What is the best Internet Connection?

[Porcupine]

Hi, I am going to be living aboard my boat and working with all the paraphernalia that entails- laptop, printer, dreaded zoom meetings and lots of music to distract me... What system would give me the fastest most reliable 4G connection. It seems like a WiFi router and an external aerial is the way to go. Help. 

[OldGoat]

19 minutes ago, Porcupine said:

Hi, I am going to be living aboard my boat and working with all the paraphernalia that entails- laptop, printer, dreaded zoom meetings and lots of music to distract me... What system would give me the fastest most reliable 4G connection. It seems like a WiFi router and an external aerial is the way to go. Help. 

To my mind and before those with serious experience come on here with detailed information -

it's more a matter of location,location, location.

Most mobile internet service provider focus on urban areas ('cos that'e where the paying customers are).

You can spen a helluva lot on wizzy antennas - where a simple whip aerial would do and ditto huawei based mifi. The difference in price is at least an order of magnitude - hence worth starting cheap.

[mrsmelly]

35 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

To my mind and before those with serious experience come on here with detailed information -

it's more a matter of location,location, location.

Most mobile internet service provider focus on urban areas ('cos that'e where the paying customers are).

You can spen a helluva lot on wizzy antennas - where a simple whip aerial would do and ditto huawei based mifi. The difference in price is at least an order of magnitude - hence worth starting cheap.

This is all true. we dont have an outside aerial and just one of those small white mi fi things?? we get rock solid 4g and it never drops out ever. We just have it sat on any surface in the boat usualy just on a worktop. There are three main reasons for our good results at present. One is location. Two is its o2 the best we have had since wifi ever came into use as we lived aboard before wifi so have many years experience. The third and very important reason is we have a boat with lots of large bus windows and light, we lived a board a cave boat with portholes for a few years and that was a different matter altogether.

[bizzard]

Mines like this,  a 3 wi fi thingy in a Meccano rack in the window, brilliant, it'll work if I put on the floor too.

[Chagall]

iPhone, unlimited everything sim used as a personal hotspot. I have four connections shared to it. Take it with you when you leave the boat. Easy. 

[Idle Days]

I too am looking for information on the best external aerial for 4g reception.

 

I'm using the 3 network and enjoying a very strong signal via our Huawei B535 router at home but I need some recommendations for fitting to our boat for use in areas where the signal is weaker. 

 

Any suggestions? 

[DHutch]

I am land based with a FTTC vdsl broadband connection, which can muster about 24Mb down and a pittyfull up speed even with a following wind, but i can get 40Mb all day long on my phone about 8Mb up. 32ms ping.

 

We can get FTTP now, but while I am getting 'free FTTC' with my current mobile phone deal, and the only time I need a faster connection its all limited by works VPN anyway, seems little point.

 

Daniel

[doratheexplorer]

On 09/02/2021 at 16:47, Chagall said:

iPhone, unlimited everything sim used as a personal hotspot. I have four connections shared to it. Take it with you when you leave the boat. Easy. 

Same here. I work from home and need reliable internet for it.  Just tethering to your phone does me fine.  No need for messing about with a seperate contract on a mifi, plus an aerial etc.  If the signal is a bit poor, I put the phone in the window.  If it's still poor (rare though), I move on to a better location.

[Nightwatch]

Yeah but! What network I think was the question. We are on EE for the main data via a dongle hanging in the window. Works for us.

 

My iPhone is with 3. Unlimited mins and texts, 4 go data, (never use much).  £8 a month. The boss has an iPhone, unlimited everything and the sim for data unlimited everything, on her account. I find it less expensive for me!, on EE asI mention above. She pays £32 a month.

 

So for £40 a month we are sorted. No limits. We watch Netflix and at present because no telly signal, main telly watching via Chromecast via dongle. (As we have inverter on to power the chromecast thing it has exposed that a new set of batteries may be on the cards.) The cold weather doesn’t help I guess.

