WiFi on the marina

[Seastoke]

I know that it is never very good but , the manager got their it guy come and check signal by my boat. I had a chat with the guy explaining its always dropping out and does he realise I can't post on ybw. The answer , on all MDL marinas , they only guarantee WiFi on the jetties , I pissed myself, what answer is that I asked if I should set a desk up on the jetty.

 

[ChromeDome]

Not MDL, but ours has been weak as well, for years. This season new antennas etc. have been put up, still with issues.

Mobile coverage isn't impressive but better so many just share their mobile as hotspot onboard. Putting the phone in the right place on the boat is helpful.

 

[Greg2]

We have never found Marina Wi-Fi to be any good so have a 4g router fitted in the wheelhouse roof which provides reasonable coverage.

 

[ChromeDome]

We have never found Marina Wi-Fi to be any good so have a 4g router fitted in the wheelhouse roof which prides reasonable coverage.

Still relies on mobile coverage..

 

[Seastoke]

It's just the jetties statement , is a joke.

 

[Martxer]

We have never had an issue with Wi-Fi.
Good connection and download speeds. Netflix and YouTube stream no problem both at Swanwick and Noss

 

[ST840]

MDL Hamble, shocking. And it’s been upgraded over the winter from crap to poor!!

 

[Greg2]

Still relies on mobile coverage..

Indeed but it works well. It has larger aerials than a phone so that might give it the edge.

 

[BruceK]

WiFi in a marina is always going to be a challenge to any provider. Even if they used directional sector panels and beam forming technologies the given wavelengths are liable to scatter and reflect in a marina environment. Even a 4G dongle or MiFi box can struggle. I have marina wifi, a MiFi box and a dedicated 4G router on board. The difference is astounding. The MiFi box is good for streaming to up to 3 televisions but useless on ping rate for the boys gaming. He is on the router with a wired connection and gets a solid ping rate that would be the envy of any landline. Follow Hurricane 's advice. Its solid.

 

[Elessar]

MDL Hamble, shocking. And it’s been upgraded over the winter from crap to poor!!

200m up the river in universal (premier) you get 150mbps up and down. Access point in every lighting bollard. Rock solid, fast wifi.

Bruce K don’t let MDL and others get away with the “it’s a challenge” excuse. It’s just not true. I got fed up of calling the MDL wifi help desk - they just haven’t invested in good enough kit to be able to help.

 

[Elessar]

We have never had an issue with Wi-Fi.
Good connection and download speeds. Netflix and YouTube stream no problem both at Swanwick and Noss

Premier again. They yet to do Chichester though. useless there.

 

[Northern Star]

Never bother with the MDL wifi at Penton Hook as it is pretty useless so have a 4G router on board for local netowrk.

I can also tether to my Three mobile phone and on 5G it can get up to 1,000mbs.

 

[Obi]

I had hoped this would be much improved since I last lived aboard in 2012. Back then marine wifi was not good enough for remote working and part of my plans for the next years is to get another yacht and use it as a second home, work from the boat and travel. It sounds like that might still be beyond the abilities of marine wi fi. I am sure there are other alternatives I can utilise.

Some rather random responses to your post:

It is possible to make a directional WiFi aerial with a metal coat hanger, a pringles tube and some co-ax. You need a wi fi card that can take a co-ax aerial.

Point the aerial in the direction of the signal source.

This might not help, but what it does do is dramatically increase the distance a signal can be reliably received. ;-)

The followin is HIGHLY unlikely, but not beyond possible:
Alternatively, someone could be using aircrack-ng to break your connection, forcing your device to reconnect, and resend your authentication credentials which they can then very easily retrieve and run against John the Cracker to decrypt the hash. This is an entirely trivial exercise and when I first learned about hacking wifi it took me all of about ten minutes to learn the steps and to hack my own network.

I mentioned this because Public wi fi is always a significant risk. Good passwords and good password practices are very important for those on public wi fi, as is a VPN.

Proton VPN from Switzerland has a free option and is generally very good and well respected. Do your research if interested.

A good password is something you will not find in a dictionary or a combination of those words with numbers or replacing A with a 4 - all these things are including in the default John the Cracker dictionary files used to match the hash. So pick a password that does not use normal words or words that are in "Th4t K1nd of F0rm4t" and you should find your passwords are safe.

A example of a good option for a safe password is the registration of an old car you once owned, combined with another equally complex set of characters, perhaps two regs combined, or your boat SSR and an old car reg, as examples, and there are plenty of things around you can use that are not going to be in a dictionary file. If you are going to use something like this, use a car reg that is a car you have not posted photos online of.

NB: The default dictionary file that John The Cracker uses is approx 10 million words and combinations of l3tters and w0rds with endless variations on the same word. Best not to use this approach, especially if you regularly use public wi fi.

 

[Hurricane]

200m up the river in universal (premier) you get 150mbps up and down. Access point in every lighting bollard. Rock solid, fast wifi.

