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Improving onboard Mobile communications


KJT

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Hi Robbo, I teach online using video calls (Skype, Hangouts, ooVoo etc)

I think apart from data usage you'll find the rate going up/down as well as the latency more of an issue. If going in a marina some have a phone line to the bollards (mainly residential) which may be the only reliable way.

Edited by Robbo
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Thanks MoominPapa, I got a 404 from the link you posted. I'd be interested to know the cost for unlimited data (I could find no providers apart from satellite - not reliable enough and potential latency problem for video calls).

 

"What will you do if you regularly have lessons booked but no signal good enough to deliver them?" - exactly smile.png Gotta be reliable and worried that a land line is going to be the only option. Since I teach every day, I won't get far from my mooring, hehe

 

Try this one.

 

http://aa.net.uk/telecoms-mobile-data.html

 

cost is 2p per megabyte, plus VAT. ie about £24 a gigabyte, depending on definition of a gigagbyte (1000 or 1024 MB)

 

I thing getting a land-line may be your only solution. Marina WiFi is universally bad, in my experience. If you can't find a mooring with a land-line to the boat, you'd have to agree with them to have a broadband line installed in the office or other building, just for your use, and connect to that via WiFi. Depending on distance, that may need slightly specialist WiFi kit: aerials and routers to get a good link.

 

MP.

 

ETA. Look at coverage maps to get an idea where you might be able to work from using mobile, but be aware that you'll need 4G coverage. We're increasingly finding that 3G is only usable in country areas: in a town without 4G you'll get a strong 3G signal but the data rate is useless because it's massively overloaded by all the cellphones being carried around. It does work OK at three in the morning though :)

Edited by MoominPapa
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Thanks MoominPapa, I got a 404 from the link you posted. I'd be interested to know the cost for unlimited data (I could find no providers apart from satellite - not reliable enough and potential latency problem for video calls).

 

"What will you do if you regularly have lessons booked but no signal good enough to deliver them?" - exactly smile.png Gotta be reliable and worried that a land line is going to be the only option. Since I teach every day, I won't get far from my mooring, hehe

 

D'uh (me), the closing parenthesis in the URL you provided was included in the link, it resolves just fine. Thank you again. That solution looks ideal except for the price. If my calculation is correct £20/GB+VAT would cost me £7,000/month ohmy.png

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Are you really certain that you use 350GB per month, that is a LOT.

 

The quoted usage for Skype seems to vary a lot, but typically seems to be say 600MB per hour. That would work out at 580 hours of video calling for the 350GB, which is connected almost 24/7, do you ever sleep! If you worked on 40 hours per week that would be under a 100GB per month.

 

So on the linked site that would be £2400 per month, still rather a lot. If you used Three then you have 30GB tethered now, so perhaps you could get away with 3 SIM cards at £23 per month each, ie £69 for 90GB tethered data per month. Perhaps you could even do some of the calls from the actual phone where you have unlimited internet. You would need to be in an area that has good phone reception, and in the case of Three that is mostly in a large city to get 4G at the moment.

 

I can see that if you are realistic it may well be able to work, but you need to check to see what your actual data consumption really is I think.

Edited by john6767
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Thanks MoominPapa, I got a 404 from the link you posted. I'd be interested to know the cost for unlimited data (I could find no providers apart from satellite - not reliable enough and potential latency problem for video calls).

 

"What will you do if you regularly have lessons booked but no signal good enough to deliver them?" - exactly smile.png Gotta be reliable and worried that a land line is going to be the only option. Since I teach every day, I won't get far from my mooring, hehe

Following elsewhere in that link gives

Charges for data usage are on our main call prices page and are typically 2p/MB+VAT (UK)

See here: http://aa.net.uk/telecoms-mobile-data.html

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Thanks WotEver, I got there in the end. Yup, about £7,000/month for 350 GB smile.png

Or about £90/month for 90GB with Three. If you really want 350Gb then you can have 360Gb for £270 (tethered) as per John's post above.

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Hi WotEver, thank you for the suggestion but it looks like multiples of 30 GB tethered limits from Three aren't realistic because of pricing and I'm really looking for unlimited data to be on the safe side (on top of hours of Skype video lessons, I have other big files to move about).

