[Best Wifi Option to choose for my canal boat?]

6 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

A narrow boat is a steel box, radio waves will not pass through steel, canals are often in cuttings or low down where signals are weak, so the higher the antenna the better.  So if you moor mainly in urban areas where 4g signals are strong and you put the MiFi unit in the window (on the side the signal is strongest) you will probably be fine most/all of the time.  In areas where signals are patchy then you may get at best very slow speeds, or nothing at all.  
Another answer is that many liveaboard boats moored away from urban areas usually have a 4G antenna up a pole.

Great information, cheers for the info!

[Best Wifi Option to choose for my canal boat?]

58 minutes ago, Chewbacka said:

Huabei & TP link are both good, the things to consider are the ability to power it from 12v (with a stabiliser) and the ability to connect an external antenna.

If buying the antenna on eBay, make sure it covers the 4G frequencies your service provider uses, as some antennas are not designed for the UK and may not work well here.

Okay, cheers for the advice! Do you think an antenna is necessary, is the built in signal not strong enough?

[Best Wifi Option to choose for my canal boat?]

1 minute ago, Loddon said:

Smarty is the way to go rather than 3 it's the same except smarty doesn't have WiFi calling which is not needed for midi and there is no contract ?

Yeah it seems like it's easier to cancel when you want too, cheers again!

[Best Wifi Option to choose for my canal boat?]

Just now, Loddon said:

Can't see much difference except 535 is cat 7 and I think the 525 is cat 6.

 

Okay cheers for the info!

[Best Wifi Option to choose for my canal boat?]

1 minute ago, bizzard said:

I have the Huawei B360 Wi Fi mobile dongle on (3). Lasts about 4 hours on its own battery, can be charged via USB lead plugged into laptop or any USB socket.  Seems to work well anywhere. Contract. 20 Gorillabites £10 per month.  

Great, thanks for the recommendation!

 

on https://eFones.com with their wifi devices, I see they offer smarty sims where I can get unlimited data for £15 which is a steal I think!

[Best Wifi Option to choose for my canal boat?]

1 minute ago, Loddon said:

The b535 is the better of the two Huawei units.

It should run off 12v with a regulator for safety.

I use a Huawei 525 at home and it's the dogs.

What the difference between the b535 and your b525?

 

I can see this company has both but you can only bulk buy the b525.

 

https://modem.co.uk/product/huawei-b525/

 

https://modem.co.uk/product/huawei-b535/

[Best Wifi Option to choose for my canal boat?]

Hello All,

 

I am new to the canal boating scene, after finally taking the plunge and investing in a canal boat I am getting ready to move into it for the new year!

 

I have a few queries about wifi and wondered if anyone on here could help?

 

I have done some research and found out you can get wireless wifi devices which you insert a sim card into.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations of what they use and what works best for them? for just general use of watching netflix and things of that sort.

 

I have found a company called huawei with what I can see have two viable (affordable) options that I would consider:

 

huawei e5576

https://modem.co.uk/product/huawei-e5576-320/

 

huawei b535

https://modem.co.uk/product/huawei-b535/

 

And tp link also have two here:

 

tp link m7200

https://modem.co.uk/product/tp-link-m7200/

 

tp link archer mr600

https://modem.co.uk/product/tp-link-archer-mr600/

 

What do you guys recommend?