Bruce K don’t let MDL and others get away with the “it’s a challenge” excuse. It’s just not true. I got fed up of calling the MDL wifi help desk - they just haven’t invested in good enough kit to be able to help.

Are you sure you want MDL to invest in this.
The cost of installing a full mesh system across a marina is huge.
And you are expecting it for free so the only people who will eventually pay are the berth holders.
Freely accessed WiFi will always get abused by the people using it.
These days streaming video etc.
IMHO, it is better to expect people to bring their own (paid) 4G/5G connections with them.

Out in Spain, (MDL owned) we have a very similar situation.
The management have tried to control access (load balancers etc) so that everyone can some king of access but people abuse it and stream TV etc.
The result is a totally useless system.
So, a few quid (and it IS cheap) for a local 4G/5G data deal and the problem goes away.
The marina spending money on this can only lead to more expensive berthing costs.

I will probably get flamed for having this view.

 

[nicho]

Premiere Port Solent - Wi-Fi excellent. Maybe we are close to a pontoon transmitter.

 

[Elessar]

Are you sure you want MDL to invest in this.
The cost of installing a full mesh system across a marina is huge.
And you are expecting it for free so the only people who will eventually pay are the berth holders.
Freely accessed WiFi will always get abused by the people using it.
These days streaming video etc.
IMHO, it is better to expect people to bring their own (paid) 4G/5G connections with them.

Out in Spain, (MDL owned) we have a very similar situation.
The management have tried to control access (load balancers etc) so that everyone can some king of access but people abuse it and stream TV etc.
The result is a totally useless system.
So, a few quid (and it IS cheap) for a local 4G/5G data deal and the problem goes away.
The marina spending money on this can only lead to more expensive berthing costs.

I will probably get flamed for having this view.

No it’s up to the bertholder to make his or her choice.
But I appreciate the premier marina wifi as a benefit compared to MDL. When I work from the boat I’ve got reliable wifi from the marina and the boats built in wifi so I have resilient service.

 

[Seastoke]

In the Welch Med a lot of porn was down loaded , they were not happy now it was not me , so who else is from the W Med ,

 

[BruceK]

200m up the river in universal (premier) you get 150mbps up and down. Access point in every lighting bollard. Rock solid, fast wifi.

Bruce K don’t let MDL and others get away with the “it’s a challenge” excuse. It’s just not true. I got fed up of calling the MDL wifi help desk - they just haven’t invested in good enough kit to be able to help.

I am not making the excuse on their behalf. As an IT bod (with various vender cert training to expert creds in mobility network solutions) I have often thought how I would tackle the installtion and delivery of wireless to a marina environment. And I can assure you (and am willing to bore you to death about technicalities if you really want to hear) how difficult it can be to give a SLA on throughput and reliability in this particular environment. Can it be done? Oh sure, absolutely, but as Hurricane alludes it wont be cheap. In honesty it would in fact be cheaper in most instances and give a better SLA to go completely off piste, be tied to the stake and propose DLAN technologies. As I dont like roasted toes I wouldnt but instead would probably charge out on a solution that would cost about 5 grand per 20 boats per annum to guarrantee you your SLA. Take it or leave it because there is plenty other low hanginging fruit that will be less challenging that I could fit and forget for the most part.

 

[BruceK]

In the Welch Med a lot of porn was down loaded , they were not happy now it was not me , so who else is from the W Med ,

Dunno 'bout that. They were a lot happier when you left

 

[Peterlewis321]

Are you sure you want MDL to invest in this.
The cost of installing a full mesh system across a marina is huge.
And you are expecting it for free so the only people who will eventually pay are the berth holders.
Freely accessed WiFi will always get abused by the people using it.
These days streaming video etc.
IMHO, it is better to expect people to bring their own (paid) 4G/5G connections with them.

Out in Spain, (MDL owned) we have a very similar situation.
The management have tried to control access (load balancers etc) so that everyone can some king of access but people abuse it and stream TV etc.
The result is a totally useless system.
So, a few quid (and it IS cheap) for a local 4G/5G data deal and the problem goes away.
The marina spending money on this can only lead to more expensive berthing costs.

I will probably get flamed for having this view.

Fully agree-just spend a few quid and have your own network……small change in the grand scheme of boating costs!!! Our boat is down in Denia (not MDL owned) and the marina wifi is shite. We invested in a 4G unit (Teltonika RUT950) several years ago and got good results with an antenna on the radar arch and with perfectly useable speeds for streaming Netflix etc etc. Last year the RUT950 failed and so we upgraded to the RUTX14. Must say the newer one is far superior-more stable and much much faster…faster infact than our home broadband and we now consistently get 60mbps down/30mbps upload speeds. Sometimes more (seen 100+), and sometimes a but less during peak season in the marina when I guess lots and lots of people are on the mobile network.