Internet Possibilities?? - SeaKnots2024-03-29T13:35:29Zhttps://seaknots.ning.com/forum/topics/internet-possibilities?commentId=900123%3AComment%3A55195&feed=yes&xn_auth=noAntenna gain. Up to a point,…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-02-06:900123:Comment:596312009-02-06T00:44:21.003ZBill Halletthttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/BillHallett
Antenna gain. Up to a point, higher gain is a good way to go. Higher gain antennas actually help on the "receive" side. However, if you get above about 9dbi, the vertical beam width is so narrow (6 deg, 3 up, 3 down from horizontal) that rocking due to any wave or wake causes you to lose signal off and on.<br />
<br />
Cables The big question is the attenuation of the cable. And you are right that the connectors can introduce some loss, too. If you chose (and can use) the low loss cables you will help a…
Antenna gain. Up to a point, higher gain is a good way to go. Higher gain antennas actually help on the "receive" side. However, if you get above about 9dbi, the vertical beam width is so narrow (6 deg, 3 up, 3 down from horizontal) that rocking due to any wave or wake causes you to lose signal off and on.<br />
<br />
Cables The big question is the attenuation of the cable. And you are right that the connectors can introduce some loss, too. If you chose (and can use) the low loss cables you will help a lot. LMR400 only loses about 0.7dB over ten feet while LMR200 loses about 2dB over that same distance. Trouble with LMR400 is that it's pretty stiff.<br />
<br />
Hope this helps. Martin,
Some like a permanen…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-02-06:900123:Comment:596282009-02-06T00:34:48.989ZBill Halletthttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/BillHallett
Martin,<br />
<br />
Some like a permanent installation; some like to just plug something in when in a harbor. A lot depends on the boat. Some boats are not well suited for permanent installation. And, you certainly do not want to risk anything getting in the running rigging.<br />
<br />
If you want to go full boat (pun intended), such that you could have a permanent installation and provide wireless access to more than one computer, try this out.<br />
1. Antenna permanently mounted on a stanchion, the backstay, radar…
Martin,<br />
<br />
Some like a permanent installation; some like to just plug something in when in a harbor. A lot depends on the boat. Some boats are not well suited for permanent installation. And, you certainly do not want to risk anything getting in the running rigging.<br />
<br />
If you want to go full boat (pun intended), such that you could have a permanent installation and provide wireless access to more than one computer, try this out.<br />
1. Antenna permanently mounted on a stanchion, the backstay, radar arch or some other safe place. I would only use Omni antennas so you don't have to worry about where the access point is. I would also try to keep the gain down around 7-9dBi to use a higher gain antenna starts to cause other problems maintaining a signal because of the vertical beam width being so narrow.<br />
2. Using low loss RF cable, run to a Client Bridge. This unit will "talk" to the APs on shore (or other boats as someone suggested). I would suggest an outdoor unit and mount it someplace below deck, such as in a lazaret. The Client Bridge can be connected to power via Power over Ethernet. Given most boats have 12VDC you need to be sure to get a device that uses that power if you want to plug it in directly rather than going from 12VDC to 110VAC and back to whatever voltage.<br />
3. Using CAT5 cable, connect the Client Bridge to a unit set up as an Access Point that will "talk" to all the PCs, Macs and even other wireless devices on board. Yeah we use a 9dbi external a…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-02-05:900123:Comment:596132009-02-05T23:59:13.431ZVerandahttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Veranda
Yeah we use a 9dbi external antenna. There's supposed to be a lot of signal strength lost due to cable length. The cable usually comes in ten foot lengths and was going to need 4 of them for the run I had in mind. So I had a 36 foot one made up to eliminate the connectors along the run. I figured that some of that loss had to be at each connection so I did the best I could by eliminating them. They say that a longer USB is the way to go. I just didn't have that option available to me.<br />
<br />
I had a…
Yeah we use a 9dbi external antenna. There's supposed to be a lot of signal strength lost due to cable length. The cable usually comes in ten foot lengths and was going to need 4 of them for the run I had in mind. So I had a 36 foot one made up to eliminate the connectors along the run. I figured that some of that loss had to be at each connection so I did the best I could by eliminating them. They say that a longer USB is the way to go. I just didn't have that option available to me.<br />
<br />
I had a friend with a similar set up but he couldn't pull in half the signals that I could. His cable was only about 5 feet long while mine was 36. So he brought system over to our boat and we interchanged parts to see what the difference was. It turned out that his antenna was killing him. He changed to an 8dbi antenna and he was able to see everything that I could. So it seems the antenna was more important than the cable length.<br />
