Internet on my Narrow boat

[David J Smith]

Hi Guys. Dave here, Famous for the now growing debate about Danforth anchors. Its getting a bit off topic on there. So here goes with my second Question.

We really want internet on our newish boat. So, short question. What / Who  do you all use. Cost etc would be nice. I also want to use my Amazon fire stick on the (Not smart) portable telly. Is that all possible?

Heads up.........  My next question is about fitting solar panels. 

Thanks David

PS Thank you to ditchcrawler. Suffolk eh. I live near Clare in Suffolk.

Edited March 26, 2022 by David john Smith

[Alan de Enfield]

 

Most folks hot-spot on their mobile phone. I find that "3" gives the best sevice.

£12 per month for 100Gb of hotspot unlimited calls and texts. (More is available if you need it).

[Rob-M]

We use Smarty on the boat as it is contract free so only pay when we are on the boat, cost is £20 for a month unlimited data.  I have the SIM in a Huawei router that has the option to connect an external antenna but I don't often bother connecting that up.

 

For a free month on Smarty you could use my referral code, https://i.smarty.co.uk/ptE8nf.

 

Have a search on here as there are plenty of threads on the topic.

[GUMPY]

I use a Huawei B535 router with a Poynting 4g xpol001 external antenna and a sim from Smarty, its about as good as you will get without spending huge money.

Works much better than using a mobile phone as a hotspot, here in the marina there is no signal on our mobiles inside the boat  but the 535 works fine and we call over wifi.

[Nightwatch]

We have a little HUAWEI dangling Dongle.originally with Three but they mucked me about. Now on EE. Unlimited. Not very much money, but I don’t know how much. It wouldn’t be much or I wouldn’t have it. I kept my phone on Three in the rare event EE doesn’t cover, then the phone becomes a ‘hotspot’. 

[PNB116]

8 hours ago, Loddon said:

I use a Huawei B535 router with a Poynting 4g xpol001 external antenna and a sim from Smarty, its about as good as you will get without spending huge money.

Works much better than using a mobile phone as a hotspot, here in the marina there is no signal on our mobiles inside the boat  but the 535 works fine and we call over wifi.

I agree, best signal I have ever had. 
 

[Idle Days]

1 hour ago, PNB116 said:

I agree, best signal I have ever had. 
 

I also agree.   

 

https://www.idledays.co.uk/2021/05/09/internet-signal-problems/

Edited March 27, 2022 by Idle Days

[MtB]

Curiously, my iPhone still connects to the internet when I"m on a boat. So I use it as a hot spot to connect my laptop just the same as on land.

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

51 minutes ago, MtB said:

Curiously, my iPhone still connects to the internet when I"m on a boat. So I use it as a hot spot to connect my laptop just the same as on land.

 

 

 

As does ours, and as does many of the boaters we know.

We have never found the need for dongles or aerials or additonal SIM cards.

[GUMPY]

4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

As does ours, and as does many of the boaters we know.

We have never found the need for dongles or aerials or additonal SIM cards.

Why don't you use your mobile for internet at home if it's that good 🤭

 

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Why don't you use your mobile for internet at home if it's that good 🤭

 

 

We have for the last 10 years.

We are 5km from the exchange and on 'copper', our internet speed was AT BEST 3Mbps and at worst as low as 0.01Mbps so we cancelled it and just used the phone hot-spot.

 

Last year BT / Openreach installed FTTP past our house so we decided that for £20 month and 150Mbps speeds we'd go for it. We are really only at home for the Winter and have found that it is great for watching High definition films on Netfix etc.

 

In the Summer we are boating and no time to sit and watch films, just the TV news and 'the forum' so the Hotspot is more than sufficient at around 10Mbps.

Just got a new contract with 3 at reduced pricing of £12 month for 100Mb of which 100% can be used as a hotspot, that is more than sufficient for us.

 

When we were on 'copper'

 

 

[MtB]

37 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Why don't you use your mobile for internet at home if it's that good 🤭

 

 

I did, when I lived aboard. 

 

In the hovel I use a landline as 1) there is no data limit (that I know of) and 2) the hovel happens to be in a very small dead spot for Vodafone signal and unlike the boat, my hovel won't move up a bit (that I know of).

 

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by MtB
Grammar!

[GUMPY]

Exactly that's why I use a SIM in a separate router to get internet on the boat because it's FREE as in no cost to me and gives better speed than a hotspot. I have a Smarty SIM that due to recommending people gives me unlimited free internet for the last 18months and I have at least a years free internet banked. Anyone can get it you just need to publish your personal link on various forums.

