 12 months - multiple devices accessing a wifi network, simple to install, configure and excellent throughput.

I managed to watch the Montreux performance of Rodrigues y Gabriel over marina wifi with no interruptions at all, for over 1 hour 30 minutes during the day - amazing. Might have grabbed the bandwidth though.........so sorry other marina folks........

No connection, but a brilliant solution for us.
Click to expand...


Is it omni directional? I will reply to my own post, yes it is.
 
Carmel2 said:
Is it omni directional? I will reply to my own post, yes it is.
Click to expand...

Paul, before you buy anything lets have a chat - I'll be back on the boat from 10th Feb - the BadBoy system looks to be around 400USD, we can at least talk about what it comprises, or the equivalents, then you can make your own mind up.
 
Having tried a range of wifi systems I came to the conclusion that: 1) installations outside get killed by green water, salt air and strong sunshine, so I now deploy my wifi stuff only in marinas; and 2) the GSM network nearly always beats the local marina wifi on speed - GSM also works below decks and along more coast lines than any wifi system I've tried. I can live with the current 7 euros per Gigabyte tarif too.
 
I use an ebay directional aerial with a usb output connected to a Solwise usb hotspot overall cost about 60 and it works fine witn no apparent limit to the number of devices. The Solwise box is apparently sensitive to the chipset in the antenna
 
Agree with the poster who advises getting a Huawei GSM router.

There is very little (if any) unsecured wifi these days in the Med, so fancy long distance antennae solutions are not really useful, even in a marina. GSM, on the other hand is cheap and everywhere. I have picked up a signal 30m offshore by hoisting my Huawei up to the top of the mast.

Get yourself a 4G Huawei router and a pack of sim cards for different countries - you'll save a fortune over these fancy difficiult to install fixed solutions and will have less hassle and better access.
 
Ric said:
Agree with the poster who advises getting a Huawei GSM router.

There is very little (if any) unsecured wifi these days in the Med, so fancy long distance antennae solutions are not really useful, even in a marina. GSM, on the other hand is cheap and everywhere. I have picked up a signal 30m offshore by hoisting my Huawei up to the top of the mast.

Get yourself a 4G Huawei router and a pack of sim cards for different countries - you'll save a fortune over these fancy difficiult to install fixed solutions and will have less hassle and better access.
Click to expand...

Going to disagree - while it may have cost a few initial dollars, our installation has served us well in over 5 countries on both sides of the atlantic with excellent through put for the past 12 months and with no additional costs. Not difficult to install, configure nor operate.
 
Interesting comment - are you logging in to unsecured wifi? Or are you saying it is worthwhile even for paid for wifi?
 
Many thanks for all your comments, very interesting and helpful. As that was my first post and I got a good response I have some other issues that I would welcome forum member's views on and will post them in the next couple of days.

Cheers

Mark
 
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