 

I'm resigned to finding unlimited internet from SIM card options, for anything other than mobile phones, doesn't exist. So if there are any alternatives anyone knows of, please let us know.

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I get 50Gb per month on an EE data sim. It was a half price offer at £28 on a 24 month contract.

 

Unlimited doesn't exist with online tethering and, even when it was offered by Three, it was limited speed between 3pm and midnight at their discretion - having signed up on a two year deal, I was disappointed/angry/ripped off.

 

How many hours a day, how many days a week, do you teach via online video? What level of quality do you need to provide?

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  • 2 months later...

Best solution I found was to buy any old cheapo 3G (or 4G) phone with a Three contract SIM with unlimited data (not a specific data contract as they are a rip off) then install EasyTether.

 

Buy an WiFi router capable of running OpenWrt (e.g. Linksys WRT1900 AC) and install this with a USB cable running out of the boat (ideally somewhere in the well deck under a cratch cover, but you could run it anywhere so long as the length is kept under 5metres. Install EasyTether on the router also.

 

To use the internet just plug the phone into the USB cable somewhere outside the boat, disguise phone in a plastic box even and connect your laptop/tablet to the WiFi on the router. This will get Internet access for any device on the WiFi network all routed through the mobile phone, and because of EasyTether Three won't know you are using tethered data so you'll have a truly unlimited data allowance rather than paying a lot for the Data only SIM cards.

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  • 3 weeks later...

after Lurking for a while I thought I would make my first post on a subject close to my heart.

 

 

I have been reading with interest the threads on mobile internet connection on Narrowboats,

 

I have to declare an interest here as I work in the mobile industry so I probably have some bias here and there regarding networks ;-) .

 

The problem I needed to solve was to be able to set up a reliable system that would allow me to work from “home” from our narrowboat, this means I needed to put a reliable system in place that has the best chance of working and not necessary the cheapest solution.

 

After a lot of research and speaking to some of our technical design engineers who design mobile data solutions for emergency services they came up with a spec that seemed to me to be worth trying.

 

My other requirement was that I would like to connect to static wifi services if available and then if that connection is not present to replace it with a 4g LTE connection and only is that is not available to switch to 3G .

 

I then wanted the WAN connection to be repeated via a separate single wifi access point inside the boat to which our devices could then connect.

 

The solution I settled on was an external mounted antenna on the roof which contains 5 separate internal antenna’s 2 MIMO for 4G/LTE/3G, two MIMO for WIFI and a single GPS aerial.

 

This was then connected to a 12v router in the boat. And the router also had a separate 12v powered access point connected to it ( I needed 2 AP’s so I can separate the WAN connection from the Lan connection and therefore improve performance)

 

The router had the capability for 2 separate SIMS so I went for a three sim as my main sim ( as the data plan is much cheaper) followed by an EE sim which I think gives the best overall coverage on the network ( but I am biased here, see disclaimer above). I then have 2-3 public and marina WIFI services that I subscribe to.

 

For the roof mounted antenna its really important to make sure your aerial supports the frequency bands for the mobile operator you chose, make sure you check as a lot of the antenna don’t support all the UK 4G LTE frequency’s, and will not work so well if its not supported. Also try and find a router that will restart and set up when power is connected and is happy to switch off by having the power removed or switched off, again home 4G routers don’t like this behavior.

 

Now I know that there have been discussions on using directional aerials and not omni directional ones, now whilst this works better for a TV and radio signal it is not necessary better for a wifi or Mobile data solution, trust me on this one but a good omni directional aerial will almost always work better than a directional aerial unless you can see the mobile mast , and if you can see it an omni will be fine J.

 

Now the equipment I installed was as follows:-

Antenna was a “MOBILE MARK LTM502 AERIAL WITH 4.5M LEADS” .

Router was a “Pepwave max BR1 LTE”

Internal access point was a “Pepwave AP One AC mini”

 

My choice was based on the antenna being the best low profile multi antenna I could find in the UK that supports all UK 3G & 4G LTE frequencies, the router I chose because it is used by a lot of police forces to provide exactly this solution, it is also water and vibration resistant and will accept a wide range of supply voltages which removes the need for a separate 12v regulator, the AP choice was simply because the router can configure it so it made the setup and operation easier.

