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Old 01-06-2015, 08:42   #1
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KVH V3-IP?

Does anyone have any experience with KVH's V3-IP satellite & internet service? Is it truly global internet or is it hit and miss?

They also offer V3-IP with Iridium Pilot System. It sounds like to me the Iridium add-on is to fill in the gaps KVH does not have service, is that correct?

My area of cruising will be the Med, Atlantic and Caribbean.

Any help would be appreciated.
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Old 01-06-2015, 10:39   #2
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

Quote:
Originally Posted by sailingforfun View Post
Does anyone have any experience with KVH's V3-IP satellite & internet service? Is it truly global internet or is it hit and miss?

They also offer V3-IP with Iridium Pilot System. It sounds like to me the Iridium add-on is to fill in the gaps KVH does not have service, is that correct?

My area of cruising will be the Med, Atlantic and Caribbean.

Any help would be appreciated.
I have done several long trips on boats with V3 service, including BA to Caribbean and Panama to Marquesas via Galapagos.

Coverage matches exactly what they promise; ie full cover in N hemisphere and little coverage of open ocean in S hemisphere. Coverage stops close to Galapagos.

Their tech support is great. Data connection is reliable and fast in bits per second once established, but it takes many minutes to establish. If you have plenty of power then you just leave it on all the time to deal with that.

I believe you are correct regarding the hybrid service.

Are you interested in N or S Atlantic?

C

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Old 01-06-2015, 10:45   #3
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

svlamorocha, I'm interested in N Atlantic. When you say several minutes to hook up, is that just the time to make a connection? Then once it is connected, does it stay connected or will you lose you link?
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Old 01-06-2015, 11:43   #4
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

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Originally Posted by sailingforfun View Post
svlamorocha, I'm interested in N Atlantic.
North Atlantic should be fine, at least as far North as a wimp like me would venture.

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Originally Posted by sailingforfun View Post
When you say several minutes to hook up, is that just the time to make a connection?
Correct.

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Originally Posted by sailingforfun View Post
Then once it is connected, does it stay connected or will you lose you link?
It stays connected. If it ever gets disconnected inside the coverage area then it will connect itself automatically, no user action is required. When you get far enough away from South America Coast it disconnects forever but that is expected because coverage in S Atlantic is for the most part close to the coasts (except North of Oz).

What we would do is keep the KVH box connected to the satellite (so as to avoid the delay next time we want to use Internet) but disconnect the computer from the box (to prevent Windows from spending a fortune downloading a 1-gigabyte update or whatever).
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Old 03-06-2015, 11:23   #5
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

svlamorocha, where did they have it mounted? First spreader or somewhere else?
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Old 03-06-2015, 11:27   #6
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

In those boats (catamarans) the V3 was mounted in the stern arch. I cannot visualize that huge thing in a spreader.
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Old 12-07-2015, 23:31   #7
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

I've got the V3-IP. If you leave it powered off for too long (I left mine off for a few months) it will get behind on updates and "map" files which apparently tell it where to look for satellites. Mine was having a lot of trouble staying locked on until I called KVH and they updated it. Now it has been working well.

The voice service is surprisingly good, and at $0.49/minute is cheaper than any cell phone roaming plan. Data is horrifically expensive, but works well.

The biggest issue I have with it is the power draw. It's 120W continuous, and as such consumes 4x the daily power of my sub-zero fridge/freezer PLUS my separate deep freeze. When we are underway it doesn't matter (we are a power boat), but at anchor it's ridiculous. I've started powering it off at night when we are anchored out.

The connection delay mentioned previously is probably the time it takes to get locked onto a satellite after you power it up. That does take a while - order 5-10 minutes - so it's not something you turn on, use, then turn off.

One suggestion I would make is to be VERY careful what you allow to connect to it. Between phones, tablets, computers, TVs, AppleTVs, etc. everything is on line and everything operates assuming data is unlimited and cheap. My dumb-ass Samsung TV, for example, will download 600MB of data for no known reason. I know a guy who had his boat delivered and next month got a $14,000 KVH bill because nobody on the boat knew that the thing was on, or that it mattered.
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Old 13-07-2015, 06:19   #8
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

Tanglewood, thanks for the hands on experience feedback. I went ahead and ordered it. Your power draw experience is a little concerning but I'll make a point of keeping an eye on it. I'll definitely be careful not leave anything plugged in that will generated the massive bill you described.
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Old 13-07-2015, 09:45   #9
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

Quote:
Originally Posted by tanglewood View Post
I've got the V3-IP. If you leave it powered off for too long (I left mine off for a few months) it will get behind on updates and "map" files which apparently tell it where to look for satellites. Mine was having a lot of trouble staying locked on until I called KVH and they updated it. Now it has been working well.
(snip)
Data is horrifically expensive, but works well.
(snip)
One suggestion I would make is to be VERY careful what you allow to connect to it. Between phones, tablets, computers, TVs, AppleTVs, etc. everything is on line and everything operates assuming data is unlimited and cheap. My dumb-ass Samsung TV, for example, will download 600MB of data for no known reason. I know a guy who had his boat delivered and next month got a $14,000 KVH bill because nobody on the boat knew that the thing was on, or that it mattered.
Data is only expensive if you waste bandwidth. At US$1/MB (which is roughly the rate) you can get all the text email you want plus Facebook-quality photos every other day and still stay way under the 50MB limit of the uS$50/month plan.