<br />
We also got ours from Amazon. As far as the software goes, when you boot up your system the first thing you do is a scan. Then the software provides a list of hot spots that the booster is seeing. You see signal strength, the hot spots name and if its encrypted or not.<br />
<br />
Connectivity just depends on whether there's an unprotected source or not. We've been to Jackson Creek in Deltaville and have been able to connect. We've been in Washington, DC and seen a hundred sources but every single one was password protected. In Miami Beach there are hundreds of hotspot and a few are open for us to "borrow" some wifi.<br />
<br />
I would say that we can get free wifi in most places. Once we know an anchorage has an open hot spot we often stop there just for that reason. Even if we have to sign up for a pay per view wifi site at least we can do it from the boat rather than carrying the laptop to shore.<br />
<br />
Price the Alpha system as well its the supposedly "the newest and the bestest" but I haven't seen one in person.<br />
<br />
Bill<br />
s/v Veranda Martin,
I know sailers who h…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-02-05:900123:Comment:595992009-02-05T23:32:06.039ZBill Halletthttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/BillHallett
Martin,<br />
<br />
I know sailers who have been quite happy with either the EnGenius EUB-362-EXT or the ALFA AWUS036H with just the short rubber duckie that comes with the units. Then there are several who add a higher gain antenna, still just screwed on in place of the short one. Most typically they are upgrading to a 7dBi or 9dBi omni antenna. Every 3dB increase in either transmit power or antenna gain increases the effective radiated power (not to be confused with range which is affected by lots of…
Martin,<br />
<br />
I know sailers who have been quite happy with either the EnGenius EUB-362-EXT or the ALFA AWUS036H with just the short rubber duckie that comes with the units. Then there are several who add a higher gain antenna, still just screwed on in place of the short one. Most typically they are upgrading to a 7dBi or 9dBi omni antenna. Every 3dB increase in either transmit power or antenna gain increases the effective radiated power (not to be confused with range which is affected by lots of the things). Then there are folks who add an active USB extension cable (they're about 15 ft.) and then they can move the antenna and unit farther away, some even hoist it up a flag halyard or something similar.<br />
<br />
Those USB devices are great for one computer at a time. (The ALFA works with Apple Mac while the EnGenius does not). If you want to hook up two or more computers at the same time, then you'll want to move to a "Client Bridge" approach. Hey Martin,
We use an Engeni…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-02-05:900123:Comment:595872009-02-05T23:08:17.276ZVerandahttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/Veranda
Hey Martin,<br />
<br />
We use an Engenius wifi booster. Ours is the pre Alpha booster and works great. If it ever shits the bed we'll probably upgrade to the 500 mw Alpha. The software that comes with the Engenius is very user friendly and does the spotting for you as the Net Stumbler does .<br />
<br />
There have been several occasions where we've motored through an anchorage and dropped the hook when an available signal was strong enough for us to use. Often times we've run into a boat that has a wireless router…
Hey Martin,<br />
<br />
We use an Engenius wifi booster. Ours is the pre Alpha booster and works great. If it ever shits the bed we'll probably upgrade to the 500 mw Alpha. The software that comes with the Engenius is very user friendly and does the spotting for you as the Net Stumbler does .<br />
<br />
There have been several occasions where we've motored through an anchorage and dropped the hook when an available signal was strong enough for us to use. Often times we've run into a boat that has a wireless router onboard and we've been able to piggy back on them.<br />
<br />
Bill<br />
s/v Veranda Franc and I are anchored off…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-01-27:900123:Comment:553642009-01-27T10:41:47.561ZAndreahttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/andreadrac
Franc and I are anchored off of New Providence on Can Drac right now and we have a fantastic signal. So far it's been great everywhere we have been in Florida and the Bahamas since we've had this system installed. (ALFA USB)
Franc and I are anchored off of New Providence on Can Drac right now and we have a fantastic signal. So far it's been great everywhere we have been in Florida and the Bahamas since we've had this system installed. (ALFA USB) Hi Bill,
You should try our…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-01-26:900123:Comment:551952009-01-26T18:08:10.545ZEd Wildgoose - MailASailhttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/EdWildgooseMailASail
Hi Bill,<br />
<br />
You should try our email compression system ExpressMail: <a href="http://www.mailasail.com/Main/ExpressMail">http://www.mailasail.com/Main/ExpressMail</a><br />