 

You probably haven't heard of Pepwave much in the UK but in the US they are one of the market leaders in mobile Routers.

 

Now I guess the feedback on how it works, well so far I have been running it for 4 months and it is working really well, I have rarely not had a working connection and it happy running all our laptops, tablets and phones etc. an added bonus is that the router also has a built in GPS which it can broadcast on the LAN which means that my laptop running WaterNAV also has a functional GPS inside the boat.

 

So am I happy... yes I’m happy with the solution I have installed, as I said earlier its not the cheapest solution but if you must have a reliable connection then I would recommend you consider this type of setup.

 

 

  • Greenie 1
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Pardon!

 

Sorry, all of the above is a bit gobbledegook to me, but anyone who knows what the abbreviations mean will understand. However I'm not in the market to enhance my simple dongle with a SIM card in it.

 

I have a general question though for all,

 

I'm on 3.(three) 15 gb a month. This seems to 'go' by about the 17th of each month, possibly later. Then I put the wife's sim into the dongle. On this one we have 10gb. The data on the EE sim seems to last a lot longer. I do the same stuff and wifey still does her crosswords etc.

 

Any suggestions as to why?

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after Lurking for a while I thought I would make my first post on a subject close to my heart.

 

 

I have been reading with interest the threads on mobile internet connection on Narrowboats,

 

I have to declare an interest here as I work in the mobile industry so I probably have some bias here and there regarding networks ;-) .

 

The problem I needed to solve was to be able to set up a reliable system that would allow me to work from “home” from our narrowboat, this means I needed to put a reliable system in place that has the best chance of working and not necessary the cheapest solution.

 

After a lot of research and speaking to some of our technical design engineers who design mobile data solutions for emergency services they came up with a spec that seemed to me to be worth trying.

 

My other requirement was that I would like to connect to static wifi services if available and then if that connection is not present to replace it with a 4g LTE connection and only is that is not available to switch to 3G .

 

I then wanted the WAN connection to be repeated via a separate single wifi access point inside the boat to which our devices could then connect.

 

The solution I settled on was an external mounted antenna on the roof which contains 5 separate internal antenna’s 2 MIMO for 4G/LTE/3G, two MIMO for WIFI and a single GPS aerial.

 

This was then connected to a 12v router in the boat. And the router also had a separate 12v powered access point connected to it ( I needed 2 AP’s so I can separate the WAN connection from the Lan connection and therefore improve performance)

 

The router had the capability for 2 separate SIMS so I went for a three sim as my main sim ( as the data plan is much cheaper) followed by an EE sim which I think gives the best overall coverage on the network ( but I am biased here, see disclaimer above). I then have 2-3 public and marina WIFI services that I subscribe to.

 

For the roof mounted antenna its really important to make sure your aerial supports the frequency bands for the mobile operator you chose, make sure you check as a lot of the antenna don’t support all the UK 4G LTE frequency’s, and will not work so well if its not supported. Also try and find a router that will restart and set up when power is connected and is happy to switch off by having the power removed or switched off, again home 4G routers don’t like this behavior.

 

Now I know that there have been discussions on using directional aerials and not omni directional ones, now whilst this works better for a TV and radio signal it is not necessary better for a wifi or Mobile data solution, trust me on this one but a good omni directional aerial will almost always work better than a directional aerial unless you can see the mobile mast , and if you can see it an omni will be fine J.

 

Now the equipment I installed was as follows:-

Antenna was a “MOBILE MARK LTM502 AERIAL WITH 4.5M LEADS” .

Router was a “Pepwave max BR1 LTE”

Internal access point was a “Pepwave AP One AC mini”

 

My choice was based on the antenna being the best low profile multi antenna I could find in the UK that supports all UK 3G & 4G LTE frequencies, the router I chose because it is used by a lot of police forces to provide exactly this solution, it is also water and vibration resistant and will accept a wide range of supply voltages which removes the need for a separate 12v regulator, the AP choice was simply because the router can configure it so it made the setup and operation easier.

 

You probably haven't heard of Pepwave much in the UK but in the US they are one of the market leaders in mobile Routers.

