Looking to purchase a boat in the next few years, few concerns! (Involves internet)

[J-Hatley]

Hey there!

 

I'm going to be looking into either purchasing or renovating an existing boat in the future, it will be my first home (I currently with with parents after having just finished university and got a job!) and one of the only issues I am worried about currently, is internet.

 

Does anyone have any solutions for a stable internet connection for things such as video streaming and/or gaming? One possible solution I had thought about would be to simply buy a phone contract and use the "Unlimited" data on those, but i'm not entirely sure that would help, which leaves me at a bit of a loss.

 

Any help with this would be wonderful!

 

 

[Bloomsberry]

Depends what bandwidth you require. I have a 3G dongle from 3 (15gb @15.99 a month) and can only achieve about 1 meg from my mooring but it is enough to watch Youtube in SD and stream football matches from the dodgy streaming sites.

 

I have the option to upgrade to 4G but I'm a bit apprehensive as I don't know if the coverage of 4G is as good as 3G where I am. So for now I'm sticking to 3G, as they say , it ain't broken why fix it.

[Alan de Enfield]

Hey there!

 

I'm going to be looking into either purchasing or renovating an existing boat in the future, it will be my first home (I currently with with parents after having just finished university and got a job!) and one of the only issues I am worried about currently, is internet.

 

Does anyone have any solutions for a stable internet connection for things such as video streaming and/or gaming? One possible solution I had thought about would be to simply buy a phone contract and use the "Unlimited" data on those, but i'm not entirely sure that would help, which leaves me at a bit of a loss.

 

Any help with this would be wonderful!

 

 

 

Whereabouts in the country are you thinking of ?

Are you looking at a permanent mooring or continuously cruising ?

 

If you are on a permanent mooring then many marinas have telephone hook-up so you can get fibre-speed broadband.

If you are looking to be always on the move then different regions ( city, village, rural, North, South, Midlands) will offer widely differing speeds via a mobile system.

 

There are areas that are total 'black-holes' with absolutely no phone or broadband availability - remember that canals tend to be at 'low-points' and are surrounded by housing, embankments, trees etc and invariably any mobile signal will not be at its best.

 

You will find that the unlimited data on a phone contract cannot be used for tethering - they can tell - my son has just been 'cut off' by "3" for doing that. He gets a message ' cannot tether' and it will not allow connection,

You can use your unlimited data on the phone - which, if you connect it via an HTML cable to a TV allows you watch films etc but gaming you will struggle as I think you will need Wi-Fi to run your games console

Edited December 29, 2015 by Alan de Enfield

[Sea Dog]

Hey there!

 

I'm going to be looking into either purchasing or renovating an existing boat in the future, it will be my first home (I currently with with parents after having just finished university and got a job!) and one of the only issues I am worried about currently, is internet.

 

 

Interesting approach J! "One of the only issues your worried about" is one of the only ones that will be different by the time you get there! There are sooo many issues you need to address, but I'd suggest phone/internet kit and contracts change all the time so this is the one area you can forget about until shortly before the big day. Finding an appropriate boat, buying it, insuring it, mooring it, licencing it, renovating it, maintaining it, living in it, et al, are all quite big issues compared to getting the right mobile solution.

 

My apologies if you've already got the measure of all that - you may well be the only one posting here who has!

[dmr]

In a few years things will (might) have changed (hopefully).

Large quantities of data, and high speed data, are never going to be easy.

Mobile broadband is well established so get some now and investigate it!

It can vary a lot from time to time and place to place.

Unlimited mobile broadband does NOT exist, its just a marketing phrase! Unlimited might mean as little as 4GByte/month, and even if it is unlimited they will take it away if you use too much.

£1 per Gigabyte is the going rate.

 

Big downloads (movies etc) is a good excuse for going to the pub.

 

.............Dave

[Bloomsberry]

In a few years things will (might) have changed (hopefully).

Large quantities of data, and high speed data, are never going to be easy.

Mobile broadband is well established so get some now and investigate it!

It can vary a lot from time to time and place to place.

Unlimited mobile broadband does NOT exist, its just a marketing phrase! Unlimited might mean as little as 4GByte/month, and even if it is unlimited they will take it away if you use too much.

£1 per Gigabyte is the going rate.

 

Big downloads (movies etc) is a good excuse for going to the pub.

 

.............Dave

 

Or go down the pub and use their wifi to download it :-)

 

 

 

[dmr]

 

In a few years things will (might) have changed (hopefully).

Large quantities of data, and high speed data, are never going to be easy.

