Sky-Broadband

[Mary 1]

Sorry to do this to you all, BUT does anyone know how I can have the Internet on my boat, from a laptop.

reason is to keep in touch this year while on continuous cruising, and leaving family all around the world. I do have a mobile phone, with vodaphone.

Mary 1

[Chris J W]

Have a search for "3G" and "Dongles" - there's plenty of threads around, and more offers from the major mobile providers than you wave a rusty windlass at.

[alan_fincher]

Have a search for "3G" and "Dongles" - there's plenty of threads around, and more offers from the major mobile providers than you wave a rusty windlass at.

But beware that the standard forum search facility will not work with character strings of less than 3 characters.

 

So whilst you can search 'Vodafone', 'Wireless', 'Broadband', 'Dongle', 'Modem', 'PAYG'. 'GPRS', 'wireless' etc, you can't unfortunately search '3', '3G', 'O2', 'USB', etc.

 

But it should be easy to find recent threads on the topic, sticking to search strings of 4 characters or more.

 

Alan

[sueb]

Sorry to do this to you all, BUT does anyone know how I can have the Internet on my boat, from a laptop.

reason is to keep in touch this year while on continuous cruising, and leaving family all around the world. I do have a mobile phone, with vodaphone.

Mary 1

You may be able to get the internet on your mobile phone a lot can. What phone have you got? Or else you can connect your phone to a laptop, which is what I do, it then works as a modem.

Sue

[bottle]

Mary

 

Welcome.

 

You will not get Sky broadband on a boat, it needs a telephone line.

 

All mobile phone companies do a 'dongle' connects to a usb socket on the laptop this will give a connection to the mobile phone system and connect to the internet, it is not as fast as broadband.

 

As you have vodafone look here

 

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Port...;pageID=MB_0007

 

All the other companies do similar

[sueb]

Mary

 

Welcome.

 

You will not get Sky broadband on a boat, it needs a telephone line.

 

All mobile phone companies do a 'dongle' connects to a usb socket on the laptop this will give a connection to the mobile phone system and connect to the internet, it is not as fast as broadband.

 

As you have vodafone look here

 

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Port...;pageID=MB_0007

 

All the other companies do similar

I don't understand why you have to buy/obtain a dongle when your mobile phone will do the job. It is just another thing to lose.

Sue

[Chris J W]

I don't understand why you have to buy/obtain a dongle when your mobile phone will do the job. It is just another thing to lose.

Sue

 

Depending on your provider / contract it's possible to get a far better data-rate for 'dongle' than it is a handset.

[sueb]

Depending on your provider / contract it's possible to get a far better data-rate for 'dongle' than it is a handset.

Orange unlimited £6.38 plus vat per month any time suits me.

[long john]

I use a dongle with an external antenna attached to the boat roof for weak signal areas and it also stops the signals bouncing all over the inside of the boat, I got hold of an " unlocked " dongle and use 4 different payg mobile broadband sim cards which usually ensures you get a signal from at least one of them. I can supply antennas to fit most dongles which tend to get a better reception than a phone handset used as a modem .

[bottle]

Orange unlimited £6.38 plus vat per month any time suits me.

 

Could you possibly give a link as to where this is available, please. I cannot find it.

 

It may have been stopped and only those already on it can keep it.

[twocvbloke]

With regard to the "sky" name, they don't do broadband, just like the satellites they use, they just rent the space...

 

If you really want satellite broadband, there is a company called "opensky" who do 1-way broadband, meaning you need a dial-up service, and for the speed and price and faffing, it'd be cheaper with a 3G USB modem!!!

 

As for 2-way, well, unless you earn a salary of that like Mr. Alan M. Sugar, it's kind of out of anyone's price range...

[sueb]

Could you possibly give a link as to where this is available, please. I cannot find it.

 

It may have been stopped and only those already on it can keep it.

I was offered it on the phone to Orange when I changed my phone. I got a HTC touch diamond and racoon 25 contract.

Hope this helps. Sue

[Mary 1]

Thank you every one, I will look into all your helpful suggestions. My partner went to put our boat in its new mooring today, just an over nighter. Well he slipped in to the canal lock off the metal ladder. AND guess what, no change of clothes, so I am 3 hours away, his son 1 1/2 so he drew the short straw. Took him shoes track bottoms tops etc. That will teach him not to listen to me!!!

Mary 1

[Androo]

Just been informed of this option with BT. http://www.btopenzone.com/buy/index.jsp Go to New regular access subscriptions (The Pink One)

 

 

BT Open Zone Together

 

Unlimited Access + 500 mins/month UK Roaming (Team Mobile)

 

If you go over 500mins = (8hrs 20mins) they charge 10p/min so my advice is don't go over!

 

You need to have a mast in or near the marina you are in to get max speed which according to some folk where I am the speed reaches between 10/12mbs (don't quote me on this as people tend to exaggerate)

 

There is a hotspot checker on the BT website. http://btopenzone.hotspot-directory.com/

 

One thing though, BEWARE with the description UNLIMITED ACCESS many people confuse this with UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD. They do have a fair user policy like most and it's

 

3GB's. Which is OK if you don't download large files like videos or do peer to peer sharing.

 

Androo

Edited March 4, 2009 by Androo