Wifi in the marina - how?

Robin

Robin

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Our yacht club is installing new IT kit apparently and we wil have wifi access in the marina. Now I have heard this will alow me to use my laptop for internet access from the boat is this correct? Is it free? What do I need for the laptop and can I a) plug it in? b) afford it?

Sorry to be so thick but whilst I'm very happy actually using computers the whole technology side loses me completely. I've looked at mobilephone access etc before but it always seems expensive or slow or both even if it works at all.

But now IF I can get free access via wifi I can see I could run my office from the boat next summer.

I have a Sony VA10 laptop running Windows xp and with USB sockets if that makes a difference.

Robin
 
Robin

I've got a Sony VAIO as well - with a little switch on the right hand corner, labelled Wireless Off - On.

Assuming you have the same, you have the kit to run your office from the boat. It works just like Wifi at home, in the same way as I am typing to you right now.

The service will probably be controlled in that it won't allow any old fool to roll up and log on - which is desirable to the likes of me who try to do so.

If I was your Yacht Club, I would only be allowing registered users to access the service. For this, they might make a charge to you - that's entirely up to them. All usage is free, because it is not metered anywhere - just like your broadband at home.

There is no comparison to a mobile - Wifi provides you a much greater bandwidth, probably 2mb which is shared amongst all the users at the time - during the week, this might only be you. Sefondly, you don't have to 'dial up' a connection, just switch on and Robert's your father's brother.

This is a fairly general summary - I am sure there will be other replies who drill into more detail.

The bottom line: I wish MDL would hurry up and provide a service, especially in Hythe, so I can work from the boat without anybody realising it !!
 
Well if it's from Square Mile it will probably be free. If not then you may have to pay. Mylor Yacht Harbour in Cornwall chose not to have the free Square Mile service but chose IAP. !? They charge £15 per month.
As to getting it on your laptop....Does your vaio have a wirless lan? It will say so on it. If it does you will prob be able to use it on deck but may have probs below. This is the situation I'm in so I bought an Airbridge thing from Smartbridges...Square Mile sell them. It plugs into your ethernet port...a bit bigger than your phone port..then you can get access at long range.
No doubt you'll get more advice from the forumites.
 
Just looked and don't have a little switch anywhere, are there little switch USB adapters?

You have WiFi at home? Wow - does that mean I could work from the car outside?

Sorry I don't even have broadband, just bits of wire!

Robin
 
I believe the Square Mile free offer runs out in March. From their website:

"Free Wireless Broadband - A UK first for Square Mile! Square Mile offers free wireless broadband until 31st March 2006. Many marinas have seen a massive 25% uptake meaning 2006 will see rates drop to under £10 per month...".

I guess their business plan says 'get lots of people signed up and then they'll all magically start paying in March 2006'. Good luck to them. I tried to use their service early this month (even the paid for service - needed to urgently get some work done whilst stuck in Brighton) and their signup service was broken, and no-one was anwering their tech support number. Don't think I'll bother with them next time...

Rick
 
Well that makes me feel better about the Mylor set up which is really quite good.
With my Airbridge I can get access inside my boat a couple of hundred yards out on the mooring.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I wish MDL would hurry up and provide a service, especially in Hythe, so I can work from the boat without anybody realising it !!

[/ QUOTE ]

MDL weren't much help in Northney and refused to allow square mile access. We now have service via iZone but it's beamed from an office outside the marina.
 
Na - you don't need the Network socket in the back ... you either need a USB Wireless adapter or a PCCard Wireless Adapter ... both generally install the software and plug'n'play ... the USB one has the advantage of being able to go on the end of an extension cable ...
FWIW I would buy a Netgear adapter ... I've had problems with the Belkin ones, D-link are quite good too though, then you get Linksys, apparently their not bad either .....
 
Umm, dunno which model SOny you have then - would have to research this.

WiFi at home is the mutt's nuts, because it means you can work anywhere within the property, even if you are sad enough to sit in the car outside.

