Québec Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 At Swanley Bridge 1. Yes 2. Free 3. Not sure 4. Slow, variable I was told by the office staff that they purposely keep the speed 'low' to stop people streaming and to keep it free. Just about bearable for 'normal' Internet use and emails. We have a 3 mifi as a back-up, just in case and for when we're out on the cut...if we can get a signal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DHutch Posted January 19, 2016 Report Share Posted January 19, 2016 ...the wifi at Ventnor is a 3rd party one so I suspect the marina don't have control over the pricing.....Ah right, so perhaps the pricing structure is more intended for infrequent and or business use on cafes/services than your home/domestic connection. Funny old world technology! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eeyore Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 (edited) At Sawley 1. Yes 2. Free 3. Providers technician told me the service was "throttled" and that it is configured to only support upto revision b of the wifi standard. 3. Useless, even when stood outside next to the repeater. Edited January 20, 2016 by Eeyore 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJT Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 Yelvertoft (150 berths) 1. Yes 2. Free 3. Don't think so 4. Can be variable. Sometimes quite fast, other times slow. In the marina I use this range extender from Maplins and find it very good. http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/netgear-ac750-plug-in-range-extender-a36ng Whilst cruising I use a '3' MiFi with external aerial which works very well just about everywhere. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delta9 Posted January 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 Well it seems from the replies that most marinas struggle with providing decent internet. I thought it might just be the one I moored at. Amazing that in 2015 it is still such a challenge to provide fast wifi to a marina full of boats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
by'eck Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 A few questions for those with marina moorings or regular marina users. Does the marina you use provide WIFI? YES If yes, is it free or how much does it cost? FREE Are there any restrictions on usage like data caps? NO What sort of speeds do you get? Reasonably good although has been known to bog down occasionally at peak times Cheers. Marina based WiFi has improved over the years, as have the devices using it so less chance of a badly configured machine wiping out the whole network. However there are still users its seems who choose to download a massive video file mid evening and soak up most of the bandwidth to the cost of others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Todd Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 Well it seems from the replies that most marinas struggle with providing decent internet. I thought it might just be the one I moored at. Amazing that in 2015 it is still such a challenge to provide fast wifi to a marina full of boats. I suspect the issue is not so much technical as commercial. Whilst it is not expensive to share spare capacity from a single standard broadband line, anything more useful ups the cost. Either mooring fees have to be increased to cover it or the marina has not way of recovering these costs. A lot of the internet world has become used to 'free' services without thinking about who is paying for it and why. A lot comes down to advertising or attracting customers. I suspect free wifi at a decent level is not going to pay for itself that way - unless someone comes up with a way of inserting paid-for ads into the middle of that video streaming! Even then, are residential boaters seen as a prime ad target? () Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NB Lola Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 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. Interesting, do you get the device from Sue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 Interesting, do you get the device from Sue? The device(laptop, tablet, computer) gets a connection code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NB Lola Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 The device(laptop, tablet, computer) gets a connection code.Ok, so I need a code from the office? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidc Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 Great haywood has wifi but its slow I use a wifi antenna with a hot sport booster in sided and connect to BT wifi which cost nothing as I pay for broadband at home and its unlimited I believe its only 39 pound a month if you do not have a fix connection at home . I've also used the connection out on the cut with a lot of success which I have posted on in the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted January 20, 2016 Report Share Posted January 20, 2016 Ok, so I need a code from the office? Yes, but I haven't bothered this year, I just use my 3 Great haywood has wifi but its slow I use a wifi antenna with a hot sport booster in sided and connect to BT wifi which cost nothing as I pay for broadband at home and its unlimited I believe its only 39 pound a month if you do not have a fix connection at home . I've also used the connection out on the cut with a lot of success which I have posted on in the past Likewise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ssscrudddy Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 Northampton Marina (80 berth) has WiFi provided by WiFi Spark.1. Yes it provides Wifi.2. Cost - Free - or rather built in to the price of the mooring.3. No restrictions or caps.4. Oh so sloooooow, or as Speedtest.net say, slower than 96% of UK internet - Grade F.Utter shite. Apparently it's only designed (speedwise) for you to get emails in case the Environment Agency needs to contact you. Bullshit I say, this is the 21st century WiFi has been around for 15 years FFS. Only 1 device can be connected at a time, it doesnt warn you that another device is already logged in (ie me on my PC or missus on her laptop).& instead the new device connecting logs the other device out without warning.BUT what makes it truly not fit for purpose, unforgivable IMO, is that despite needing a web page log in to be able to use it, it is unsecured, an open network, no encryption at all. You can sit there with a laptop & see what people are doing.Sucks this week I managed to use all my mobile data allowance & still have another week to go before it starts again so I'm stuck with the marina pretense at WiFi. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patty-ann Posted January 21, 2016 Report Share Posted January 21, 2016 I use a 3 mobile wifi when at the boat though marina does say it has wifi..I never use up my allowance though but cannot download. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Featured Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now