Marinas with WIFI

[Delta9]

A few questions for those with marina moorings or regular marina users.

 

Does the marina you use provide WIFI?

 

If yes, is it free or how much does it cost?

 

Are there any restrictions on usage like data caps?

 

What sort of speeds do you get?

 

Cheers.

 

 

[RufusR]

Hi Delta

 

1, Yes

2,Free

3. No BUT see below

4. Terrible ,

 

As Boat is in effect a faraday cage getting wifi into the boat is not easy and reception without a booster is pants , I bought a Booster from Wifionboard.co.uk which works well and now get full signal however as there is no cap on it as soon as several people jump on it and start streaming movies it pretty much becomes useless hence you can only get a decent service at certain times of the day as bandwidth is not all that .. this was the same on our previous marina

 

I am looking at getting a independent 4g booster and antenna from same company so we have our own independent wifi brought into the boat .

[ditchcrawler]

Sounds like Rufus R is in the same marina as us. I don't bother using it

[john6767]

Yes, it's free. I have an external WiFi adapter that lets me get good signal strength, but still the reliability is not great.

[churchward]

1, Yes

2,Free

3. No BUT see below

4.sloooooooowww.

[DHutch]

As an additional point, can people add a bit more about the size of their marina/mooring and the approx number of people who might be there and using the wifi?

 

The 'capacity/throttling' issue is an interesting one, as while ten boats sharing a decent 'fibre to cabinet' connection might well work ok, if you have a 200 berth marina you will likely need a far more considerable 'pipe' going into the system to supply good wifi.

 

What would people be happy to pay, if it worked well?

 

 

Daniel

[RufusR]

As an additional point, can people add a bit more about the size of their marina/mooring and the approx number of people who might be there and using the wifi?

 

The 'capacity/throttling' issue is an interesting one, as while ten boats sharing a decent 'fibre to cabinet' connection might well work ok, if you have a 200 berth marina you will likely need a far more considerable 'pipe' going into the system to supply good wifi.

 

What would people be happy to pay, if it worked well?

 

 

Daniel

 

we have only 58 boats on our marina but still have an issue , its multple vid streaming that does it , amazon sticks etc regards payment , 4 g system plus booster costs £220 for the kit and antenna and £30 for 6GB card so would have to be cheaper than that to make it worth while but would depend on your usage I guess

[Mike Todd]

Hi Delta

 

1, Yes

2,Free

3. No BUT see below

4. Terrible ,

 

As Boat is in effect a faraday cage getting wifi into the boat is not easy and reception without a booster is pants , I bought a Booster from Wifionboard.co.uk which works well and now get full signal however as there is no cap on it as soon as several people jump on it and start streaming movies it pretty much becomes useless hence you can only get a decent service at certain times of the day as bandwidth is not all that .. this was the same on our previous marina

 

I am looking at getting a independent 4g booster and antenna from same company so we have our own independent wifi brought into the boat .

Speed is always likely to be an issue on this sort of arrangement. The wifi provider will only have a single standard broadband line coming into the wifi distribution box and this has to be shared across all users. Only if you are the only person downloading at any point in time will you see a service that is what you might be expecting.

 

The provision is more suited to days when folk did occasional downloading (eg emails and browsing static pages) not as an alternative to a tv signal!

[Dave Payne]

Plus most marinas are out in the sticks, so this single line might be only good a few mbs.....

[RufusR]

Speed is always likely to be an issue on this sort of arrangement. The wifi provider will only have a single standard broadband line coming into the wifi distribution box and this has to be shared across all users. Only if you are the only person downloading at any point in time will you see a service that is what you might be expecting.

 

The provision is more suited to days when folk did occasional downloading (eg emails and browsing static pages) not as an alternative to a tv signal!

 

 

Yes agreed and the old way is pretty much all I need it for but others are streaming which is the vogue these days and when that starts it doesnt just go slow it actually dies completely in some cases and wont load anything as said it was never intended for movies etc and why should it be its free !! I would say the marina could make money by having a higher bandwidth system and selling it but as folk are used to not paying for public Wifi these days I dare say the investment would not be worth it

[BruceinSanity]

Mercia has fairly full WiFi coverage at two speeds. I use the slower one via a £70 Solwise aerial plus router set up and get variable speeds, from 4 to 10 Mbps, depending on time of day.

 

The faster one needs a special antenna (£120). In both cases it costs a quid a gig on a variety of short and long term deals, eg £5 for 5 Gb used in a month or £60 for 60 Gb used in a year.

[Arthur Brown]

I currently use a 4GEE device and it's successor from EE as an existing customer I got 24 month contract 50GB per month (use or loose) for £26PCM -so far it's fast enough to stream Youtube. Really can't see looking for flaky or less flaky wi fi when I can have my own mobile broadband.

