Wi Fi

[Mike E-W]

I need WiFi/broadband  on board I know its free etc. at some locations but these tend to have limited bandwidth  does anyone have a  "built in" system ?

[rusty69]

Not sure what you mean by "built in system".

Before the advent of cheapish data sims/mifi devices, we used an external wifi aerial to connect to wifi hotspots etc, but obviously dependant on being near a hotspot.

[mrsmelly]

We have a little white thingy that fits in your hand. 30 sometts a month and everything works ont boat throught it. all the pooters and both fones. Free it aint but as we all know boating aint cheap.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Mobile broadband is what you want. I use Three. Not tied to being in range of someones wifi. A mifi box with a suitable sim card will give you your own wifi network on board. 3G coverage is pretty good most places, with 4G available more in cities and very fast. There are coverage black holes, so check the signal at your regular mooring site before signing a contract with the provider.

Jen

Edited March 21, 2018 by Jen-in-Wellies

[MtB]

41 minutes ago, Mike E-W said:

I need WiFi/broadband  on board I know its free etc.

 

First I've heard of it being free. I pay for all my broadband services.

Where are you getting it free?

Oh a thought occurs to me. Are you in a marina with wifi available to moorers?

[system 4-50]

2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

First I've heard of it being free. I pay for all my broadband services.

Where are you getting it free?

Oh a thought occurs to me. Are you in a marina with wifi available to moorers?

You're being greater than 90 degrees!

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

You're being greater than 90 degrees!

Cute

[system 4-50]

2 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Cute

You get an A and go to the top of the class.

[rusty69]

1 minute ago, system 4-50 said:

You get an A and go to the top of the class.

A for Astute?

[system 4-50]

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

A for Astute?

Just for those not keeping up at the back, A for Acute.

[rusty69]

Just now, system 4-50 said:

Just for those not keeping up at the back, A for Acute.

Twas just a reflex response

[system 4-50]

4 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Twas just a reflex response

Right, I can't normally top that.  (if you can get a hypotenuse in here you will get triple points.)

Edited March 21, 2018 by system 4-50

[dmr]

Until recently we had a wifi router driven by a USB dongle from Three with an aerial on the roof,but have now switched to the little mifi things which have surprised me. We are a porthole boat but they still always manage to find a 3g/4g signal as long as they are in the porthole. The wifi just about covers the full boat (70 foot) as long as the mifi is towards the middle of the boat, if we put it towards the front then the signal does not quite get to the back.

Three have by far the best coverage over the canal system. We get 40Gbyte for £20 but Three say this is for existing customers only but it is sometimes available for new customers.

You can get a Virgin contract with unlimited data and hot spot a smartphone but Virgin say this (tethering) is not allowed, some people claim (boast?) that they get away with it.

Some boaters just love to do things on the cheap or for free so you could get a suitable wifi aerial (probably expensive)and log onto any unsecured networks. My experience is that just about everybody has a password these days so, as you say, any open networks are intended to be open and will likely be slow and....I would not trust an open network myself, certainly not for shopping or banking. The chances of finding an unsecured network close enough to the boat to get a good signal are a bit slim.

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

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Watch out putting mifi gadgets or any other electronics in windows. I used to do that and it was fine, but the window is usually north facing. On the hottest day last summer the boat happened to be moored with this window south facing. The heat killed the mifi completely.

Jen

[rusty69]

48 minutes ago, dmr said:

The wifi just about covers the full boat (70 foot) as long as the mifi is towards the middle of the boat, if we put it towards the front then the signal does not quite get to the back.

Our mifi in the engine room won't quite reach the front of our 70ft boat so I recently bought a hootoo range extender to improve things.

14 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Watch out putting mifi gadgets or any other electronics in windows. I used to do that and it was fine, but the window is usually north facing. On the hottest day last summer the boat happened to be moored with this window south facing. The heat killed the mifi completely.

Jen

I also found that a problem,as ours is in a porthole. A round piece of cardboard has helped a lot, but it still can overheat on a summers day.

Edited March 21, 2018 by rusty69

[Robbo]

5 hours ago, Mike E-W said:

I need WiFi/broadband  on board I know its free etc. at some locations but these tend to have limited bandwidth  does anyone have a  "built in" system ?