[doratheexplorer]

4 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Yeah but! What network I think was the question. We are on EE for the main data via a dongle hanging in the window. Works for us.

 

My iPhone is with 3. Unlimited mins and texts, 4 go data, (never use much).  £8 a month. The boss has an iPhone, unlimited everything and the sim for data unlimited everything, on her account. I find it less expensive for me!, on EE asI mention above. She pays £32 a month.

 

So for £40 a month we are sorted. No limits. We watch Netflix and at present because no telly signal, main telly watching via Chromecast via dongle. (As we have inverter on to power the chromecast thing it has exposed that a new set of batteries may be on the cards.) The cold weather doesn’t help I guess.

For £32 a month, I hope she gets the phone with that?

 

In any case, the OP said system, not network.

Edited February 12, 2021 by doratheexplorer

[Richard10002]

On 09/02/2021 at 15:07, Porcupine said:

 an external aerial is the way to go. Help. 

 

Several here, (including me), use this aerial:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-4G-XPOL-A0001-Cross-Polarised-Antenna/dp/B00C1DGFPS/ref=asc_df_B00C1DGFPS/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310776295886&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9133839976061308729&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046455&hvtargid=pla-562988606361&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

 

Works for me in one location that I go to occasionally where the signal is poor even using a phone outside. In fact wifi calling from inside is better than normal calling from outside. I've had it for several years with no reason to think about an alternative.

 

 

[Dr Bob]

On 09/02/2021 at 15:07, Porcupine said:

Hi, I am going to be living aboard my boat and working with all the paraphernalia that entails- laptop, printer, dreaded zoom meetings and lots of music to distract me... What system would give me the fastest most reliable 4G connection. It seems like a WiFi router and an external aerial is the way to go. Help. 

It all depends if you are going to be moving. If parked up in the same place with a strong signal then a mifi unit in the window can work wonders, but if you are out and about moving daily then you are likely to need better if you NEED a signal each day.

We have used a dual antenna for the last 4 years (a Poynting one for about £70) that works really well. You can buy your own router or get one as a package with a data sim (mobile broadband wotever). We have contracts with EE and 3 that both supply routers but my preference has been a single router with capability to run and swap two sims. I was using the Teltronika RUT 950 but gave up with it this week as it is  falling to pieces.

One issue I have found is that this week we switched to the router supplied by EE for their data sim (a whoarewe 525????) and it works great but I had to reset all the gubbins connected to the old router viz Alexa, smartsockets and the tv to ipad link for casting video. If you are going to run two different sims  for best canal network coverage - then just one router is the answer with either 2 sims or a sim that can be changed easily. I think the routers supplied with the sims are locked to a network so not practical to swap routers daily.

I am picking up a new router next week that can run both sims (£70).

@Loddon  's  been on recently saying he has had really good speeds with a more expensive whoarewe router - so you pay more (£180) for better.

 

 

eda, We've got the same antenna as Richard above.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Dr Bob

[NB Alnwick]

I have tried most networks over time but have always found that Vodafone works best for me - these days we just stick our iPhones on a ledge inside the port 'ole.

Having said that I do like the look of the antenna in this post below:

 

11 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

 

Several here, (including me), use this aerial:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-4G-XPOL-A0001-Cross-Polarised-Antenna/dp/B00C1DGFPS/ref=asc_df_B00C1DGFPS/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310776295886&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9133839976061308729&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046455&hvtargid=pla-562988606361&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

 

Works for me in one location that I go to occasionally where the signal is poor even using a phone outside. In fact wifi calling from inside is better than normal calling from outside. I've had it for several years with no reason to think about an alternative.

