WiFi Antenna Comparison

[robgrant1]

Originally Posted by Dulcesuenos

No just the wirie AP, and we purchased the sim at a Batelco store.

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Was it pretty painless at the Batelco store? Did they install the card and set up your device?

[barboak]

Originally Posted by robgrant1

Can you use the standard size sims available through BTC? Do you use the router in conjunction with an antenna system similar to the Rogue Pro, Wirie, etal.?

Sorry for the delay as we are getting ready for haul out Friday here in Puerto Rico.
I do believe digital antenna.com has some bullet type antennas for cellular, mine is wired out of the router to the stern rail and works well. As far as the SIM card size I use adapters i got on Amazon to fit in the larger router slot.


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[Dulcesuenos]

Originally Posted by robgrant1

Was it pretty painless at the Batelco store? Did they install the card and set up your device?

They did, it was very easy and painless , just make sure to have an unlocked phone that takes the sim card. We purchased a blu 5.5 over Amazon has two sim card slots and a memory slot. We use it with Walmarts straight talk ($50 for unli ited voice and data) in the US and buy a sim card and data outside.

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[SierraHiker]

Here's a bit of physics of wifi and radio signal propagation over sea water. Wifi antennas can emit electric field waves with two independent polarizations: vertical with respect to the ground and horizontal. Over seawater, the horizontal electric field component, which carries half the signal intensity, is rapidly attenuated in intensity. The vertical component isn't and spreads outward from the antenna. Antennas can be designed to emit mostly vertical polarized electric field signals. These are good for wifi across seawater. Such antennas have one or more vertical elements...the more elements, the more directive the wifi antenna. You can use Google Scholar to learn more about this effect. It's typically given in junior level college courses for electrical engineers.

[crankysailor]

Ok folks, so I just set up the Groove at home to check it out and I can tell you off the bat, this is *not* something you want to order unless you are *very* computer network savvy.. not just "good with computers".. but experienced setting up wireless and local area networks. The web interface delivered with the gizmo (WebFig) is not just horrendous.. it is ludicrously retarded.. even for an expert (yes.. I do this stuff for a living). The online "documentation" is barely usable.. bad English, etc. I can not imagine "normal folk" making heads or tails out of it.

Once I figured out the interface from this "RouterOS" it does appear to work fine (though I haven't done any "distance" tests). Another thing that annoyed me as well was that the bridged ap mode is not "licensed".. so it is disabled.

In any case the little radio is a real bargain .. paid 56€ or thereabouts. Can't beat that. So I am not complaining.. but just wanted to give you a heads up.. don't try this at home folks unless you are a networking freak. Most people will probably better off getting a ready package from any of the resellers people have been mentioning.

[wavestimulus]

Yes, I agree, setting up the Groove unit, PoE injector and the RouterOS should be more user friendly.
Yet, just wanted to confirm that it has good performance, good reviews and yes indeed the price is very reasonable.
Helped a friend to install it, and he likes it a lot.

[Three Sisters]

Here's one for ya !



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How to build a tin can waveguide antenna

[Mirage Gecko]

Never really understand who's Wi Fi you are connecting to in these discussions.
Are you connecting to paid services or simply stealing someone else's who is not password protected?If you are paying why not simply use your simm card device or is it that much cheaper.
Very little truly free Wi Fi where I travel and what there is is data restricted.
Chris

[crankysailor]

Originally Posted by Mirage Gecko

Never really understand who's Wi Fi you are connecting to in these discussions.

Are you connecting to paid services or simply stealing someone else's who is not password protected?If you are paying why not simply use your simm card device or is it that much cheaper.

Very little truly free Wi Fi where I travel and what there is is data restricted.

Chris

Well, most people do get off their boats eventually and go to restaurants for example where there is customer wifi and well .. If u are eating there u are a customer. Good service food and wifi would definitely keep me coming back ;-) .. Or sometimes the marina has wifi but reception on your particular slip is flaky.. Or there are hotspot wifi networks from different providers all over the world.. Or...



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[skipgundlach]

Originally Posted by crankysailor

Ok folks, so I just set up the Groove at home to check it out and I can tell you off the bat, this is *not* something you want to order unless you are *very* computer network savvy.. not just "good with computers".. but experienced setting up wireless and local area networks. The web interface delivered with the gizmo (WebFig) is not just horrendous.. it is ludicrously retarded.. even for an expert (yes.. I do this stuff for a living). The online "documentation" is barely usable.. bad English, etc. I can not imagine "normal folk" making heads or tails out of it.

Once I figured out the interface from this "RouterOS" it does appear to work fine (though I haven't done any "distance" tests). Another thing that annoyed me as well was that the bridged ap mode is not "licensed".. so it is disabled.

In any case the little radio is a real bargain .. paid 56€ or thereabouts. Can't beat that. So I am not complaining.. but just wanted to give you a heads up.. don't try this at home folks unless you are a networking freak. Most people will probably better off getting a ready package from any of the resellers people have been mentioning.

There has been much mention, all positive, about Bob Stewart (rstewart@islandtimepc.com) and his work/products.

In addition to what gear he sells, he also sells an inexpensive configuration setup to make the Groove or Bullet a plug-and-play.

I make the same point as the above for all those rejoicing in how much they can save over ordering from Bob, who is the absolute master of customer service, and a CLOD (cruiser living on dirt) who fully understands our needs.

So, either do as the above, or just order it from him and rejoice that you won't have to think about it

As to sims, if you do their postpaid program, the 5G package is $40/mo (plus VAT), and too many costs $10/G up to 5, after which I'm not sure what happens, but a 15G package is $70. As well, you can use their 'suspend' program to keep your sim alive for $5/mo while you're not here (I'm currently in Marsh Harbour). MrSimCard and the like are prepaid, and refillable online, but cost more, but in return have text and voice included; you can also buy an all-three package from Batelco, but the advantage for statesiders is that you can have the phone working the moment you get in range rather than waiting until you get to an office which can accommodate your need(s).

