Improving onboard Mobile communications

[Wanderer Vagabond]

O2

Interesting how different people have different experiences of these companies. I have internet through 3 MiFi and mobile phone through O2, I cannot remember the last place we couldn't get internet but similarly I can remember hundreds of locations where I haven't had any signal at all from O2 (Braunston being the most notorious, no phone but 40Mb/ps 4G internet ). I always tell people to e-mail me rather than phone since my internet is massively more reliable that the phone.

[Top cat]

We have just bought an unlocked Huawei E5776s wifi router, mainly because it has an aerial socket. We are feeding it with a 3 sim which has 12Gb for 12 months which suits us. So far ( and its early days) we have always got better reception than out phones manage without using the external aerial. If we find we struggle for signal strength we will get an aerial. Note if you get one of these they need a FULL size sim.

 

Top Cat

[Lizzy]

Interesting that 3 comes out so well in your posts. Maybe it is my iPhone which is just not that great for reception!

 

I was wondering about a wifi router inside the boat actually. So you can plug an aerial into it which you put outside? Just had a look at the Huawei E5776s router. Am I right in thinking that it is charged through cigarette lighter socket? That would be brilliant.

[Top cat]

The E5776s is charged via a standard USB phone charging lead which can be connected to any USB outlet, we have several, some to go into 12V cigarette lighter sockets, others to 240V or direct into a PC the choice is yours.

 

Top Cat

[AdamG]

Digging this thread up again, since I am looking into mobile wifi on a boat now and a lot may have changed since last year. I am looking for a mobile wifi solution which is reliable across the canal network, fast (ideally 4G) and offers good data packages. I work in the web world so speed and reliability are more important than cost.

 

Could you lovely people give me some advice on these questions please?

 

- What is the network with the best coverage? This thread talks about Three a lot. I currently have Three on my iPhone and I must say even in London I often have no coverage where everybody else is fine. I heard good things about EE but it was only in London?

 

- I read that it may be better to buy an unlocked mobile wifi router and a SIM only data contract separately. Any router recommendations for good reception? I am not familiar with reception on a boat and whether it's necessary to look for anything specific there.

 

- Any recommendations on big data packages? I want to use streaming etc. so am looking for unlimited or 100GB (saw that from EE).

 

- I thought that it'd be possible to have a package with mobile wifi and also mobile call allowance (i.e. with two separate SIM cards, one for router, one for phone), but haven't found anything. Does this even exist?

 

Thanks so much for any advice.

 

Hi Lizzy

 

My four penny'th...

 

As I'd been with EE for 2-and-a-half years, I was able to keep my smartphone and change the contract to £9.99/mth (I don't make a lot of calls, so 250 mins/mth and 250 MB / mth is fine for me - comes with unlimited texts).

 

For t'internet, I got an Osprey Mi-Fi device from EE. It works great! In fact, I get faster internet access than I did in my cottage. I stuck it to a window for best reception (above a plug socket for ease of charging) and I get a min of 4 bars on 4G, usually 5 bars. I kicked off with 16GB/mth for just shy of £20 and I'm going to see how I go with that. I notice that I'd used almost all of this in 3 weeks, so I may need to up my contract. I'd streamed a few TV programs which may have used it up. And I've just signed up with Amazon Prime which gives me loads more streaming options, so I expect I'll exceed the 16GB.

 

Admittedly, I've only been living aboard for 3 weeks and I'm parked in a marina in the middle of a built up area, so I can't say whether this will work well when out and about but it works really well where I am now...

[Richard10002]

I have a Huawei mifi router, a 4G aerial from Solwise, and a 50Gb per month data sim from EE.

 

In Agden in Cheshire all mobile signals are poor/non existent, I got a great signal with the mifi connected to the aerial.

 

The 50Gb deal from EE was £27 per month in January, on a 2 year contract. I think it was a half price deal which appears now and then.

[KJT]

As I have an interest in meteorology it seemed an obvious place to mount a small wireless weather station on the top.

 

which one did you choose?

It's a Davies Vantage Vue weather station. https://www.weathershop.co.uk/shop/davis-vantage-vue-weather-station?gclid=CK7N-ZnL7swCFY8y0wodV1kB4w

 

Ken

[KJT]

Digging this thread up again, since I am looking into mobile wifi on a boat now and a lot may have changed since last year. I am looking for a mobile wifi solution which is reliable across the canal network, fast (ideally 4G) and offers good data packages. I work in the web world so speed and reliability are more important than cost.

 

Could you lovely people give me some advice on these questions please?

 

- What is the network with the best coverage? This thread talks about Three a lot. I currently have Three on my iPhone and I must say even in London I often have no coverage where everybody else is fine. I heard good things about EE but it was only in London?

 

- I read that it may be better to buy an unlocked mobile wifi router and a SIM only data contract separately. Any router recommendations for good reception? I am not familiar with reception on a boat and whether it's necessary to look for anything specific there.

 

- Any recommendations on big data packages? I want to use streaming etc. so am looking for unlimited or 100GB (saw that from EE).