[haggis]

We moored overnight in Braunston marina last year and as I had to make a BACS payment. I tried desperately to get a signal (we had been out of WiFi land for the previous few days). I paid for the service but it was useless and I never did get that payment made that night. I mentioned it in the shop the following morning and was told that it was usually like that!

 

haggis

[ditchcrawler]

We moored overnight in Braunston marina last year and as I had to make a BACS payment. I tried desperately to get a signal (we had been out of WiFi land for the previous few days). I paid for the service but it was useless and I never did get that payment made that night. I mentioned it in the shop the following morning and was told that it was usually like that!

 

haggis

Ken could tell you all about that.

[bottle]

I currently use a 4GEE device and it's successor from EE as an existing customer I got 24 month contract 50GB per month (use or loose) for £26PCM -so far it's fast enough to stream Youtube. Really can't see looking for flaky or less flaky wi fi when I can have my own mobile broadband.

 

Snap!! (almost)

 

Use own wi-fi unit (Huawei, with external aerials), locked to 4g only. Max download speed, seen to date 20Mbs.

 

It is available (till end of January, don't hang about it may get withdrawn early)

 

Available for non-existing customers at a slightly higher price, about £3 more.

[Detling]

I am at Ventnor Farm which has wifi included (was good until last year) and is now of limited use, or F******ng expensive. I have an external aerial and the wifi used to be as good as my landline at home. On the new system we get a daily allowance of 100Meg and a slow speed, or I can pay a huge fee per day which works out at £1600 per year for faster and 'unlimited' within reason. As I use a PC not a tablet about once a week something (usually anti virus updates) and blows that days allowance in minutes, I have windows updates off but even things like facebook use a fair bit of bandwidth on a PC. You cannot do anything except a few google queries before the adverts blow away that days allowance, so really it is only useful for forums and e-mail. It is now throttled to a snails pace and opening a page of the daily mail will take about 5 minutes and as for the Independent it will almost certainly blow the 100 meg limit before the page finishes loading. If as I sometimes do, log on as a guest I do at least get a good speed but for an hour max.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Detling

[Tony Brooks]

Calcutt has wifi but I have no idea about the other questions because if I need mobile broadband when I am away from home, boat or travelling, I might just as well use that. Mind you I usually have some of my 1Gb left over each month.

[tillergirl]

Also please be aware that it may not be as secure as you would it to be.

[DHutch]

I am at Ventnor Farm which has wifi included (was good until last year) and is now of limited use, or F******ng expensive.

 

On the new system we get a daily allowance of 100Meg and a slow speed, or I can pay a huge fee per day which works out at £1600 per year for faster and 'unlimited' within reason.

It seems they have got the kit, and incoming bandwidth to accommodate a good service, but have got the pricing structure wrong.

 

What do you do now for internet, pay, or use a mobile connection?

 

 

Daniel

[john6767]

It seems they have got the kit, and incoming bandwidth to accommodate a good service, but have got the pricing structure wrong.What do you do now for internet, pay, or use a mobile connection?Daniel

We are at Callcutt and my external wifi adapted picks up the Ventnor wifi as well, and unless it has just changed the wifi at Ventnor is a 3rd party one so I suspect the marina don't have control over the pricing. On the other hand the wifi at Calcutt is home grown and free but not very reliable, l generally use 3G when I am working from the boat in the marina as I need reliability.

[blackrose]

1, Yes

2, Free

3. No

4. Variable

 

There are about 25 boats in the marina, many are small plastic cruisers which just get left all winter. There are 6 liveaboard boats. Some use the Wi-Fi, others don't.

Edited January 19, 2016 by blackrose

[ditchcrawler]

I am in Kings Bromley, same owner as Ventnor and Wigrams, but ours is free with just one device per boat. probably 250 or more boats, repeaters arranged around the marina.

[Phil Ambrose]

Huh, we do not have WiFi but instead we use a 3mobile WiFi, costs us £12-00 a month for 15 gigs and to wring the best out of it I (cough cough) use a signal booster to bring a decent signal into the boat, eBay jobbie for about £35-00 from Hong Kong. This works well for us, however we do suffer at times because the only usable mast is the £ one and it is over subscribed and £ have said tough we are not planning to upgrade any time soon. I also have a O2 WiFi unit but that is useless as we can only get 2G with this and O2 have said much the same as 3.

It seems that all the players are intent on getting 4G into all the built up areas and have no interest in providing a reasonable service for those of us in rural communities.

Phil

[Loafer]

I am in Kings Bromley, same owner as Ventnor and Wigrams, but ours is free with just one device per boat. probably 250 or more boats, repeaters arranged around the marina.

 

How are the 'Sues'? Are they still there, dc?

[ditchcrawler]

 

How are the 'Sues'? Are they still there, dc?

Always seem fine when I see them, I don't spend much time in the marina, its normally the pump out when I return.