Here is my bulletproof mething in order to make sure you do not waste bandwidth.
  1. Do not connect the KVH to any network (wired or wireless)
  2. Only connect it to a laptop with an Ethernet wire when you need ot use the connection and then disconnect it.
  3. Make sure the laptop has software that controls what programs can use the Ethernet connection. I forgot the name of the software I used for my "sailing laptop" but can look it up if required.

This will give you all the text/Grib email uploads/downloads and Facebook/blog uploads you want for US$50/month until you get close to the Galapagos and the V3 coverage runs out, which is another story.

C
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Old 13-07-2015, 10:08   #10
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

svlamorocha, good info. Do you have the name of that software? I like the idea of keeping my monthly bills under $50. Thanks.
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Old 13-07-2015, 10:15   #11
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

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svlamorocha, good info. Do you have the name of that software? I like the idea of keeping my monthly bills under $50. Thanks.
Sure, I am talking about Net Limiter. See link below.

NetLimiter Homepage

C
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Old 13-07-2015, 11:40   #12
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

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Originally Posted by svlamorocha View Post
Data is only expensive if you waste bandwidth. At US$1/MB (which is roughly the rate) you can get all the text email you want plus Facebook-quality photos every other day and still stay way under the 50MB limit of the uS$50/month plan.

Here is my bulletproof mething in order to make sure you do not waste bandwidth.
  1. Do not connect the KVH to any network (wired or wireless)
  2. Only connect it to a laptop with an Ethernet wire when you need ot use the connection and then disconnect it.
  3. Make sure the laptop has software that controls what programs can use the Ethernet connection. I forgot the name of the software I used for my "sailing laptop" but can look it up if required.

This will give you all the text/Grib email uploads/downloads and Facebook/blog uploads you want for US$50/month until you get close to the Galapagos and the V3 coverage runs out, which is another story.

C
That's interesting. Are you actually using facebook, or just using it as an example of photo quality that doesn't take up a lot of bandwidth?

I ask because I have started loosely monitoring the bandwidth consumption of the various devices on our boat. These numbers are when we are on cellular data or wifi, not the KVH. My wife's laptop consumes about 4x what I do, and all she does is go on facebook and read the NY Times. 100's of MB will blow by in a day. It's rather stunning. I have not yet dug in further to see exactly what's causing it.

I agree that email is pretty light weight provided you turn off automatic download of attachments, and that's what I principally use the KVH for (plus voice). I too plug just a single computer directly into the KVH as a sure-fire way to control access. I've been experimenting with access filtering and controls using a Cradlepoint router, but am not sufficiently happy with it to trust it to prevent KVH overruns. But teh filter controls have been good at keeping my Samsung Smart (dumb) TV and my AppleTV from running rampant when I only have a cellular connection.
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Old 13-07-2015, 12:03   #13
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

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Originally Posted by tanglewood View Post
That's interesting. Are you actually using facebook, or just using it as an example of photo quality that doesn't take up a lot of bandwidth?

I ask because I have started loosely monitoring the bandwidth consumption of the various devices on our boat. These numbers are when we are on cellular data or wifi, not the KVH. My wife's laptop consumes about 4x what I do, and all she does is go on facebook and read the NY Times. 100's of MB will blow by in a day. It's rather stunning. I have not yet dug in further to see exactly what's causing it.
I am sorry for not being clear. I was referring to sending "text plus low resolution photo" posts to Facebook and/or blog pages to keep friends and family informed. I always prefer to post things using an email interface (as opposed to a Facebook or blog client, or a web browser). If there is someone in the family who does not want to go to the blog site or follow Facebook you can cc them in the email message to Facebook/Blogspot/whatever.

Of all the ways to send an email, I prefer to use the Airmail client because it is very thrifty with bandwidth (when compared to Outlook Express et al).
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Old 13-07-2015, 12:11   #14
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

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My wife's laptop consumes about 4x what I do, and all she does is go on facebook and read the NY Times. 100's of MB will blow by in a day. It's rather stunning. I have not yet dug in further to see exactly what's causing it.
If you wnat to "read" live Facebook or NYT site then you can use the sort of (land based) proxy service that will filter out the graphics, ads, etc, of the web pages. There was a good service/software for that type that was provided by ATT for those who used cell data in the early days of cell data. That software woudl "intercept" any request you made for traffic in port 80 (ie web browser) and sent it to the land-based proxy, which would then fetch the Facebook and newspaper/etc pages, strip out or reduce size of the graphics.

Still, all the solutions I know to get "interactive" Web-style experience will use up much more data than email. You might want to consider versions that you can read offline, such as various offerings by teh Economist or the NY Times Replica edition.

nytimes.newspaperdirect.com
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Old 13-07-2015, 13:13   #15
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Re: KVH V3-IP?

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I am sorry for not being clear. I was referring to sending "text plus low resolution photo" posts to Facebook and/or blog pages to keep friends and family informed. I always prefer to post things using an email interface (as opposed to a Facebook or blog client, or a web browser). If there is someone in the family who does not want to go to the blog site or follow Facebook you can cc them in the email message to Facebook/Blogspot/whatever.

Of all the ways to send an email, I prefer to use the Airmail client because it is very thrifty with bandwidth (when compared to Outlook Express et al).

Thanks. That matches my experience. It sure is amazing how piggish some web sites are.
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