 

Now I guess the feedback on how it works, well so far I have been running it for 4 months and it is working really well, I have rarely not had a working connection and it happy running all our laptops, tablets and phones etc. an added bonus is that the router also has a built in GPS which it can broadcast on the LAN which means that my laptop running WaterNAV also has a functional GPS inside the boat.

 

So am I happy... yes I’m happy with the solution I have installed, as I said earlier its not the cheapest solution but if you must have a reliable connection then I would recommend you consider this type of setup.

 

 

 

Pepwave max BR1 LTE (a bit expensive?)

 

I'm using ee 4g and a Huawei E5186 LTE with an external antenna

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Pepwave max BR1 LTE (a bit expensive?)

 

I'm using ee 4g and a Huawei E5186 LTE with an external antenna

I'm using EE 4G with a Huawei MiFi ((£80+/-) and external antenna, (£75 +/-), if necessary.

 

Hard to justify the best part of £700 for many canal boaters interesting as expensive stuff is.

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On my last card, EE gave me another 100GB after my month ran out.

 

I'm expecting the same with this new card i started up yesterday!

 

The 4G has worked from the Thames, all the way to Bristol and back, along the whole length of the Thames, The River Wey and now I am in Little Venice, it's signal has diminished, from the 76Mbps i have been used to down to the 18Mbps i have today!

 

I'm a happy chappy!

 

Nipper

I understand very little of this but after giving up on getting a constant TV signal, on advice from a passing Open Reach chap, I took my iPad into the EE shop and asked if I can put a sim card in it because I had found success in the house by plugging it into the TV and using the various Apps to watch whatever programme I fancied. I explained that I lived mostly on a canal boat and the two young staff members were very enthusiastic. The contract they offered included a "dongle" into which they put the sim card which meant I could have effective WiFi in the boat almost anywhere on the system and so not only connect my iPad, but all other Wifi type devices. As soon as I got it back to the boat, I plugged it in and watched TV all evening without a single breakup of picture. So I can not only watch TV but also use my telephone, use my laptop, search the internet etc etc. I have thrown the TV areal in the skip and the dongle is quite happy sitting on a low shelf beside the TV and does not need to be outside or in a window.

B..... Luxury.

The EE staff were great apart from then trying to sell me BT Broadband for the house - I let them off though because it was the first day they were allowed to sell BT to prospective customers.

 

Edited just to add that it is 4G - which apparently is important!

Edited by UseleSS Enterprise
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I understand very little of this but after giving up on getting a constant TV signal, on advice from a passing Open Reach chap, I took my iPad into the EE shop and asked if I can put a sim card in it because I had found success in the house by plugging it into the TV and using the various Apps to watch whatever programme I fancied. I explained that I lived mostly on a canal boat and the two young staff members were very enthusiastic. The contract they offered included a "dongle" into which they put the sim card which meant I could have effective WiFi in the boat almost anywhere on the system and so not only connect my iPad, but all other Wifi type devices. As soon as I got it back to the boat, I plugged it in and watched TV all evening without a single breakup of picture. So I can not only watch TV but also use my telephone, use my laptop, search the internet etc etc. I have thrown the TV areal in the skip and the dongle is quite happy sitting on a low shelf beside the TV and does not need to be outside or in a window.

B..... Luxury.

The EE staff were great apart from then trying to sell me BT Broadband for the house - I let them off though because it was the first day they were allowed to sell BT to prospective customers.

 

Edited just to add that it is 4G - which apparently is important!

what data allowance do you get? Phone calls and text messages?

How much per month please?

Edited by Nightwatch
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I got a included 4G router from EE that has a Wi-Fi output and also an ethernet output. I went for the 50 Gb/mth bundle, 12 month contract at £26/month as the 25Gb package wad only a fiver less, and I do use most of the allowance each month. I have been with Orange from their start, now transferred to EE a year or two back and the family do have several phones with them in my name. I am currently using it in hospital (leg operation) and the router runs off 12V dc via a wall wart, currently giving me strong performance (50 down, 25 up with pings as low as 15 ms). It does also have two aerial sockets for TS5 connectors which look like CRC9, but not had to use them yet. I got it 11 months ago, so will look around again shortly for an even better package, but still happy with the kit.

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