Building Broadband Wireless Network On Board

I'm using the Verizon USB720 because of the portability factor.
It is really a NovaTel720 broadband modem rebranded for Verizon.
A lot of the newer laptops are going to the PCMCI Express format card.
The Older PCMCIA card won't fit in the new laptops.
The USB720 will work on any PC that has a USB 2.0 port.

I had the same experience with the AT&T Broadband modems accessibility
Very poor reception unless you are in a Metro area.
The Verizon mobile network devices just seem to work almost anywhere.
There are routers that will work with the USB broadband modems.

http://3gstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=74&products_id=610
But, you have to order online.

Checkout the EVO Forum for some great articles on using EVO data products.

http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/view/37/61/

The reviews are from actual tests of the products mentioned.
The typical Electronics stores (FRY'S, BestBuy, CirKut City, Microcenter)
don't stock the USB version. I have found the Linksys PCMCIA router version at FRY's.
The LinkSys products are well stocked there.

I would definitely consider an external antenna to get the best reception.
The 3gstore stocks a Marine version antenna. Enclosing it in a radome seems
to make it a Marine version.

If you can't receive information, why try to transmit it? You receive a lot
more data than you transmit. So, concentrate on getting the best reception possible
before blowing the ears off of any nearby receivers.

I've made homebrew parabolic antennas from WOK tops or surplus DirecTV
reflector dishes that equaled or surpassed any commercial products.
But, parabolics are Very directional and would require a lot of attention on a moving vessel.
Great in those anchored places out of the way, way out there type.
But, on a nice boat, looks are everything. Almost as important as functionality.
So, consider, do price and looks matter more than functionality?
My home made antennas work okay...but they are Ugly looking.
Spray paint and Duct tape don't help
A nice antenna construction site is:

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html

Elegance in a can! I can't wait to see that on the radar arch of a SEA RAY ! [:->

--------------------------------------------------------
By the way, Verizon just settled a major lawsuit over their violating the terms
of the agreement on the "Unlimited Data access" accounts.
They were terminating accounts where Verizon thought the customer was
abusing the "Unlimited Data" feature. Hence, Verizon is a little edgy about interfering
with the customer's use of the product.

Bottoms Down, Sailor ! let 'er rip !
 
Frank,
in the way it's may sound strange, but it also makes sense. I'm sure there could be plenty of arguments, but if it's something one paid for it's a private now and if one uses it without permission it's steeling. Nice story about the coffee shop.

Thanks for educational reminder,
Alex.
 
I use my palm Treo 700WX to connect my laptop to the internet with a teather line. The verizon speed at my marina is similar to my comcast cable at home.

This surprisingly has worked for me out in the middle of Lake Michigan as well.

Theres a ton of information on here, I was thinking about making a wireless connection on my boat this summer but I think Ill wait until I am upgrading my new boat to start this thinking again :)
 
Using an open wi-fi connection is stealing just as picking up a $50 bill off the floor at a bar is stealing, too.

The part of the aforementioned article that amuses me is that the idiot lawmaker has an open WIFI access point that his neighbor was using. Why not just turn off SSID broadcasts and set a WPA key? It's like remembering to keep your money in your wallet rather than any place you happen to leave it until next time you visit.

Best regards,
Frank
 
Where will you be using the multiple connections? At the marina? Or out on the hook? If its at the Marina, you might inquire about setting up a broadband wireless connection that everyone can use with a small fee to cover the cost of the monthly charge plus a wireless router with a range extender. If its out on the hook, you can set up internet connection sharing through the laptop that has the broadband wireless card connected to it. That will be the easiest way; no router required.

As far as using unsecured wireless acess points, your PC/Laptop will automatically hunt for networks in range and connect to them based on signal strength of the default router names. For example, the SSID "Linksys" is the default router names and probably one of the "automatic" connections set up in most peoples PC who use wireless access. If you are in range of a "Linksys" SSID, and that is the strongest signal strength, your PC will most likely connect to it. To prevent this is usually more than the average user knows how to do.

Mike
 
I guess my thought is that if you don't want me to use your open wi-fi radio waves, then get them off my boat.
 
i agree. If you leave your wireless router wide open even after all the repeated cautions issued by every router manufacturer, then dont be upset if people use. Its like broadcasting a radio station and being mad when people listen to it. Makes no sense.

I leave mine wide open and tell all my neighbors if they can connect to it and keep a strong enough signal, have at it. If i need to have secure connections, i use my VPN.

At our Marina, we are setting up an access point in the club house with repeaters to braodcast the signal so that all the slips can pick up the signal. Even using a 64bit WEP key will keep 99% of the people we dont want using it, out of it. It'll be a nice little perk for our Marina i think. :)

Mike
 
In my case, marina has very weak signal. When I could, I was using some unsecured networks around the area. As we felt more need for the internet service while we travel by car or by boat, I got a broadband card from Verizon. It works fine most of the time with exception of some areas having poor signal. The only reason I'm looking to introduce a wireless router is b/c we have one laptop is a lockdown machine (no rights to install anything). So, I cannot just plug in my broadband card and start using it. Becides a driver I would need to install a software from Verizon. This laptop has regular network card and when it picks up a wireless signal it'll use it. So, my plan is to get a wireless router that could use my broadband card and create local wireless network. This way I could connect to it with the lockdown and other laptops. Ofcourse my network will be secured (not with the boat name as a key).

I guess, the major difference in the "crime" of using someone's network between taking $50 from their walet, is that there's no harm or loss to that party.
 