<br />
Essentially we are just a normal ISP like Yahoo/Hotmail, etc, however, we offer some extra compression software which allows you to pretty decently increase your download speeds. Anything up to 10x faster is possible and if you see the Videos page you will see I recorded a session where I sent 10 emails, received 9 and the webcam…
Hi Bill,<br />
<br />
You should try our email compression system ExpressMail: <a href="http://www.mailasail.com/Main/ExpressMail">http://www.mailasail.com/Main/ExpressMail</a><br />
<br />
Essentially we are just a normal ISP like Yahoo/Hotmail, etc, however, we offer some extra compression software which allows you to pretty decently increase your download speeds. Anything up to 10x faster is possible and if you see the Videos page you will see I recorded a session where I sent 10 emails, received 9 and the webcam pointing at the Iridium shows it hanging up in around 30 seconds! Yeah, I picked small emails to make it look particularly good, but the point is that realistic speeds of 10-20 large text emails per minute are definitely possible over Iridium<br />
<br />
For attachments you are limited to around 20KB/min over Iridium, but we do some funky stuff to limit people's ability to send attachments to you until you are ready to receive them. (We do also have some web compression software if anyone wants to try and speed up their BGAN/cell phone)<br />
<br />
Iridium is just too slow for sensible web browsing though... :-(<br />
(It's not that you can't do it, it's just that you will get bored before much happens)<br />
<br />
<br />
Anyway, everyone gets a free trial (see the Signup link on the left navigation menu) - you can try it and see if it works for you - even over broadband it should be fairly clear whether it's helpful (or not)<br />
<br />
<br />
The solution right now though is still to stick to a mix of wifi, cell phone, satellite TV style internet (where available) and Iridium/Inmarsat. By carefully using what is available you can keep your costs reasonable.<br />
<br />
<br />
Good luck! You might want to look at a w…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-01-22:900123:Comment:545022009-01-22T16:12:57.738ZBill Halletthttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/BillHallett
You might want to look at a write up did for boaters/sailers and WiFi. See our link <a href="http://www.netgate.com/info/marine/Wifi-Marine-v26a.pdf">http://www.netgate.com/info/marine/Wifi-Marine-v26a.pdf</a><br />
<br />
Franc has tried the ALFA USB adapter and tells us it is working great for him.<br />
<br />
In the spirit of open disclosure, I work for Netgate and we sell this equipment. But I think you can read the document and it might help some of you.
You might want to look at a write up did for boaters/sailers and WiFi. See our link <a href="http://www.netgate.com/info/marine/Wifi-Marine-v26a.pdf">http://www.netgate.com/info/marine/Wifi-Marine-v26a.pdf</a><br />
<br />
Franc has tried the ALFA USB adapter and tells us it is working great for him.<br />
<br />
In the spirit of open disclosure, I work for Netgate and we sell this equipment. But I think you can read the document and it might help some of you. i use a dial u[p broadband of…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-01-20:900123:Comment:542622009-01-20T18:58:20.463Zzeehaghttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/zeehag
i use a dial u[p broadband offered at a flat rate per month for use and service and it seems to do well except for the occasional need to uninstall and re install....works where there is cellular capability...and where there is no wifi......even out of country.....
i use a dial u[p broadband offered at a flat rate per month for use and service and it seems to do well except for the occasional need to uninstall and re install....works where there is cellular capability...and where there is no wifi......even out of country..... Just as you or I can sit on t…tag:seaknots.ning.com,2009-01-20:900123:Comment:542202009-01-20T17:21:22.285Z___/)ances With Sailshttps://seaknots.ning.com/profile/danceswithsails
Just as you or I can sit on the side of the road(or pond) and acquire(steal) wifi, hackers sit offering wifi, direct the opposer to the desired site but actually is a link only to get the sign-on/password info. It's happening. Im no hacker by no means, cant even type....I certainly hate excepting the code at a bar or cafe...those peeps can sit there watching ye...so dont have anything to hide...Im not saying ye get false weather reports or that...they just want your "sign-on", and who knows…
Just as you or I can sit on the side of the road(or pond) and acquire(steal) wifi, hackers sit offering wifi, direct the opposer to the desired site but actually is a link only to get the sign-on/password info. It's happening. Im no hacker by no means, cant even type....I certainly hate excepting the code at a bar or cafe...those peeps can sit there watching ye...so dont have anything to hide...Im not saying ye get false weather reports or that...they just want your "sign-on", and who knows what else they're doin while they're in there. If yer cursor starts jumpin around or page scrolls un intentionally,,,,,RUN LIKE HELL!