Mobile broadband is well established so get some now and investigate it!

It can vary a lot from time to time and place to place.

Unlimited mobile broadband does NOT exist, its just a marketing phrase! Unlimited might mean as little as 4GByte/month, and even if it is unlimited they will take it away if you use too much.

£1 per Gigabyte is the going rate.

 

Big downloads (movies etc) is a good excuse for going to the pub.

 

.............Dave

 

Or go down the pub and use their wifi to download it :-)

 

 

 

 

 

Well that is what I meant!

Pub wifi is also very variable, anything from too slow to be of any use, up to superbly fast.

This means that you have to try several pubs till you find a good one. One or two are so good that you can download a full movie before you've even finished the first pint, then you have to quickly find more stuff to download.

An iPad is handy to use in the pubs where it might not be the done thing to get a laptop out.

 

Apple stuff is good at wifi, when you return to pub, maybe after many months, it remembers the password and automatically reconnects

 

..............Dave

[Dave_P]

In a few years things will (might) have changed (hopefully).

Large quantities of data, and high speed data, are never going to be easy.

Mobile broadband is well established so get some now and investigate it!

It can vary a lot from time to time and place to place.

Unlimited mobile broadband does NOT exist, its just a marketing phrase! Unlimited might mean as little as 4GByte/month, and even if it is unlimited they will take it away if you use too much.

£1 per Gigabyte is the going rate.

 

Big downloads (movies etc) is a good excuse for going to the pub.

 

.............Dave

I have unlimited mobile broadband with unlimited tethering. I often use a lot of data. It does exist.

[dmr]

I have unlimited mobile broadband with unlimited tethering. I often use a lot of data. It does exist.

 

Which Network and could I get this?

PM me if you don't want to make it public!

I thought "unlimited" was now only available on a few old contracts and that the companies were trying to back out of these?

 

.............Dave

[mrsmelly]

One bit of advice I can give is that if such things worry you DO NOT come to moor in Lower Heyford as we are still blessed with absolutely zero signal most of the time.

Tim

[dmr]

One bit of advice I can give is that if such things worry you DO NOT come to moor in Lower Heyford as we are still blessed with absolutely zero signal most of the time.

Tim

 

If you put the 3G dongle on top of a big stick about 4 foot above the roof of the boat you can get a little bit of "Three" at Lower Heyford (at least just North of the station where we usually stop).

What is interesting is that looking at the Network coverage maps there is often a "black spot" following the route of the canal. So, does canal water absorb 3G signals? are the mobile companies discriminating against boaters? or has a "higher authority" decided that boaters are better off without the internet?

 

...........Dave

[George94]

 

Whereabouts in the country are you thinking of ?

Are you looking at a permanent mooring or continuously cruising ?

 

If you are on a permanent mooring then many marinas have telephone hook-up so you can get fibre-speed broadband.

If you are looking to be always on the move then different regions ( city, village, rural, North, South, Midlands) will offer widely differing speeds via a mobile system.

 

There are areas that are total 'black-holes' with absolutely no phone or broadband availability - remember that canals tend to be at 'low-points' and are surrounded by housing, embankments, trees etc and invariably any mobile signal will not be at its best.

 

You will find that the unlimited data on a phone contract cannot be used for tethering - they can tell - my son has just been 'cut off' by "3" for doing that. He gets a message ' cannot tether' and it will not allow connection,

You can use your unlimited data on the phone - which, if you connect it via an HTML cable to a TV allows you watch films etc but gaming you will struggle as I think you will need Wi-Fi to run your games console

 

Hmm. My contract with EE gives me unlimited internet (3G), and I use the phone as a hub when not at my mooring. Works fine, and is usually OK, though as previously stated, you can't always guarantee a good signal..

[bigcol]

Looking to purchase a boat in the next few years, few concerns! (Involves internet)

 

Believe me mr J Hatley, when you get your boat, revovation project.

Internet connections will be the least of your concerns!

 

And if it is then you've bought most people's dream boat

 

Mobile internet is good now, but in a few years it'd be so advanced

 

All the best

 

Col

[George94]

Seems a shame that a boat-buyer's main concern should be internet speed. Might as well stay at home, and let mum do the washing and cooking, and dad pay for the broadband.

 

Of course, it's an example of how poor housing policy can lead to accelerated evolutionary change. A whole generation hasn't learnt what a washing machine is.

[bigcol]

Seems a shame that a boat-buyer's main concern should be internet speed. Might as well stay at home, and let mum do the washing and cooking, and dad pay for the broadband.