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You can pretty well lock out anyone by using the MAC addresses of the network cards.
On windows boxes use the "CMD.EXE" window and issue this cmd to get your local
network card MAC id: c:\windows\system32> ipconfig /all
There will be a line of info called, "Physical Address........00-01-02-03-0A-0B"
Most wireless routers will offer the MAC address as a secure access point. If your pc
doesn't have it's MAC on the router's list it will never see the router. Jeez this is like work !
 
MAC address filtering is next to useless. All it takes us for someone to sniff the packets and simply change their MAC address to one that's allowed. This will, of course, wreak havoc as it's a "very bad thing" to have more than one device using the same MAC address. And to make matters worse if you ever need to change your wireless card you won't be able to get back into your own router (at least not without doing a factory reset on it). MAC filtering it so weak as to be pretty much useless.

Your only safe bet is to use WPA (or WPA2) with a DECENT passphrase. Don't use just a short word or phrase. Make it long and complex enough and you greatly reduce the likelihood of anyone ever taking enough time to break it.
 
I have enough to worry about besides someone sniffin my wireless. For 95% of
the computin public, the MAC filter is like a lock.
It keeps honest people honest.
A thief will always find a way to take what is not theirs.
Arrrgh! There be wireless pirates out there, me bucko !
Surf the waves not the Web !
 
Alex
An air card should work just fine depending on the amount of data exchange going on. If it is just e-mail and such it will be fine. If you are running any remote applications them you will have a speed degredation for sure on the air card.
 
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Ricky said:
If you are running any remote applications them you will have a speed degredation for sure on the air card.
Click to expand...

The typical citrix, vnc or remote desktop session requires about 20k of bandwidth. I know, I've done it. I've successfully connected to RDP sessions from the boat, using the Verizon air data card, back into an office served by a 1.5/256 DSL link and it was very usable. Granted, you're not going to get full motion video, or run photoshop through it. But for all regular desktop app work it was more than acceptable.

I've also used it for terminal shell sessions over SSH, along with VPN tunnels. All of which worked without problems, without delays and without detectable latency. For the typical user I'd imagine the only time latency would be a big deal would be with realtime gaming applications, but those are a problem on even just wifi. The only activity that IS slow are file transfers. It's fine to transfer typical office documents. But video, archives or other large files are going to be entirely dependent on that uplink speed. That's where remote sessions are useful, you're only making a connection to the user interface, not dragging whole files back and forth across the link.

A key part of the equation is the speed and congestion of the uplink to where you're connecting. My 256k uplink was fine, and there was other traffic connecting at the same time. But that other traffic was not saturating the link. If the remote point's link is already slow then using remote connections are likewise going to be slow, regardless of how you make your local first connection.
 
Ricky said:
Alex
An air card should work just fine depending on the amount of data exchange going on. If it is just e-mail and such it will be fine. If you are running any remote applications them you will have a speed degredation for sure on the air card.
Click to expand...

Ricky,
The speed I'm getting on the card is acceptable. My primary goal is to create local network, just like at home, so my wife's laptop can be hooked up. She's got a lockdown machine and can't be setup to use air card.

thx,
Alex.
 
wkearney99 said:
Mine is a PC5750 PCMCIA card, not a USB dongle. The router has a PCMCIA slot. All I need to do to is plug the card into the router, everything else is automatic. I did have to set up the card in a PC first, and I believe it has to be periodically updated the same way, but this is trivial. My wife uses the card during the week and on trips in her laptop. When we're on the boat the card gets popped into the router and our laptops use that connection.

The router in question is "technically" specified for using a Sprint network card. Neither linksys nor verizon claim to support anything. But it's literally plug-and-go. I've not used any of the USB-based setups. Mainly because, over the years, I've found using a PCMCIA slot-based device to be more physically durable. The size of the USB-based devices would be awkward in either of our laptops. That and my wife would be a lot more likely to wreck the USB ports with that sort of thing sticking out of it.

The curious thing about these aircards is they're actually USB-based, even the PCMCIA ones. The PCMCIA card shows up in the operating system as a serial device connected via USB. It's a PCMCIA adapter, to a USB adapter, to the serial modem; all in one device.
Click to expand...

Bill,
I finally got some time to get back to this project. I got the new WRT54G3G-VN router and tried to set it up last weekend. The issue was that the router couldn't get connection to the internet. I've plugged in my PC5750 and even though, there was a green blinking light on the card, I couldn't connect. So, I called linksys support and they told me that 5750 is not supported but 5740 is support it.

While troubleshooting, I was able to get to the router setup screen. However, next to the mobile connection, the button "Connect" was disabled. The Linksys support said it's disabled b/c card is not compatible.

Any ideas?

Thx,
Alex.
 
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I just found on the web that KR2 also has issue with PC5750 card.

"Thank you for contacting Kyocera-Wireless Technical Support. This email message is in response to your inquiry whether the Kyocera KR2 Mobile Router has the same issue with the KR1 and whether a firmware update is coming.

We cannot tell whether the Kyocera KR2 Mobile Router and KR1 Mobile Router have the same issue in relation to the use of the PC5750 aircard on it because the PC5750 is not compatible with the KR2. You may check on the list provided on the link below (deleted). We appreciate if you enter your information on the fields for Additional Products."
 
What issue? As an aside, Linksys support is about as useless as tits on a tree. You'd be better off checking some of the online forums (which ones escape me at the moment, search for 'em).

I have a 5750 card in my WRT54G3G and it's worked fine. You do have to activate the card using a PC first. That and periodically keep it updated via a PC. At least, that's what I've done. I'll double-check what rev software is on my router when I get to the boat later today. I never had to use the Connect button at all. I just pop the card into the router and it automagically connects. I do usually power off the router first and the insert the card. But I've done it both ways and both worked.

We just had a baby the 21st and have been a bit busy. This'll be his first time aboard.
 
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