Wifi Signal booster for boat?

Ladybirdgaffcutter

Ladybirdgaffcutter

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I have just found that the boatyard wifi aerials are just out of range, and I live in a steel boat.

Is there a 12v powered device which I can screw on deck, in sight of the transmitter aerial on the yard office, which will boost the signal ( in both directions of course) and rainproof preferably?

I've had a look on Amazon etc and there are so many items, from £20 to £200, I am bewildered.

I would like to use my ipad inside the boat.

If 12v ones are much more expensive than 240vAC ones, I could use mains leccy I suppose.
USB sockets available on board, but I presume not powerful enough for such a device.

Any reccomendations please?
 
I have a wifi bat from http://www.mailasail.com/Communication/Wifi-Bat
Not cheap but very effective. It runs off a USB port on my computer so not sure how that would work with an ipad. There is a box they supply to plug into and give wifi on board but that's not cheap either. I create a hotspot with my laptop for other things to run. It's weatherproof and comes with a long USB lead. 15m if I remember correctly so can be permanently mounted fairly high up
 
I bought one a couple of years ago which was great and set up a wifi hotspot on the boat, which all devices could have as a single remembered connection, with just the box itself needing to be given a new password when we went to a marina, or within half a mile of a new bar with wifi.

It turned out to have much more limited use than I had hoped because we don't spend a lot of time in marinas and it couldn't cope with the "open" networks which then require a web page login as many bars and cafes do, and even some marinas.
 
I have been using Alfa 036s for some years now. With an external double length aerial I get 5 mile range, Union Island to the Tobago Cays.

They are about 20 quid on Amazon. Buy 2 they seem to last about 18 months.

They come in several variants depending on the suffix.

Be aware that some people are putting a bog standard Alfa unit in a waterproof box and selling it for 200 quid.
 
Pasarell said:
I have a wifi bat from http://www.mailasail.com/Communication/Wifi-Bat
Not cheap but very effective. It runs off a USB port on my computer so not sure how that would work with an ipad. There is a box they supply to plug into and give wifi on board but that's not cheap either.
Click to expand...

I also have one. I thought it was pretty good when I bought it 7(?) years ago. How they have the gall to keep flogging them for that money when more effective alternatives are now available at a fraction of the price (see the alfas people on here are always recommending) is beyond me. They don't even have drivers for recent MacOS versions.

The RedBox again is an absurd price for what it is. Maybe for folks who are cash rich and want a plug and play solution for their satphone with someone to mail questions to it makes sense
 
The Digital Yacht WL510 would work for you however I am fitting the Digital Yacht 4G connect as standard to many of our restos and refits now as 4G simply has a huge amount more speed and usefulness as opposed to marina wifi which is normally somewhat limited.

There is the option with the 4G connect to be able to use marina wifi repeated into your vessel as the preferred option then for it to failover to 4G sim card if the wifi became unavailable or didn't respond.

A good solution isn't cheap. I use the 4G connect onboard as I need a good stable broadband speed connection and it has been fantastic.
 
I spoke to Steve at visitmyharbour last week. He has a tube you can hoist up the mast.... 4G to wifi router. It has a long lead to a 12vdc supply on screw terminals. Due to release soon.
 
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