wi-fi antenna

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gonesailing13

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Does anyone know of a wi-fi antenna booster that won't set me back 3-4 hundred dollars ? Everyone I looked at were over priced, at least for my budget.
 
gonesailing13 said:
Does anyone know of a wi-fi antenna booster that won't set me back 3-4 hundred dollars ? Everyone I looked at were over priced, at least for my budget.
Click to expand...

you can buy the pieces and parts for a little over $100..but if you don't understand the electronics all that well..believe me the plug and play with telephone support is worth it.

Try this blog for getting started...
The Trawler Beach House: WiFi
 
I thought the same thing, but the more I looked at the pcs and parts route the more I kept shifting to the preprogramed package. They come with software that makes using them a whole lot easier. Save your pennies until you have enough to buy the good ones. Its easier on the blood pressure.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler
 
Some people report good luck with standard in home or auto type boosters...hard to imagine though...

Here's a good company and their cheaper version is $199...but most people I know state the "Bullet" is the one to have...or at least when I was looking...

Marine WiFi Systems
 
Mine in based on the "bullet" as I believe most of the good ones are. They then add their own proprietary software.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler
 
I have (or had... took it down for boat's sale) a rig based around the bullet and I can tell you they are NOT easy to get setup unless you are in I.T. The GUI is horrible and you can't search for signals from anywhere but inside their software. I set it up with some help, but I no longer feel like I could even operate it. There were so many steps, I don' remember them all.

If there is an easier way... get it.
 
gonesailing13 said:
Does anyone know of a wi-fi antenna booster that won't set me back 3-4 hundred dollars ? Everyone I looked at were over priced, at least for my budget.
Click to expand...


What are you trying to accomplish, or what problem are you trying to solve?
 
I have the Wave Wifi booster which works fine.

The problem is it is getting very hard to find a hot spot that is not protected.

I can usually pick up at least 50 networks, lucky if there is one that is not password protected and strong enough to be usable.
 
millennium said:
I have the Wave Wifi booster which works fine.

The problem is it is getting very hard to find a hot spot that is not protected.

I can usually pick up at least 50 networks, lucky if there is one that is not password protected and strong enough to be usable.
Click to expand...

Yea... and there's that too. As cell coverage improves, it's almost better to leverage that technology with a small MyFi rig. TBH, if I am THAT far away from cell signal, I got there on purpose and really am better off without it for a day or two :D
 
I would look at his device with an external antenna. It uses a 12 vdc power supply so could be wired into battery power, seems to be easy to use and has a 4 port ethernet hub. I went with a high dollar system and don't think it is any better than this. I find more often than not I am Wifi tethering my Iphone to the hotspot and using it for internet access.

Amazon.com: EnGenius Technologies 4-Port Wireless N300 Media Bridge and Extender (ERB300H): Computers & Accessories

Antenna

Amazon.com: TP-LINK TL-ANT2415D 2.4GHz 15dBi Outdoor Omni-directional Antenna, N Female connector, weather resistant: Electronics

Cable

Amazon.com: TRENDnet Low Loss Reverse SMA Female to N-Type Male Weatherproof Connector Cable (8M, 26.2ft.) TEW-L208: Computers & Accessories
 
I can usually pick up at least 50 networks, lucky if there is one that is not password protected and strong enough to be usable.

An extra 1/4 or even 1/2 mile of range will not cure this problem.
 
An outside, amplified antenna is certainly not a cure all for instant, strong, fast internet.

But after 2 trips between NJ and Florida...my antenna has saved the day for getting internet in dozens of location. One of the most notable was the Mega Dock in Charleston...sure they have antennas and good signal strength all over that HUGE marina but the speed was so slow we were gonna slit our wrists using it. Because we stream Wifi to Skpe our kids, watch television, and overall entertainment in many forms...we are usually happy to get good internet without paying a fortune in monthly data plans. With my bullet rig I was able to pick up an unsecured wifi that had to be a 1/2 or more miles away (so some range extension is necessary) that worked fine.

I find many marina HAVE Wifi but it is so slow that they might as well not advertise. Can I always get an open signal?...no...but in more than half the marinas and anchorages (picked because of available Wifi) I could because of my setup.

Is it worth $300 up front and possible need replacement in a few years (mine is on 24/7/365)?

To us it is...but I can see maybe not everyone.
 
We covered the latest issues of WiFi in today's ActiveCaptain newsletter (The WiFi Perfect Storm):
https://activecaptain.com/newsletters/2014-02-05.php

The right way to do extended WiFi onboard is to have a high gain WiFi modem outside with a marine quality antenna and enclosure. That should get connected to an inexpensive router inside the boat, usually DC powered. Then all devices onboard connect to the onboard router (even below deck since the router is inside your own boat). It allows onboard devices to connect to each other - there are many uses for that and many new things coming as marine electronics, iPads, apps, etc are all going wireless. Then when any of the inside devices connect to the internet, they'll go over the outside high-gain device.

If you know what you're doing, you can save about $50 by putting all the parts together yourself - it should all cost less than $300. If you'd rather have someone put it all together for you and be there to answer questions, Island Time PC is the best resource I've found. Bob is a master at WiFi and provides outstanding tech support. Anyone can install and use a system that he puts together.

