Crappy wifi Solutions?

[GalaxyGirl]

Originally Posted by atoll

just say NO,buy your kids some books and get them interested in reading!

your children do not need endless hours of mindless YOUTUBE videos.....to become humans.........getting rid of all screen based entertainment will be the biggest favor you can do your children......

if you need internet for important emails get a dongle but keep it hidden and only use it once the kids have gone to bed.

otherwise play games,spend time with your children,let them read books,this is after all why you bought a boat?to give your children a better life?

Yes but there is a possibility of online schooling so we need wifi for that. My kids aren't really into YouTube but rather one of my sons loves sports and spends his net time watching games. My 14 year old loves gaming and is on a team with his friends. He does very well with it and I wouldn't take that from him when he enjoys it so much. I'm not the type to take things from my kids that they enjoy but rather I balance as much as possible with activities that I believe are good for them and everyone is happy.

[hellosailor]

Kindle Unlimited at $10/month for 600,000 titles (that's just the start) plus all the free ebooks to be found. Versus, what will ten bucks buy the kids in paper books? Half of one new book, or four or five used ones? Times have changed again.

I suspect streaming video is one reason why marina wifi and free wifi in general seems so slow. A typical residential internet connection, dsl, cable, whatever you have, is barely able to handle one multimedia stream in my experience. I've had different feeds, different ISPs, different states, and it has all gone to crap in the last few years. Simply logging into a web site and getting an opening page used to take five seconds, now often takes 20-30. Folks can argue the details all they want, but the internet has gotten DOG SLOW in recent years. No doubt partly from folks who write bloated code, and partly from web sites that are on slow hosts, and no doubt from a lot of other reasons. But the bottom line remains: the web is choking.

No matter how you access it.

And oh, yes, US internet connection speeds are rated 100x slower than some other parts of the developed world. Often even worse than that.

If you are just "using the web" to access the internet, do email, do other tasks that are mainly constrained by your typing speed, then almost any service will do. If you are trying to do system updates and multimedia, prepare to go to lunch, or pay through the nose, or both. Redbox makes a great way to see a movie for a buck, no bandwidth needed. And unlike Netflix and Amazon (where I've seen "wait, buffering..." messages on ultra-speed broadband) the movie just plays without interruption.

It is to the great advantage of the cable companies to make sure there's enough smoke and mirrors to go around. And around and around. For everyone.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by GalaxyGirl

Yes but there is a possibility of online schooling so we need wifi for that. My kids aren't really into YouTube but rather one of my sons loves sports and spends his net time watching games. My 14 year old loves gaming and is on a team with his friends. He does very well with it and I wouldn't take that from him when he enjoys it so much. I'm not the type to take things from my kids that they enjoy but rather I balance as much as possible with activities that I believe are good for them and everyone is happy.

you are the mum!
your decision,but i know my kids a totally addicted when unlimited internet is available........

i reccomend instead of watching sports,get them out there playing them!

instead of online gaming,buy some cards like "magic" and get them interacting with other kids rather than through a screen.

both my kids were educated via the calvert school home study coarse's,you may need to go online to access the tutors,but they don't.

tough love !the sooner you can wean them off the reliance on screenbased media the better for their future mental health.

books=imagination tv=lack of imagination

[chouliha]

Try checking out islandtime. http://www.islandtimepc.com/marine_wifi.html. We purchased an antenna system called the groove. Similar to the bullet but very easy to setup. Plus the service was first class


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

I'm not even mentioning WiFi because free WiFi is a security risk for most people ...

Consider using a VPN (virtual private network). Services like Witopia don't cost much, for added peace of mind.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Consider using a VPN (virtual private network). Services like Witopia don't cost much, for added peace of mind.

Witopia is great! However there is a big overhead for VPN service.

I had 6Mps home service and with the software tunnel averaged 2Mps throughput.

I now have a permanent router based whole house tunnel. I have 20Mps service and each user averages 2Mps throughput.

The good news is each used gets 2 Mps and we often have 3-4 streams going at once at home.

We only have cable tv to get live F1. Everything else is Apple tv which accesses Netflix and Hulu etc.

Although Hulu just changed their usage policy and doesn't allow anonymous ISP - butt heads...