 

- I thought that it'd be possible to have a package with mobile wifi and also mobile call allowance (i.e. with two separate SIM cards, one for router, one for phone), but haven't found anything. Does this even exist?

 

Thanks so much for any advice.

Just an update since my original post a couple of years ago. I still find that the '3' coverage has worked well for us from cruising areas as far south as the River Wey and Basingstoke canal, the Thames, and as far north to the Bridgwater. And just about every canal in between. Even the wilder reaches of rhe Llangollen. We also have 02 and Vodafone cellphones and their coverage can be patchy, but the '3' mi-fi unit with the external aerial has never failed us. This summer we plan to cruise the western part of the Leeds and Liverpool and the Lancaster canals so will be able to update this thread re coverage in due course. But so far, I am very happy with the current set up and the '3' coverage.

 

Ken

[Lizzy]

I have a Huawei mifi router, a 4G aerial from Solwise, and a 50Gb per month data sim from EE.

 

In Agden in Cheshire all mobile signals are poor/non existent, I got a great signal with the mifi connected to the aerial.

 

The 50Gb deal from EE was £27 per month in January, on a 2 year contract. I think it was a half price deal which appears now and then.

 

Is this a contract that included the router or a SIM only?

[Richard10002]

Is this a contract that included the router or a SIM only?

It included one of their routers, but I already had the Huawei mifi set up, so just use the sim.

[Lizzy]

Thanks all. I compared a few options and went straight to buy the EE package with the Osprey router and 50GB for £30 per month. It is 10 times(!!) faster in my flat than my BT landline broadband. I should have done this even just at home a long time ago!

[AdamG]

Thanks all. I compared a few options and went straight to buy the EE package with the Osprey router and 50GB for £30 per month. It is 10 times(!!) faster in my flat than my BT landline broadband. I should have done this even just at home a long time ago!

 

Good work! Might upgrade to the 50GB myself...

[Nickhlx]

Exactly what I did at our house, as we are "rural" (even though the fibre goes through the village to the next town !) and our ADSL line struggles to give more than 2 MBPS and noisy when it rains, but now get around 45 MB download speeds and also went with the 50 Gb / £30 package.. such a relief to have decent BB again !

 

The package did come with a "Home Broadband router" which I am not using here as the 4G signal is not very strong so bought a Solwise router which does have external SMA sockets for the aerials and got a dual 4G Omni aerial from them on their technical advice, mounted in the apex of the roof with the router in the airing cupboard and fed the ethernet into the home network. That gets nearly full strength signal now and I can take the SIM out and use on the boat in the EE router at weekends or when we are on the boat - good arrangement for us ...

 

Nick

Edited May 23, 2016 by Nickhlx

[rustydiver]

I've just fitted and tried the Solwise 4g antenna and a tp link 4g router. The antenna is on a pole which can go higher if needed.

Just come back from a week out in the boat and we always had a strong 4/3G siginal with it, where as before we had nought.

Bought a £30 12mth data card from three for casual use but when the children wants more data I put my unlimited sim in it out off my phone.

Edited June 5, 2016 by rustydiver

[Profzarkov]

Fascinating topic and interesting to see things evolve over two years.

I bought the Huawei mifi E5377 from those Amazonians and also the EE data sim, still available for £14 for 6GB/90 days.

I also bought the twin socket aerial.

They all work a treat on most areas.

We seem to be gobbling up the GB and so may look around for a good deal on a contract with EE

When i chat with them they just give me their std. Online price.

We seem to get thru the 6 GB in a month now.

I can also recommend Connectify. I think we actually paid for this.

It's very useful when in the marina or near a hotspot as our laptop has a USB aerial and sucks in the signal, the Connectify then retransmits this around the boat for other pc's, iPads and phones to use.

[Nickhlx]

I have a 12 month home broadband EE contract which is £30 / month but you do get 4G+ and 50 GB / month - (I think there is also a 25 GB / month for £25). However the router that comes with it whilst it has an internal aerial, also has aerial sockets for external dual cable aerial, except EE can't supply, and others can't tell you where to get a suitable aerial or connectors. So I use the SIM from that and plug that into a Solwise router which does have standard SMA connectors and they can supply external aerials to suit your needs.

 

Both the EE and the Solwise are standard 12 volt routers so can be used from the mains via the supplied adapator or from e.g. the car / boat supply if you don't have / want the inverter on for mains.

 

We use primarily at home as the ADSL service is 2MB when it doesn't rain and intermittent / dies when it does rain... download speeds are typically 30 MB/s and the system is reliable, and SO much better than the ADSL wired system - Highly recommended and would definitely do again...

 

Nick

[rustydiver]

Just an update on my setup it's works well for me it allowed me to watch Le Mans 24hr via Eurosport online ok via my 4g router via my phone which was then streamed to my TV via Apple TV.

Where as my phone with the same SIM card in wouldn't pick up anything.

[Templar]

My first post here,

 

I lived on a boat for 10 years, moved abroad for 20, now the hubby and myself are close to moving back on the cut!

