Wifi on Boat

speedo

speedo

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Any recommendations for WIFI on a boat? Verizon is best signal for phone on lake and I could use it as a hot spot, but I have no ideas about what other alternatives there are.
 
Keep it simple...just use what you already have...your phone
 
Musks new satellite system is beta testing in higher latitudes. Not cheap but portable so you could use it at home as well.
 
I use a Hotspot that works pretty good when I'm out on the water and a wireless router when I'm in a marina.
 
We have androids (Glaxy S10 and S10+). Both can be used as hotspots but even with the unlimiited verizon plan the tethering is limited to 15G/month on each phone. Since we can exceed the limit on long trips we have started using DEX. It projects the G10s' display on a laptop. While a bit klunky in that it requires zooming the display, it saves an awful lot of tether time since I can stream motogp and project the phone to the laptop, and then wifi share that to the TV LOL. One can copy the APPs on the phone to the DEX "desktop". It's not bad and getting better.

Otherwise on the boat I cobbled together a Ubiquity Bullet to a Netgear. The Bullet used an 8Db omni and picked up marina wifi or other hotspots and shipped them via ethernet to the netgear which was a hotspot.

In the Exumas and Abacos I used a Wilson cell phone booster to hook up to the Bahamian cell service. I plan on something similar for the RV since we wind up with borderline connections in many state parks.
 
I ve given up on using wifi even with booster like the Waves. It s just too unreliable and hit or miss. Even when you can connect to a marina or hotspot, speeds are almost always too slow

I have a cradlepoint cell modem with an ATT sim here in the US, $75 a month . Works great. In the Bahamas awe also use cellular thru a local company.
 
I'm very happy with my Rogue wave this said I'm on my third in 10 years. Keep in mind this is only helpful if you have access to hotstops such as optimum wifi assuming you have an account. I use mine all the time however where I need it must it doesn't work there are no Hotspots near my mooring ball so I use my Rogue to log into my phone and then everyone has access.
 
Roque wave worked good when it worked.
I went with a generic which didn't have the fancy interface and was a third of the price.
It worked good too. So if you are okay with a less fancy front end, try the bullet M.

But in the end a cell phone made into a hotspot tends to be the best sometimes.
 
Thanks, all for the suggestions. May end up going the cell phone route, and I may just abandont the laptop on the boat. I can do everything I actually NEED to do on the phone, anyway. We don't stream videos or play games, so not huge draws. That said, when we evacuated for the Carr Fire two years ago, my phone became the hotspot for the cabin we evacuated to (on the same lake). First time I almost exceeded my plan. Called Verizon and explained or situation, the doubled my plan for no additional charge.
 
Just so that someone mentions it, one of the best parts of hopping in the boat and overighting at an offshore island was checking the cellphone and seeing the message,"No service available". Which meant that not only did my cellphone work, but no one else's did either.

Being unplugged from time to time is refreshing.

To each his own. There are times when it might be appropriate. But for me, a primary reason for "getting out on the boat" was/is to "get away from it all" for a while...
 
quote:
Originally posted by speedo

Thanks, all for the suggestions. May end up going the cell phone route, and I may just abandont the laptop on the boat. I can do everything I actually NEED to do on the phone, anyway. We don't stream videos or play games, so not huge draws. That said, when we evacuated for the Carr Fire two years ago, my phone became the hotspot for the cabin we evacuated to (on the same lake). First time I almost exceeded my plan. Called Verizon and explained or situation, the doubled my plan for no additional charge.

Click to expand...


An alternative to the phone for a laptop replacement is an iPad with a cellular plan.
That’s what I use.
You get a much larger screen than on a phone and it seems to have a better antenna. My iPad can often get a stronger cell signal than my iPhone.
Added bonuses are being able to use it as an E reader with the Kindle App, downloading a daily newspaper, storing digital version of manuals for practically everything on the boat in iBooks, using it to stream Sirius XM to the stereo on the boat while keeping my phone free for calls and texting, using it as a hotspot to stream Netflix and Prime Video to the TV’’s, etc..
 
Another vote for the Rogue Wave, with external antenna. We use it as input to a Netgear wireless router onboard, so we have wifi for all. Using Optimum hotspots, we've pretty good coverage.
 
While it is possible to use a phone as a hot spot, it's not very convenient and it keeps turning itself off.

I have been using a Verizon hot spot on my boat for many years. It has worked for me in 95% of the east coast from the Erie Canal to the Florida Keys. It's always on, ready to go.

Two downsides:
1) It's expensive.
2) Verizon's definition of "unlimited" is not the same as what a reasonable person would expect it to be. After a certain amount of data, Verizon slows the hot spot down to where it's pretty much unusable for the remainder of your billing month. In my opinion, this is slightly less than "honest".

So what I do now is use the marina's WiFi when available and save the hotspot use for when there's no alternative.

I am open to alternatives.
 
The FCC has granted license to Elon Musks new sat service to be installed on vehicles and boats so when that s online it will revolutionize mobile internet.

I don’t have any speed issue and throttle back with ATT but I ve had the same account and primary number for 30 years so my unlimited is probably great grand fathered in. :). Some months we use close to 100gb

we ve been in the Exumas for 5 weeks now using a local provider, MyIslandWifi. With up to 12 onboard at some point we re using well over 100gb A month. Never used the Wave EC
 
We are having new home built and the rumor is that Verizon doesn't work well in our new area so I may be switching carriers for phones and the hot spot.

I would be interested in how well other carriers work along the US east coast.
 
rwidman said:
We are having new home built and the rumor is that Verizon doesn't work well in our new area so I may be switching carriers for phones and the hot spot.

I would be interested in how well other carriers work along the US east coast.
Click to expand...
Most of them use the same towers, so the coverage is usually pretty much the same. We are switching from Verizon because their rates are insane
 
HOGAN said:
Most of them use the same towers, so the coverage is usually pretty much the same. We are switching from Verizon because their rates are insane
Click to expand...
My wife's friend lives in the same development. We were visiting and I started to show her husband how I can control my boat's AC from my phone (Verizon). It took a very long time to get through. He is the one who told me that Verizon doesn't work well in that neighborhood.

I would expect Verizon to do something about this in the near future because they are building new homes there at a fast pace. At the same time, if I found something that would work as well or better with a hot spot while cruising, I would be quick to change.
 
I am using Ubifi for wireless service at home which should provide mobile service pretty much anywhere you can get AT&T cell service. It's a little pricey at $100/mo but it's a truly unlimited high speed, no throttling, service. I have an external directional antenna to get a better signal to my router. Most times I'm very please with the speeds but if you're in an area with a lot of AT&T users it will slow down some during peak periods.
Also, most routers available now are limited to 4G but there is a new one available for 5G but it's a little pricey ($500 range).
 
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