See my reference to cell phone hack; I have just a data plan, which I use for text, phone and raw data over our hotspot phone, which, of course, provides local access aboard.

I also have what I believe to be the optimum setup of the IslandTimePC package for WiFi; previous posters are correct in the paucity of open sites; there are none visible in MH which don't tie to a pay service. OUTSIDE the harbour, there are several. When I was here 5 years ago, there were many, but I found it best to use the north and south Scotland Cay and Bakers Bay connections, 6, 8 and 12 miles away respectively, which weren't as data-collision plagued. However, outside the harbour, in the Sea of Abaco, the throughput vastly improved. We routinely, back when open sites were more common, would be under way up to 7 miles offshore and online.

Of late, in the US, Comcast has decided for whatever reason, to bundle a second channel in their routers, xfinity SSID. If you have a Comcast account, or know someone who will share their comcast email address and password, you can connect to any of those, as we do when we return to the US, using the admiral's mother's login. In the US, while I still use the cell data hack for my local phone, I don't need it for our local router, which is a boat house-powered Linksys router, tied to our ITPC WiFi; that makes our phone(s) into a WiFi enabled instrument when we're aboard, so my cell hack doesn't need the data to use Google Voice. Ashore, say, in the car, I use the data plan to make the phone work; in a restaurant or other place offering WiFi, I'll turn on Airplane mode and go WiFi...

Sorry for wandering around, but the bottom line is that you'll find some open sites but not nearly as many as before, and the groove/bullet/8dbiAntenna combo will work, the better performance being an installation as remote from other metal or antennas as possible (thus the standoff for our VHF and WiFi on top of our mast)...

L8R

Skip

[a64pilot]

Skip,
The way things are now with Wifi, in your opinion is it worth purchasing the equipment? Or put the money towards cell based data?

Island Time PC is literally up the road from me, and I had thought swing by and get a system, but then the thought of an all in one plug-n-play solution of the Wirie Pro was enticing, but the $700 isn't, and the thought is we will most likely always have a cell phone anyway.
I don't want to go through the expense and hassle of a Wifi install, if it can only rarely be used.
Marina I'm in, it's essentially useless, I assume it's overloaded.

[skipgundlach]

It's like in real estate: Location, location, location.

If you're doing the US, likely you'll see the xfinity SSID frequently. As much penetration as they have, you shouldn't have a big deal about finding someone willing to share their log in. It might even be such that, as these devices, unless you ask them to, don't lock on an IP, but instead the SSID; when one goes away, it looks for it again, and sees another, locks on, and, you, because you've been doing other stuff, don't notice the move. But I can't confirm that suspicion.

At under 250 bux, or maybe a few more if you need a longer-than-25' cable, it's a good investment. OTOH, if it's really just local, then a $20 Alfa likely would do the job. It's what I carry when I go ashore in marginal area, and have to be online during the visit.

However, my cellphone and data plan are what connects me stateside; a larger data plan would allow you to ignore WiFi...

[hellosailor]

Xfinity is of course only a new coat of paint being used to hide the much-despised Comcast brand name. A year or two ago they decided that as part of their goal to compete with the cellular companies for broadband domination of the world, they would, by default, enable guest access on EVERY new router they shipped. So every Comcast victim, ergh, customer, provides free public WiFi access unless they are sharp enough to find this out and turn it off.


The twofold problem is that whoever is running the router, now has no idea what traffic they are carrying. And law enforcement may come down on them for illicit traffic, assuming that since they own the router they are the user. Even if that's no concern to the owner, the folks who are using the free guest access still don't know if it is safe to use that access point, since the owner can just as easily be "reading" everything that goes through the router, including financial account access.
So, convenient for reading the newspaper, as long as you don't need to use a password, and you're equally sure that no one can climb into your computer while you're on that router. (Networks, like doors, can often swing both ways.)


With all the problems going around, like "ransomware" attacks that are even hitting police departments and hospitals...Why take a chance? If you're out cruising and someone compromises your banking information, isn't that going to be a major headache? Heck, even if they "just" find out you'll be away for a month, and they "sell" your home on Craigslist...another common problem these days.


Unless you know enough about networking to get an IT job, really, free WiFi access is a potential disaster these days.

[Mirage Gecko]

[QUOTE=crankysailor;2092369]Well, most people do get off their boats eventually and go to restaurants for example where there is customer wifi and well .. If u are eating there u are a customer. Good service food and wifi would definitely keep me coming back ;-) .. Or sometimes the marina has wifi but reception on your particular slip is flaky.. Or there are hotspot wifi networks from different providers all over the world.. Or...



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Well yes I have noticed people do get off their boats to go to restaurants etc but have not noticed too many carrying an Antenna.

[Onemoreproject]

Originally Posted by barboak

I got a bit loss on this thread but: the cell phone will be limited to it's antenna range, we have used a Wilson cell phone booster which worked well in the past. A few years ago we installed a sim-card router with an external antenna on the rail and it works great at extending the range of cellular data! We get a local SIM card, usually Digicell and install it in the router. Now that we installed our Island Tome groove with it's own router we have two routers at the nav station one for wifi and the other for cellular data. Very happy

I havent heard of SIM card routers before so I dont know anything about them.
They are for cell phones I gather. Why do you need to put the sim card in a router instead of a phone? What is the advantage? Better reception? Multiple users for one card? What do you do when you are off the boat and want to use your cell phone?