Oh and I use 3 at home as it's only £15 for unlimited at about 70mbs and I feel morally bound to pay for at least one service😱

 

[staying afloat]

I set this up about a year ago so thought I would share

Cost is anything from £0 (if you already have a mobile contract with a reasonable amount of data and a decent signal so you can leave your phone against a window and piggy back off the hotspot with your firestick) up to about £200 if you get a B535 router, an external poynting directional anena with a pole mount and/or maybe a omni directional antena + whatever data sim package(s) you go for. 5g ready equipment costs a bit more
I just pop the sim from my phone in the router when onboard and use the phone conected to the router wifi for calling with whatapp for making calls and texts. Its a bit of a faff to do but in reality takes seconds
I know continuous cruisers who work online with a sim for every network as the coverage really varies wherever you are. In our old marina Vodafone was the best, but we moved elsewhere and EE is pretty much the only network with a decent sinal where we are.
The cellmapper.net website can tell you where the masts that service where you are moored and the direction they cast the signal and network 
The opensignal.org website and app can also tell you what speeds to expect and where to point your phone or aerial. 
The omnidirectional aerial will give a poorer signal than a directional one (assuming the directional one is pointing the right way) and can pick up interference but is a lot less faff and often is good enough to stream. 
The Fast.com website to see what speeds you are actually getting. 5Mbps plus is usually good for streaming, you can get away with less but it tends to buffer more in my experience. 30Mbps or more would cover you for streaming in 4k if that is your thing.  

[doratheexplorer]

My main source of internet is my phone hotspot on vodafone.

 

I am VERY dependant on internet as I work from my boat and need to be connected all day.  I also continously cruise.

 

A couple of months ago I bought a smarty mifi/sim thingy because it was a an extraordinariliy good deal and I wasn't tied in.  I figured it might come in useful on odd occassions as a back up if my phone malfunctioned or the vodafone signal was poor.  Smarty piggybacks the Three network.  As expected, the vodafone signal and data speed absolutely wipes the floor with Smarty/Three in almost every location.  Of the dozen or so places I've moored, only 1 did the Smarty thingy match my vodafone hotspot.  Everywhere else it was a lot slower.#

 

This is not surprising since Three and their piggybackers are much cheaper than other networks.  You get what you pay for.  If you want something cheap for a bit of browsing, some streaming when you can etc, Three might be ok (although their customer service is horrific).  If you need dependable internet, go for vodafone or EE.

 

Don't bother with 02, they're not that cheap and their network coverage is poor too.

[Rob-M]

2 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

My main source of internet is my phone hotspot on vodafone.

 

I am VERY dependant on internet as I work from my boat and need to be connected all day.  I also continously cruise.

 

A couple of months ago I bought a smarty mifi/sim thingy because it was a an extraordinariliy good deal and I wasn't tied in.  I figured it might come in useful on odd occassions as a back up if my phone malfunctioned or the vodafone signal was poor.  Smarty piggybacks the Three network.  As expected, the vodafone signal and data speed absolutely wipes the floor with Smarty/Three in almost every location.  Of the dozen or so places I've moored, only 1 did the Smarty thingy match my vodafone hotspot.  Everywhere else it was a lot slower.#

 

This is not surprising since Three and their piggybackers are much cheaper than other networks.  You get what you pay for.  If you want something cheap for a bit of browsing, some streaming when you can etc, Three might be ok (although their customer service is horrific).  If you need dependable internet, go for vodafone or EE.

 

Don't bother with 02, they're not that cheap and their network coverage is poor too.

It's funny how experiences can be so different, when I had a Vodafone contract through work it was totally useless on the boat as I could rarely get a phone or data signal.  I now use a dedicated router with Smarty SIM and so far I've not had an issue getting a connection suitable for connecting to Teams video calls and managing cloud based devices so everything I do is dependent on good internet plus using streaming services for TV.

[doratheexplorer]

1 minute ago, Rob-M said:

It's funny how experiences can be so different, when I had a Vodafone contract through work it was totally useless on the boat as I could rarely get a phone or data signal.  I now use a dedicated router with Smarty SIM and so far I've not had an issue getting a connection suitable for connecting to Teams video calls and managing cloud based devices so everything I do is dependent on good internet plus using streaming services for TV.

Is it possible that your work contract was negotiated to be cheap but the speeds were throttled back?

 

I'm currently lucky enough to be moored in a great signal spot.  Smarty is getting 3-4mbps down 1mbps up which really good for that network (I used to have Three on my phone and it was similar).  Vodafone is getting 25-30mbps down 5-8mbps up which is also good, but not all that unusual.  The disparity is pretty much par for the course.

 

My best ever vodafone download speed was over 150mbps (on 4G).  I don' think I've seen Smarty/Three ever do much better than 10-15.  The other problem with Three/Smarty is how much it throttles back at peak times (evenings), they have a system called TrafficSense which tries to share out their network amongst user because they don't have enough bandwidth for everyone.  It causes a lot of buffering when trying to stream in the evening. I've never had that happen on vodafone.

[Rob-M]

23 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Is it possible that your work contract was negotiated to be cheap but the speeds were throttled back?

 

I'm currently lucky enough to be moored in a great signal spot.  Smarty is getting 3-4mbps down 1mbps up which really good for that network (I used to have Three on my phone and it was similar).  Vodafone is getting 25-30mbps down 5-8mbps up which is also good, but not all that unusual.  The disparity is pretty much par for the course.