More info on Island Time is here:
http://islandtimepc.com/marine_wifi.html

I have no affiliation with Island Time but I know they've helped at least a thousand ActiveCaptain users who love their solution. I've had their solution for the last 4 years myself and wouldn't change it.
 
Wi-if antenna

I tried to hook up a cell phone booster antenna to receive a signal to use wi-fi on my boat, but because there is no cell service out at Santa Cruz Island, in Southern Ca. where we usually go, it wouldn't work. Is there better systems out there that will pick up a cell tower over twenty five miles away?
 
kcncolby said:
Is there better systems out there that will pick up a cell tower over twenty five miles away?
Click to expand...

Cellular will never work that far away. FCC limits transmit gain and unless you have a 200 foot tower, you won't receive the shoreside tower's signal. I'm able to get cellular to work at about 10 nm offshore and that's only with AT&T and a powerful amp. Verizon seems only good to about 3 nm offshore (if that).

Satellite technology is all you can hope for and it's expensive.
 
You can do cell towers at pretty decent ranges if you generally have line of site and use a directional antenna. As 700 MHz LTE gets deployed out to more rural areas, we should see ranges improve significantly as most cellular data services are running at 1900 MHz now. If your current phone is not LTE capable, you might want to consider switching down the road. Be sure the carrier you use is deploying 700 MHz LTE. Both ATT and Verizon have 700 MHz frequencies as well as some in the 1700 MHz area. They generally use 700 MHz in rural areas because they get more coverage from a single cell site and their LTE phones will support both bands.

Tom
 
tpbrady said:
You can do cell towers at pretty decent ranges if you generally have line of site and use a directional antenna.
Click to expand...


As a practical matter you're limited to about 7 miles before the Earth Bulge begins intruding into your Fresnel zone.

On land, you can go higher and use highly directional antennas, but neither solution is practical on a boat. At least not the size of boat that private citizens typically own.


BTW, I see a lot of comments about "do this" or "buy that", but the OP is advised to be careful about following that advice.

Not that any of it was given in bad faith or that nothing useful was said, but it's putting the cart before the horse.


The FIRST step in resolving wireless issues is determining precisely what it is that is going on to begin with. Otherwise you're just throwing money at a problem that you haven't actually identified yet and hoping that it just happens to accidentally fix or crutch the true issue.


And I have some advice for people who do that...


HIRE ME!!! I LOVE CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU!!! :D
 
MC

I agree on the Fresnel zone issue, but in rural areas and in the coastal areas I frequent, the cell sites are located anywhere from 200 to 1000 above sea level. That height really changes the effective range of cell phones. In Prince William Sound, there is a cell site on Naked Island that is about 500 feet MSL. It operates in the 900 MHz band and supposedly now has 700 MHz LTE. That one works for CDMA and GSM voice at 20 plus miles over water. Text messages work even further if you can see Naked Island. Along the east shore of Cook Inlet most of the cell sites are 200-400 feet MSL and can reach most of the 30 miles across the inlet. Height is everything and because of that one of the tough problems of cell phones in airplanes, is the number of cell sites a phone can see and due to the speed the hand off from one site to the next. That's assuming you can overcome the challenge of being in a metal tube.

While I haven't tried it, the Wilson Electronics cellular boosters with an omni antenna mounted high on a mast could have a pretty significant effect on cellular coverage as long as there is no intervening terrain.


Tom
 
As many others have stated the Ubiquiti Bullet is the basis for most of the good wifi systems. Here in the Caribbean there are many commercial pay as you go sites available to boaters, most of whom use the bullet in one form or the other.
 
tpbrady said:
While I haven't tried it, the Wilson Electronics cellular boosters with an omni antenna mounted high on a mast could have a pretty significant effect on cellular coverage as long as there is no intervening terrain.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the setup I've been using for the last 6 years although I switched the amp part a couple of years ago to one that handles the 4G spectrum.

Things might be different along the west coast. But I've been offshore from all parts of Beaufort, NC to Key West/Bahamas and I've never been able to get more than about 7-10 nm of connectivity. At around 5 nm, you start getting 1-2 bars and things become unreliable.

The idea of using a directional antenna in a boat has been experimented with by many people over the years. It quite obviously has never succeeded - the beam width is quite narrow. I have seen longer range cellular work between islands in Maine but they were all land based (both sides) and were both sides were using directional antennas.
 
gonesailing13 said:
Does anyone know of a wi-fi antenna booster that won't set me back 3-4 hundred dollars ? Everyone I looked at were over priced, at least for my budget.
Click to expand...
I bought something, I believe it was an "Alfa" brand or something similar for about $30 a couple years ago. It bosts weak sgnals and is better than the internal receiver in a laptop.

Wanting to have reliable service at all (or most) times on the water, I gave in and bought a Verizon hot spot that works much like a cell phone and can have several devices connected to it (wirelessly). Yes, it cost $50 to buy and $50 per month to use, but it works just about anywhere.