I'm surprised you don't have broadband though - a man of your standing. Do you mean you dial up via ISDN or a telephone line to access the internet?
Broadband gives you much faster, always on, service at home, with no usage costs, for less than £20 per month - BT will be more than pleased to provide it to you. There are other suppliers too, but unless you are in a Telewest/NTL area, the physical connection will still come from BT.

You can then choose to connect via a cable into the modem, if you only have one computer, or set up Wifi around the house by buying a wireless router for about £60. You will then of course need to buy an extra bit of kit for your PC - relatively cheap - to provide the Wifi cabability. (EDIT - ie the USB adaptor mentioned by Fireball)

This will then enable you to go from home to boat, and access the internet in the same way. ALso when you pootle off to Brittany, you can use the wifi service provided in the marinas (if you can bring yourself to go in them!). Tome did a lot of research on locations back in the summer, and I am sure will be happy to advise further.

SO you will be able to work in much the same way in the house, outside in the car, on the boat in Poole, or on holiday in France ! Good, eh!
 
Fireball, wish I had known about USB adapters! Which model number you recommend?
The Airbridge seems clumsy by comparison. Does it work at longish range?
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I wish MDL would hurry up and provide a service, especially in Hythe, so I can work from the boat without anybody realising it !!

[/ QUOTE ]

MDL weren't much help in Northney and refused to allow square mile access. We now have service via iZone but it's beamed from an office outside the marina.

[/ QUOTE ]

its not only Northney or Hythe, MDL have been refusing Square Mile accesss at all their locations. I don't really care who provides the service, as long as its reliable and good value ...... I just want it from somewhere !!
 
If you do connect via Squaremile bear in mind that it is entirely open and unencrypted, so you need to pay attention to security, i.e. firewall, sharing etc.. Last time I was online at the marina it was amazing just how many people's laptop drives were available for browsing should I have been so inclined. It's an easy mistake to make if you rely on say a router firewall at home, and then take your PC to the boat..

FWIW I can connect to Squaremile from about 300m away in the boatyard using a Centrino laptop with the antenna up the side of the screen. Inside or outside seem to work the same. No success though with either the USB dongles or PCMCIA cards: the antennas are just too small I think unless you're fairly close.
 
I used the PC Card version ... so couldn't recommend a particular model...

Range of PC Card & USB models are more limited than Airbridge units, reflected in the price ... but then sub £40 for a USB or PC Card compaired to >£100 for the Airbridge ....

I've got an Acer laptop with built in wifi - got into the EastCowes Squaremile wifi with no problems ...
 
Having just gone through all the wireless networking set up at home and also in the marina, I feel I've learnt a thing or two. As has been said above, the key thing is to make sure you have a functioning wireless card, and don't do what I did and try and fault find before making sure the wireles setting is switched on or plugged in. If you have wireless facility on your laptop, in XP there should be a small icon in the bottom left hand corner of the screen showing a computer monitor with " green rays" coming out of it and a red cross through it when it has no network. XP should automatically pick up any new network and tell you, but if it doesn't, right clivk on the icon and then choose " refresh network list " from the resulting screen. If there are any networks in range, it will pick them up and tell you. Choose the one you want and it will prompt you if a network key is needed- hopefully your marina will put some security on the wireless access.

XP will then keep this Network on your " preferred " list and connect automatically when in range ( unless you set it not to).

If you cannot see the Icon, try right clicking on " My computer" from the Start menu and then select properties, then device manager and then look under networking heading to see if you have a wireless network card. SOmetimes it not installed or not turned on. I'm sure the Sonys are wireless enabled from when I was loking at laptops.

If you definately aren't wireless enabled, then the Mobile cards cost about £30-40 and slot into the expansion port on the side. I wouldn't go and buy one yet though because I suspect you are and it just needs turning on.

When you do get connected, it can get quite slow when everyone is trying to share the 2Meg. Also note the secuity issues and beware of sending any private information.

Alex
 
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