Wifi enabled areas/marinas ?

pragmatist

pragmatist

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Wifi from the boat would make the live/work aboard bit achieveable much sooner. But there's been little about this - one post re Croatia @ £5-6 per hour.

There's a post on Scuttlebutt about wifi at Brighton Marina - the Premier group has enabled it's 18 marinas and I found that Brighton seafront is enabled.

Does anyone have experience of harbours, marinas, anywhere in the UK and Europe with wifi ? And if so, at what cost ?



<hr width=100% size=1>a pragmatist is an optimist with a boat in the UK
 
We were at Brighton trying to make the wifi work for a eyar and failed - not strong enough transmitters in my(lay) opinion.

I love wifi when it works - and I have used it on Brighton seafront (a different network) and in hotels etc all over the place. So I would also be very interested to hear of progress in marinas etc as I believe it is a really good way forward.

However, the prices have to come down a bit too - I have unlimited mb on my GPRS mobile for £45pcm, which would represent about 4-8 hours on most current pay as you go wifis - not enough!

<hr width=100% size=1>Sarah & Pip

www.greatlittleboats.com
UK & Ireland distributors of Swifgig
 
I am using wireless broadband from a company called Netvigator (www.netvigator.co.uk) and I pay £18pcm for 512k or £28 for 1 meg. Although at the moment there are some holes in the service, overall, I am impressed.

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I'm using Square Mile's WiFi at Falmouth Marina (Premier) and pay £25pm + VAT minimum contract 1year. The short connection periods are very expensive. I am now very pleased with the speed and service but I do need the external active antenna that Square Mile can supply. You wouldn't need that if you were berthed closer to one of the two base stations.

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I'm using SquareMile at Plymouth Yacht Haven - same deal as "Lemain". We're quite close to the transmitter so our connection works fine using a laptop and PCMCIA WiFi card (D-link works, 3Com didn't!) iPaq 550 with build-in WiFi also works fine here.

Cheers,

Jerry

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There was a net cafe next to the marina in La Rochelle that had wireless internet Sunmmer 2003 for free, I guess you had to buy coffee.

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As a person actively rolling out wireless networks in marinas, i would like to know where people would like to see networks installed.
Could you see a market on the inland waterways of France, or Paris for example or maybe the spanish coast instead.
Maybe you'd like to sail the cot d'azur and be able to connect every evening moored off marseille or nice?
let me know

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Italy has to be an option: busy marinas, lots of foreigners, tortoise-like deployment of wi-fi by Telecom Italia. Since I gave you the tip, please start with Trieste!

<hr width=100% size=1>Adriatic links here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>
 
I\'d second Metabarca

Large, technically sophisticated population, only a few marinas and limited anchoring areas and an arthritic public-owned telephone network competing in an adolescent market place.

I'd not start with the Adriatic, though. There are better pickings on the Tuscan coast and the outlets of the Tevere.

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Re: I\'d second Metabarca

Sigh. You're right, Charles. San Remo to Rome is where most of the traffic is. Having said that, there are quite a few boats between Venice and Muggia, many of them Austrian or German. Many of these people spend their weekends aboard out of season, too.

<hr width=100% size=1>Adriatic links here: <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html>http://www.comoy.com/saillinks.html</A>
 
Kemer Marina in Turkey has WiFi and both Marmaris Yacht Marine and Marti Marina say they will 'have it soon.' I believe I have also read that Gouvia, Levkas & Kalamata marinas in the Ionian have or are about to install it.

Depending upon just how much surfing you want to do and how much you intend to keep moving on, GPRS may be the better solution for you followed by, if it ever gets off the ground, a 3G mobile phone.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtretreat.com>http://www.yachtretreat.com</A>
 
3G!!

Even now in the UK, having launched 18 months ago, you can still only access internet on your mobile phone unless you buy a dedicated card for it.
It'll be years before you get 3G throughout the med!
I reckon we'll be buying the european GPS units before we get 3G bluetooth handsets that reliably work with our laptops.
Wifi is totally strangling 3G anyway, and that should help in the quest to get wireless access, either charged or otherwise, installed near most coastal communities

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Re: 3G!!

You can still only access internet on your mobile phone unless you buy a dedicated card for it

I'm not quite sure what you mean by the above. You can use GPRS on any GPRS enabled handset which includes a high proportion of the handsets on the market today. Many have built-in infra-red and some have built-in bluetooth so connection is not a problem.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtretreat.com>http://www.yachtretreat.com</A>
 
Well wherever I am or wish to be shortly. But seriously anywhere that people still need to keep in touch with work and can afford to do it. The harbours of the S Coast of England and places like Brittany are obvious ones (sorry if you're off in the sun but I'm sure you could come back !).

But perhaps the most important thing is marketing. I've been visiting the internet cafe in Dartmouth on a regular basis for 3 years and they're always short of punters. And each time I point out that fliers for the harbour authority for all the rich yachties from the Solent would increase their trade they say "what a good idea" and do nothing.

So _please_ do enable lots of places - and then tell the punters so your service is well utilised.

Can you start with Devon ?

<hr width=100% size=1>a pragmatist is an optimist with a boat in the UK
 
Re: 3G!!

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr>

You can still only access internet on your mobile phone unless you buy a dedicated card for it

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I meant 3G service only

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