 

Of course, it's an example of how poor housing policy can lead to accelerated evolutionary change. A whole generation hasn't learnt what a washing machine is.

 

Yes I know what one is, and where it is.

But I've never used one!

I've tried, but the wife won't even let me touch it!!!

[Alan de Enfield]

Yes I know what one is, and where it is.

But I've never used one!

I've tried, but the wife won't even let me touch it!!!

 

You don't have a dog and bark yourself. !!

[dor]

Put your partner's favourite woolen jumper in on hottest setting. You will never be asked to do the washing again.

[Sea Dog]

J Hartley's biggest worry about buying a boat is his internet connection. So, one might assume, he (and his mum) currently has super fast broadband and is a real power user who spends quite a bit of time on the web, hence would struggle with any connection with sub standard data rates. He's a man of the information age who needs a fast response time and he needs it NOW! Otherwise, as we know, there might just be one or two matters somewhat more important when buying a boat. Yet he hasn't been back in 3 days - he might as well have written to the forum! I'm not sure his need for information is as urgent as his post suggests.

[metanoia]

J Hartley's biggest worry about buying a boat is his internet connection. So, one might assume, he (and his mum) currently has super fast broadband and is a real power user who spends quite a bit of time on the web, hence would struggle with any connection with sub standard data rates. He's a man of the information age who needs a fast response time and he needs it NOW! Otherwise, as we know, there might just be one or two matters somewhat more important when buying a boat. Yet he hasn't been back in 3 days - he might as well have written to the forum! I'm not sure his need for information is as urgent as his post suggests.

Greenie

[bigcol]

Put your partner's favourite woolen jumper in on hottest setting. You will never be asked to do the washing again.

Long time ago Something like that lol

[RichM]

I'd recommend a MiFI device (mobile WiFI) They are excellent and have many benefits.

- They can be connected to the mains/inverter/shoreline

- They have in-buiit batteries, so if you lose mains power it will failover to battery power without any interruption to your internet - great!

- You can connect many devices wirelessly, without faffing about with awkward USB dongles which are limited to one device at a time
- They're small and don't take up much space - I keep mine fixed to a port hole

- They're not permanently fixed so you can take them out/easily put them on another boat etc

- Top-end models can be connected to an external antenna for improved signal coverage (I don't need to do this though)

 

You can get cheap/basic ones free with a mobile data contract with most of the common mobile network providers. Though I decided to splash out and get a top of the range one, it's not locked to a network provider so you can switch between multiple sims for improved coverage. - though I get on fine with EE. (unless I need to call them, then it's another story...)

 

Here's what I recommend:

http://consumer.huawei.com/en/mobile-broadband/mobile-wifi/features/e5786s-32a-en.htm

It's not cheap but it's one of the best investments I've made for the boat.

 

EE currently have the biggest 4G network though that's not to say they are the best in all areas, so I recommend checking coverage maps for your primary location via the main mobile network providers' websites. My internet connection on my boat is far better than my fibre connection at home and frequently get as much as 35Mbit down and 10Mbit up. Of course, location plays a part.

I think mobile broadband is the future for internet connectivity on boats and possibly also in the consumer space for homes. But failing that, there is also satellite broadband which can provide near fibre speeds. There's a lot more involved in setting it up and it will cost more and arguably has more drawbacks but if internet is of paramount importance (i.e. if you work from the boat like myself) then it may be worth considering.

 

Arm

Edited January 2, 2016 by Armitage Shanks

[steve7a3]

I currently use one of these babies: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teltonika-RUT950-LTE-4G-Router/dp/B00TKFKLCI

Takes 2 sim cards and can be set to fail over to the one with the best coverage. I have a 3 and and EE sim as these tend to provide the best coverage in most places. After that it function exactly like a home broadband router except that the wifi seems significantly faster than my existing Sky router in my soon to be vacated land based flat!

It's not the cheapest device but is the most versatile I found. You can easily add an external, mag base or mast mounted antenna to give you better coverage. I get 3bars of 4G coverage on EE in Tattenhall Marina and hd no trouble getting online, wapping between sim, when travelling down from Dewsbury to here earlier last year. It's as fast as anything I've used before.

[ditchcrawler]

Well he is obviously not wasting his bandwidth here. 1 posting and thats it.

[johnnie1uk]

We have EE mobile 4G - where available 25gb a month for £30, very rarely that we do not have a signal and we are CCing.

[George94]

Well he is obviously not wasting his bandwidth here. 1 posting and thats it.

 

With a name like Armitage Shanks you shouldn't be surprised if he's extracting the liquid waste.