Hunting around for, and using someone else's wifi connection is a PITA and unless it's intended for public use, you are effectively stealing the service. And it's often very slow. The Verizon hot spot seems as fast as my home cable based service. And if I'm on the water looking for a place to anchor or a nearby marina, I can go online to active captain or cruisers net and find places, prices and reviews while my wife drives.

It's been a plus for me and worth the cost.
 
tpbrady said:
I would look at his device with an external antenna. It uses a 12 vdc power supply so could be wired into battery power, seems to be easy to use and has a 4 port ethernet hub. I went with a high dollar system and don't think it is any better than this. I find more often than not I am Wifi tethering my Iphone to the hotspot and using it for internet access.

Amazon.com: EnGenius Technologies 4-Port Wireless N300 Media Bridge and Extender (ERB300H): Computers & Accessories

Antenna

Amazon.com: TP-LINK TL-ANT2415D 2.4GHz 15dBi Outdoor Omni-directional Antenna, N Female connector, weather resistant: Electronics

Cable

Amazon.com: TRENDnet Low Loss Reverse SMA Female to N-Type Male Weatherproof Connector Cable (8M, 26.2ft.) TEW-L208: Computers & Accessories
Click to expand...

I have this set up and it works fine for us as we cruise. It was plug and play.
S
 
The issue with hotspots is cost if you stream and don't have unlimited data.

Even with my bullet based system, it only takes me about 2-3 minutes to set up a connection even if I have to make it several attempts...hey...cruising timeline... what's a few minutes?

but all of this is thread drift as the guy might know what he want...just how to do it more inexpensively....
 
If you stream on somebody else's system and they don't have unlimited data, that's a propblem but I guess it's their problem. Their service slows down and they pay for extra data that you used.

I suppose the fact that they failed to secure their network makes it OK.
 
I'm either amazed or totally misguided.

I use my Verizon hotspot simply because I'm only paying about $30 more per month for the extra gigs and it's become clear, at least from what I read, that the only WIfi you can trust is your own.

In other words, at home, your home network connected to broadband or cable or phone, you set up your own Wifi and you're good to go.

On the other hand, with open Wifi you may as well invite everyone into your computer and even with an encrypted commercial Wifi, you are hoping that network has not been compromised, either with or without the owners knowledge.

Maybe it's jsut a NY thing, but we're (NYers) paranoid at this point.
 
Wxx3 said:
In other words, at home, your home network connected to broadband or cable or phone, you set up your own Wifi and you're good to go.

On the other hand, with open Wifi you may as well invite everyone into your computer and even with an encrypted commercial Wifi, you are hoping that network has not been compromised, either with or without the owners knowledge.
Click to expand...

That's some additional thread drift but two things:

- A quality VPN will secure your connection, even on an open WiFi router. Expect to pay about $70 per year today for that service ("quality" being the important term above).

- Having your own WiFi at home with an open router is also a security problem but I'd assume that everyone with a home router uses WPA security/passwords today.

The thing to be very careful about is an open marina WiFi system. The marina keeps it open because they are tired of answering the, "what's the password" question. In that case, anyone else, including the 14 year old in the condos next to the marina, can easily view your traffic including some email passwords. A few years ago, someone on Panbo told me that I was making that up. So I used a couple of free tools and provided a packet dump showing a password in the open of another device on the marina's WiFi setup.

WPA is important because even people knowing the password cannot see your traffic. WEP doesn't have that advantage and should be feared in the same way as open WiFi.

Note though that a VPN protects your network traffic in both directions even on a completely open network.
 
ActiveCaptain said:
That's some additional thread drift but two things:


WPA is important because even people knowing the password cannot see your traffic. WEP doesn't have that advantage and should be feared in the same way as open WiFi.

Note though that a VPN protects your network traffic in both directions even on a completely open network.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm going to look into that.
I'm wanting to make a whole new boat network this spring.
Any suggestions as to how to proceed??:confused:
 
ActiveCaptain said:
That's some additional thread drift but two things:

- A quality VPN will secure your connection, even on an open WiFi router. Expect to pay about $70 per year today for that service ("quality" being the important term above).

- Having your own WiFi at home with an open router is also a security problem but I'd assume that everyone with a home router uses WPA security/passwords today.

The thing to be very careful about is an open marina WiFi system. The marina keeps it open because they are tired of answering the, "what's the password" question. In that case, anyone else, including the 14 year old in the condos next to the marina, can easily view your traffic including some email passwords. A few years ago, someone on Panbo told me that I was making that up. So I used a couple of free tools and provided a packet dump showing a password in the open of another device on the marina's WiFi setup.

WPA is important because even people knowing the password cannot see your traffic. WEP doesn't have that advantage and should be feared in the same way as open WiFi.

Note though that a VPN protects your network traffic in both directions even on a completely open network.
Click to expand...

I thought that by having your router to amplified antenna on the boat WPA, even to a marina open wifi , gives you adequate protection?

And again, using amplified antennas to pickup open wifi at venders you frequent, weak marina signals, libraries, open town wifi etc...etc is what I mainly use it for and that's what the open wifi is there for.....I find it REALLY rare along the AICW that you can pick up a private individuals wifi that's not protected anymore.
 
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