I have the Three HomeFi, if you want a “home router” type device for multiple devices 24/7 (like IoT devices) then this is a good option.  It runs off 12v so a dc-dc converter can be used.   It has sockets for external antennas and I can pick up the WiFi from quite a distance away from the boat.  They do 40gb and 100gb deals.

[dmr]

23 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Watch out putting mifi gadgets or any other electronics in windows. I used to do that and it was fine, but the window is usually north facing. On the hottest day last summer the boat happened to be moored with this window south facing. The heat killed the mifi completely.

Jen

Thanks, hadn't really thought about that. The instructions do say that it might shut itself down if it gets too hot. Maybe I will try the Rusty heat shield in the summer. The entire boat got to well over 30 last year in the hot spell, we were in Liverpool so just went for a big dog walk on the beach, maybe will need to take the mifi with me.

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

[haggis]

I have a contract with EE for my phone (£20 a month for all my calls texts and Internet) and it is very seldom that I fail to get a signal on the boat 

We have port holes at the back(where the bed is)  and I seldom fail to get a signal there (no aerials or placing the phone in a port hole 

Iain uses an EE mifi with his ipad and the few times I have an iffy signal I connect through that 

Haggis 

[reg]

I've just resigned with ee 20gb and 8inch tablet for £16.40(existing customer deal 24months) have used them for 2 years using an ee osprey wifi, usually able to get a good signal

Only problem with ee is in trying to navigate their online store, deals are all over the place and it's difficult to know the status of an order. Technically though a decent service once you get signed up.

[Nightwatch]

I'm on Three, wifey is on EE. Depending on signal,depends which network is used. We have more data on three than EE.

[Irob]

I use an O2 dongle. £23/month for 40GB. I stick it on the front door side window, behind the tv, with Bluetack, and the charging lead feeds from behind the tv in the front stbd side cupboard. It covers the full length of my 60'. It seems to pick up coverage in most of my cruising area and marina. When I go off the boat for weekends etc I just unplug it and pull it off the glass and take it with me. Seems to work fine.

[WotEver]

On 21/03/2018 at 15:54, system 4-50 said:

(if you can get a hypotenuse in here you will get triple points.)

Three squaws in a teepee.  One had two children and the others only had one child each. Those two were sat on goat skins and the squaw with the two kids was sat on a hippopotamus rug.

Which just goes to show that the squaw on the hippopotamus hide is equal to the sum of the two squaws on the other two hides.

[Dr Bob]

On 21/03/2018 at 12:16, Mike E-W said:

I need WiFi/broadband  on board I know its free etc. at some locations but these tend to have limited bandwidth  does anyone have a  "built in" system ?

You can get 'internet' via either wifi or 4G. Wifi is often free near pubs (with the password - go buy a beer) or in marinas. 4G needs a data sim. Unfortunately I am not aware of a decent box/antennas that does both wifi and 4g. We went with the solution to have both, so have a wifi router connected to a wifi antenna and a 4G router with two antennas for 4G from EE under a monthly contract. In practice, last year in the Warwickshire area we only used wifi in the marina (free with our marina fees) and did not find one decent wifi signal outside. Outside it was always the 4G router. We went for a decent router rather than a window mounted mifi and had an excellent signal everywhere we've been and we can connect to the router from everywhere on the boat, 63 ft. Data cost are more than in a house. Likely to pay £40-60 a month for 100Gb.

 

[Irob]

10 hours ago, WotEver said:

Three squaws in a teepee.  One had two children and the others only had one child each. Those two were sat on goat skins and the squaw with the two kids was sat on a hippopotamus rug.

Which just goes to show that the squaw on the hippopotamus hide is equal to the sum of the two squaws on the other two hides.

I went to the doctor's for recurring strange dreams. Sometimes I dreamt I was a wigwam, other times I was dreaming I was a teepee. Doc says I,m too tense ! 

[WotEver]

3 hours ago, Irob said:

I went to the doctor's for recurring strange dreams. Sometimes I dreamt I was a wigwam, other times I was dreaming I was a teepee. Doc says I,m too tense ! 

I went to the doctor because I kept thinking I was a dog. The doctor asked how long I’d felt like that and I told him ever since I was a pup. He told me to lay on the couch. I said I’m not allowed on the couch...