 

I teach online using video connections, so need unlimited data with a fast speed, I need to research a bit more before we take the plunge! Anyone else doing the same afloat?

 

Thanks for the great info, looking forward to more updates.

[Templar]

Just being doing my homework and found "Three" was the only company offering unlimited data tethering from mobiles and SIMs until January this year. Phoned them to confirm this and that no one else does this. Unlimited data still available but limited to 30 GB per month tethering.

 

We need 350 GB per month minimum (ie. unlimited )

 

Satellite connections (eg. IridiumGO!) have bad reviews regarding connection problems and latency, a major problem when teaching music online.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

[WotEver]

To the best of my knowledge nobody offers unlimited tethered mobile data at present. Way too many people who had it started streaming movies etc and it was withdrawn.

 

I use Three myself at work (out in the sticks) but as you note it ain't unlimited so I do all my heavy lifting from m home with 250mbps fibre.

 

350Gb is a huge ask at present.

[Robbo]

Just being doing my homework and found "Three" was the only company offering unlimited data tethering from mobiles and SIMs until January this year. Phoned them to confirm this and that no one else does this. Unlimited data still available but limited to 30 GB per month tethering.

 

We need 350 GB per month minimum (ie. unlimited )

 

Satellite connections (eg. IridiumGO!) have bad reviews regarding connection problems and latency, a major problem when teaching music online.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

Why do you need 350 Gb? If you break it down we may have other suggestions on how to do it.

[MoominPapa]

Just being doing my homework and found "Three" was the only company offering unlimited data tethering from mobiles and SIMs until January this year. Phoned them to confirm this and that no one else does this. Unlimited data still available but limited to 30 GB per month tethering.

 

We need 350 GB per month minimum (ie. unlimited )

 

Satellite connections (eg. IridiumGO!) have bad reviews regarding connection problems and latency, a major problem when teaching music online.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

I think this may be a big ask, for a couple of reasons. You can certainly get unlimited data, (eg http://aa.net.uk/telecoms-mobile-data.html)but you probably won't like the cost. The other problem is reliability. We use EE, which is one of, if not the best for coverage, and it's got to the stage now that you can pretty much assume a net connection anywhere you go. I think there have been one or two moorings this year with no internet. What you can't assume is that you'll get bandwidth good enough for video streaming. What will you do if you regularly have lessons booked but no signal good enough to deliver them?

 

Of course, if you're planning to live on a home mooring, you can pick one with good coverage, or much better, get one with a fixed phone line connection and use standard broadband. Such moorings do exist, but they're rare since there was a fairly short time window between when people started to use boats like houses on a large scale and when mobile telephony made such land-lines mostly redundant. Another option would be a home mooring where they'll let you have a land-line installed in, eg the office, and connect to that via wifi.

 

 

Cheers,

 

MP.

[Templar]

Why do you need 350 Gb? If you break it down we may have other suggestions on how to do it.

Hi Robbo, I teach online using video calls (Skype, Hangouts, ooVoo etc)

[widebeamboy]

Another option would be a home mooring where they'll let you have a land-line installed in, eg the office, and connect to that via wifi.

 

 

Cheers,

 

MP.

Wanted to hijack a little rather than start a new thread. Currently in marina with free wifi which has never worked. They've just installed some new I guess repeater masts which I think are cabled and the nearest one is not more than about 50feet from me. Unless I am stood at the window with my laptop signal is rubbish. I know about farady cage etc so what is the option for a ? repeater? to pick up the signal and then distribute into the boat?

 

Ive got a personal Relish router (in London) however in teh evenings the performance is poor due to various volumes of users and so having an extra option to split with the wife would be handy.

 

Failing that Hyperoptic are keen to install Fibre to the marina, I just need to get the marina on side.

[Templar]

 

I think this may be a big ask, for a couple of reasons. You can certainly get unlimited data, (eg http://aa.net.uk/telecoms-mobile-data.html)but you probably won't like the cost. The other problem is reliability. We use EE, which is one of, if not the best for coverage, and it's got to the stage now that you can pretty much assume a net connection anywhere you go. I think there have been one or two moorings this year with no internet. What you can't assume is that you'll get bandwidth good enough for video streaming. What will you do if you regularly have lessons booked but no signal good enough to deliver them?

 

Of course, if you're planning to live on a home mooring, you can pick one with good coverage, or much better, get one with a fixed phone line connection and use standard broadband. Such moorings do exist, but they're rare since there was a fairly short time window between when people started to use boats like houses on a large scale and when mobile telephony made such land-lines mostly redundant. Another option would be a home mooring where they'll let you have a land-line installed in, eg the office, and connect to that via wifi.

 

 

Cheers,

 

MP.

 

Thanks MoominPapa, I got a 404 from the link you posted. I'd be interested to know the cost for unlimited data (I could find no providers apart from satellite - not reliable enough and potential latency problem for video calls).

 

"What will you do if you regularly have lessons booked but no signal good enough to deliver them?" - exactly Gotta be reliable and worried that a land line is going to be the only option. Since I teach every day, I won't get far from my mooring, hehe