 

 

 

[Idle Days]

27 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

 

Several here, (including me), use this aerial:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poynting-4G-XPOL-A0001-Cross-Polarised-Antenna/dp/B00C1DGFPS/ref=asc_df_B00C1DGFPS/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310776295886&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9133839976061308729&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046455&hvtargid=pla-562988606361&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

 

Works for me in one location that I go to occasionally where the signal is poor even using a phone outside. In fact wifi calling from inside is better than normal calling from outside. I've had it for several years with no reason to think about an alternative.

 

 

I tried this antenna on the 3 network and with my Huawei B535-232 router in our caravan and found that it did not improve the signal strength or speed over the paddle aerials that came with the router, so sent it back.

I appreciate that it works for many, but it didn't for me. I ended up using a "puck" type of aerial made by the same company to get a usable signal into our aluminium box. So I'm reluctant to buy another for our boat. 

[Nightwatch]

53 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

For £32 a month, I hope she gets the phone with that?

 

In any case, the OP said system, not network.

Depends which words you read in the op!

 

The deal we got, we think is a good deal. Two sims (free anyway) but two doses of unlimited everything. Show me a better deal and I’ll probably go for it as contract was only for 12 months and has two months to run.

[GUMPY]

1 hour ago, Dr Bob said:

I think the routers supplied with the sims are locked to a network so not practical to swap routers daily

Certainly with "3" they are not "locked" but what they do do is put a fixed APN in there which effectively means you can't use them on another network without resetting the APN to auto. Takes seconds to do and then it's just a case of swapping the SIM.

[blackrose]

I work from home (the boat) everyday and have lots of MS Teams meetings. All I use is my company work mobile phone using it as a hotspot. I don't CC so I've only ever done this from a couple of different moorings but it works fine. Yesterday I presented PowerPoint presentation to the commercial director and exec committee, which included 2 short embedded video clips. It all went without a hitch.

 

I used to do the same thing using my personal phone which has a 100mb/month data limit and there was always plenty. I never used more than about 30mb/month. My work phone has a monthly limit of 500mb so I really don't see the point of extra contracts and all that additional paraphernalia, unless you're out cruising and you think you won't have a decent phone signal, but then you might also have a crap data signal even with a dedicated data contract. The only other reason for more or unlimited data would be if you want to stream movies, but then that's not really work.

Edited February 12, 2021 by blackrose

[GUMPY]

Think you mean gb/month  not mb/month ?

Edited February 12, 2021 by Loddon

[blackrose]

9 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Think you mean gb/month  not mb/month ?

 

Yes, that's it gb not mb, thanks.

On 09/02/2021 at 16:21, bizzard said:

Mines like this,  a 3 wi fi thingy in a Meccano rack in the window, brilliant, it'll work if I put on the floor too.

 

 

In other words the rack itself is obsolete?

[Dr Bob]

2 hours ago, Loddon said:

Certainly with "3" they are not "locked" but what they do do is put a fixed APN in there which effectively means you can't use them on another network without resetting the APN to auto. Takes seconds to do and then it's just a case of swapping the SIM.

thats interesting to know.

I wasnt sure you could change the APN.

[GUMPY]

37 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

thats interesting to know.

I wasnt sure you could change the APN.

Depends on the router with most you have to delete the origional APN  create a new one and set that as the default,  the Huawei B535 has an Auto setting in the list however the 818 doesn't appear to have despite having the same interface.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Loddon

[Dr Bob]

8 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Depends on the router with most you have to delete the origional APN  create a new one and set that as the default,  the Huawei B535 has an Auto setting in the list however the 818 doesn't appear to have despite having the same interface.

thanks for the info.

[kalees]

This might be worth watching. He works in tech and this video is right up to date.

 

 

[MarkH2159]

2 hours ago, kalees said:

This might be worth watching. He works in tech and this video is right up to date.

 

 

That Netgear router is one of the most expensive but it is very capable.

However I believe location to be the most important factor and then antenna efficiency another key.

The most basic 4G router can achieve up to 150 Mbps which is more than adequate for the average user who will rarely see greater that 50 mbps over their 4G network.