[sy_gilana]

The best thing out there is a Ubiquity Bullet. Not so hard to set up, but, with ALL WiFi at the dock problems the solution is HEIGHT. Just imagine that you are a wifi signal for a moment, look at the base station from the same height that the laptop is, all you see is booms, masts, lifelines, winches, radar arches etc. Now raise the WiFI adapter or, your eye, to half-way up to the spreaders, and see how much less metal there is in the way...

Back to the UBQT, you can actually save the config to a file on the computer, so you can probably download a ready made config file...and send it to the UBQT radio. They ROCK!!

[AnchorageGuy]

We posted several articles on our blog covering the progression of our wifi system. Part 4 is in the works. The posts also contains some info on setting up the Bullet and on securing your wifi. Hope it answer a few questions for those that want to set up their own system, The Trawler Beach House: WiFi . Chuck

[lovinlifebda]

I will give another thumbs up to the Bullet and Island Time PC. It was easy to set up, came with excellent instructions. I did need a hand with a problem maybe a year after buying it and their customer support was very good. I also use a wireless router bought thru Island Time that runs off 12V and gives access to all our toys with one login on the bullet. Using it to send this note from the boat in Prickly Bay, Grenada.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by atoll

just say NO,buy your kids some books and get them interested in reading!

your children do not need endless hours of mindless YOUTUBE videos.....to become humans.........getting rid of all screen based entertainment will be the biggest favor you can do your children......

if you need internet for important emails get a dongle but keep it hidden and only use it once the kids have gone to bed.

otherwise play games,spend time with your children,let them read books,this is after all why you bought a boat?to give your children a better life?

My kids I had play outside etc. and they love the outdoors
My Grandchildren have been living with us for the last three years, when I make them go outside they just stand there, we live on 100 acres, I've bought little Honda's, have a pool, two big friendly dogs and all they want to do is play inside on the Ipads their Father bought them or the TV game thing.
Grandson is terrified by flying insects, it is a "brave new world" now

[Greenhand]

If the docks are wired for phone service, can you set up DSL on the boat itself? Do the marine phone cables support this?

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

If the docks are wired for phone service, can you set up DSL on the boat itself? Do the marine phone cables support this?

You could certainly do that. You would need cooperation from the marina and the local telco. You can make it easier by putting the DSL modem (or alternatively a cable modem) and a small WiFi router in a dock box. When you get back to your slip that is one less wire to connect - it just works.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

You could certainly do that. You would need cooperation from the marina and the local telco. You can make it easier by putting the DSL modem (or alternatively a cable modem) and a small WiFi router in a dock box. When you get back to your slip that is one less wire to connect - it just works.

You know I never thought about that, Cable is fast, very fast, if you could split it with a few neighbors that are as fed up with the crappy WiFi as you are, it may even could be done pretty cheap.
Course you can't take it with you is the drawback

[zeehag]

ok.. i am kin mexico. there ar emany kinds of service here from extra crappy to really shitty service and no connectivity.
what i need is a way to bypass the modem the posh hotel refuses to a) reset, and
B) upgrade to be usable.
i bought a long range antenna, and i need a connectivity device. there is no way to improve crappy connectivity unless you can bypass their modem.
how do i do this, please.
what do i need to buy to fix this.
DO NOT SAY BANDA ANCHA/ or dongle ... that is not acceptable. 3 gb does not load pix nor order parts for boats, and 3g b is all one is able to buy here. if one owns a home here, one may purchase 10 gb per month, until then, only 3. we already have the telcel service and it is blocked and very sketchy in this marina. go figger.

[transmitterdan]

GG,

There is still high picture quality free over the air TV in nearly all US ports. You need a TV receiver and an outdoor antenna. Shakespeare make some small 24 inch round disc antennas that work well on a short pole. Get the antenna as high as you can. You should be able to watch ball games as well as PBS and the 4 major networks most everywhere you travel. There are also TV USB adapters for watching on a computer. There are a lot of stations in major cities. You don't need cable service for this to work.

There are digital radios available free of monthly charges. In large cities there are dozens of digital channels. Look for something called HD Radio.

It is still possible to get a lot of entertainment for no monthly charges.

Satellite radio is also inexpensive at <$20 per month.