 

My best ever vodafone download speed was over 150mbps (on 4G).  I don' think I've seen Smarty/Three ever do much better than 10-15.  The other problem with Three/Smarty is how much it throttles back at peak times (evenings), they have a system called TrafficSense which tries to share out their network amongst user because they don't have enough bandwidth for everyone.  It causes a lot of buffering when trying to stream in the evening. I've never had that happen on vodafone

Given the Vodafone contract was for best part of 20000 staff I wouldn't expect it to be done on the cheap.  It was used with mifi devices globally as there was lots of international travel.  Outside of cities it was pretty useless for data.

 

I regularly get 35mbps+ on my Smarty with the best being around 100mbps down and 16mbps up.

[Slim]

I was going to start a topic around a slightly different mobile data matter but perhaps I can piggyback on this one. If inappropriate I'm sure someone will tell me.

In the coming months I will be spending time in Devon at the family cottage. (no landline). The mobile signal is pretty poor and to make a call you normally go outside and stand in the middle of the square. There is a signal inside in one upstairs bedroom right by one window alcove. The walls are 800 - 900mms. 

I've looked at various signal boosters and aerials and frankly the more I look the more confused I get. What I want is the following:-

Make and receive mobile phone calls inside and receive /send e-mail messages again inside. The ability to surf the internet would be good as there is no tv either. I don't want to have to keep swapping out sim cards or get another data package as my current phone is unlimited calls and data. 

Need I add, I don't want to spend a fortune as the set up will be for a matter of months.

If anyone can suggest a suitable set up I would be grateful. Many thanks. 

[robtheplod]

I use vodafone mobile on a router with aerial on the roof which floods the boat with wifi - used for TV streaming/laptop etc. No issues with vodafone signal on routes i have been so far....

[blackrose]

On 26/03/2022 at 22:08, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Most folks hot-spot on their mobile phone. I find that "3" gives the best sevice.

£12 per month for 100Gb of hotspot unlimited calls and texts. (More is available if you need it).

 

100GB isn't much if you want to stream tv as the OP said. Then you'll end up spending a lot more money for extra data than if you had an unlimited plan. Also the speeds you'll get using your phone as a hotspot aren't the best 

 

Better to get an unlimited data plan from 3 and buy the router that Loddon suggests. That's what I did last summer and I don't know why I never did it before.

 

I'm paying £19/month for the data plan but I think you might be able to get it for about £15 now. Of course that's in addition to your phone contract if you have one, but I jacked in my £20/month O2 contract and went with a £6/month Smarty deal which you can end at any time. Unlimited calls & texts and I think I'm only getting 4GB data/month, but as I'm only using that when off the boat it's plenty for me. Once you start tethering your phone to a laptop and using the phone as a hotspot it ripps through the data but I don't need to do that anymore so 4GB is plenty for phone use only 

Edited March 30, 2022 by blackrose

[PD1964]

On 26/03/2022 at 21:06, David john Smith said:

Hi Guys. Dave here, Famous for the now growing debate about Danforth anchors. Its getting a bit off topic on there. So here goes with my second Question.

We really want internet on our newish boat. So, short question. What / Who  do you all use. Cost etc would be nice. I also want to use my Amazon fire stick on the (Not smart) portable telly. Is that all possible?

Heads up.........  My next question is about fitting solar panels. 

Thanks David

PS Thank you to ditchcrawler. Suffolk eh. I live near Clare in Suffolk.

All your questions have been asked in the last month, for quick answers use the search function. Lots of current topics with basically the same questions. 

[Richard10002]

54 minutes ago, PD1964 said:

All your questions have been asked in the last month, for quick answers use the search function. Lots of current topics with basically the same questions. 

The thread has been going for 4 days, and only now do you pop up with your helpful contribution 😞 

[PD1964]

58 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

The thread has been going for 4 days, and only now do you pop up with your helpful contribution 😞 

And I see you haven’t made any contribution to it, never mind any advice.😒😔☹️

 The OP says he has a lot of questions to ask, the next one about solar, I image it’s about fitting and the correct size of MPPT.

 These questions are asked every week and there is a Search facility on the site. If he was to try it he might find his answer. It could be a lot quicker then waiting 4 days for an answer that could be the most relevant to his needs.

 The search facility is there for a reason so why not use it?

 I just searched onboard Internet, there’s lots of advice available, he could of just re-ignited this Post or a newer one and people could add any updated advice and current up-to date information regarding internet developments.

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by PD1964

[doratheexplorer]

3 hours ago, Rob-M said:

Given the Vodafone contract was for best part of 20000 staff I wouldn't expect it to be done on the cheap.  It was used with mifi devices globally as there was lots of international travel.  Outside of cities it was pretty useless for data.

 

I regularly get 35mbps+ on my Smarty with the best being around 100mbps down and 16mbps up.

On the canal?