Wifi antena's

[Hydraulics]

Looking to install a Wi-Fi antena on my Boat, anybody have any information on best antena's to use. Read several different posts seems like a lot of ways to do it..

 

[Gary B]

We have the rogue in our boat and are very happy with it. Had it last boat as well. It allows us to connect numerous devices including streaming of an Apple TV. I would suggest the more durable stainless model with the better router or pick up a high powered wireless router on your own. This will give you better connectivity range in and around the boat.
CMI electronics did our install so I can't give any installation details. Many of us on Long Island use CMI exclusively. They are outstanding and have done all our electronics for the past 15 years. We would not consider using anyone else.

 

[Jeremygavin]

I have a rogue wave as well. Works very well for me too. Range is no where near the 7miles they claim but we can see every wifi signal in our harbor which is enough for us.

 

[JVM225]

Just curious about what kind of wifi networks you guys are getting on with these things. Do you use them to pull in signals in your home Marina or other places? I've been thinking of getting one but in roaming around Long Island with my iPad on land I haven't come across very many unlocked wifi networks and I'm not a Cablevision subscriber so I can't use theirs.

 

[LTD.330]

+1 on the Rogue Wave. I have it plugged in to the WAN port on my router and all devices connect to the router and share the bandwidth.

 

[Jeremygavin]

Just curious about what kind of wifi networks you guys are getting on with these things. Do you use them to pull in signals in your home Marina or other places? I've been thinking of getting one but in roaming around Long Island with my iPad on land I haven't come across very many unlocked wifi networks and I'm not a Cablevision subscriber so I can't use theirs.

I use it mainly on known wifi networks that I have the password for. At my home port I am at a private marina so no wifi but there is a marina across the harbor that has wifi on the dock and I get the password from the gas dock attendants when I get gas there. Also, along our harbor there are many restaurants with wifi so when we eat at them I get the passwords and then store them for the summer so I have several networks I can log in to.

When I am away from home port most of the time I find the wifi signals at transient marines to be not that great when we are in slip that is aways from the wifi router so the rogue helps me pickup those signals better.

 

[Gary B]

We are able to pick up our Marina wifi and optimum in Greenport. You can pretty much pick up any wifi signal within a couple of miles.

 

[JVM225]

Sounds like you guys have more wifi options up on the North Shore. I was just down at my dock with my iPad and the only non private network I could find was Optimum's. That one was pretty weak and might benefit from a wifi antenna on the boat bit I'm not a subscriber.
My dock is pretty far away from any restaurant that might have wifi and the coves we frequent are even further. I guess I'll have to wait until they get more public wifi down on the south shore.

 

[cod]

This is recently from my electronics guy which I found useful. There is about a 4 week wait right now for the Link 7 by Aigean. Thinking it was the same as the Rogue, I requested getting the Rogue in lieu of the Link 7 so I wouldn't have to wait and this was his response. Hope it's helpful:

"Yes we are a dealer for Wave Wi-Fi as well (one of their first). The Wave Wi-Fi Rogue Pro is 2.4GHz only. We are seeing many marinas and other hotspots adding 5.0GHz as that frequency is much cleaner and more bandwidth available too.

The LINK7 is both 2.4 & 5.0. Many people don’t realize what they are missing when equipped with 2.4 only. Most other boats are 2.4 and will latch on to just those signals – especially older equipment. If you go with the LINK7 you won’t be in the 2.4 bottleneck. Unless you are in a marina without much traffic? It’s not like 2.4 is going away anytime soon either, but everyone is on that frequency, the data is slower, and you will ultimately have less connection options with just 2.4."

 

[Strypes]

So let's say that there's a McDonald's 1 mile or so from our marina that has free wifi... with one of these antennas, I can grab wifi from said McDonald's while at my marina?

Our marina has free wifi, but it's not the greatest, especially when it's busier on the weekends. We have better luck with our cell phone network.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jeremygavin]

I have found the rogue wave doesn't receive signals from very far inland. I have no problem with any wifi signals on the water such as marinas and restaurants but once you start getting inland with wifi inside of buildings it is limited. While Wifi is not completely line of sight much like VHF, the clearer the path between you and the wifi antenna the better the signal and reach of the rogue wave.

 

[wingatesl]

We use the ubiquiti bullet
https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Bullet-M2-HP-Wireless

Antenna
https://www.amazon.com/Marine-WiFi-11dBi-2-4GHz-cable

Adapter
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IE7NVUW

It will keep the radio inside the vessel and dry. The antenna fits on a standard 1-14 thread antenna mount

You will need to also get a POE adapter like this
https://www.amazon.com/Power-Ethernet-Supply-Injector-Combiner

This will not repeat the signal on your boat, so you will also need to install an access point. We used just a cheap netgear wireless router that accepted 12v and modified the power cable


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Alex F]

This is recently from my electronics guy which I found useful. There is about a 4 week wait right now for the Link 7 by Aigean. Thinking it was the same as the Rogue, I requested getting the Rogue in lieu of the Link 7 so I wouldn't have to wait and this was his response. Hope it's helpful:

"Yes we are a dealer for Wave Wi-Fi as well (one of their first). The Wave Wi-Fi Rogue Pro is 2.4GHz only. We are seeing many marinas and other hotspots adding 5.0GHz as that frequency is much cleaner and more bandwidth available too.

The LINK7 is both 2.4 & 5.0. Many people don’t realize what they are missing when equipped with 2.4 only. Most other boats are 2.4 and will latch on to just those signals – especially older equipment. If you go with the LINK7 you won’t be in the 2.4 bottleneck. Unless you are in a marina without much traffic? It’s not like 2.4 is going away anytime soon either, but everyone is on that frequency, the data is slower, and you will ultimately have less connection options with just 2.4."

I've been using Rogue Wave Pro for few years now. If I was to do it over, I would definitely get dual band unit. I don't know if all, but I'm sure most new routers are now made to broadcast both frequencies and 5GHz is far more superior to 2.4. Since we invest in this type of equipment once in a long while, it makes sense to pay a bit more and maximize your options.

 

[mjmason1]

I will give a different opinion. I have had the rogue wave pro for a couple of years now. It works ok for wifi in close proximity to the boat. It picks up a lot of wifi's, but, with weak signals. Also, I had a problem with my antenna. Their customer service was far from good. Personally I wouldn't recommend the rogue wave.

 

[swaterhouse]

What a timely post! I was looking at this over the weekend.

Be Ellison who does electronics for a several boating magazine has a very good review of the Coastal Marine Wifi unit.

The dual band Link 7 does look nice.

 

[sea hare]

remember, 5ghz will be cleaner and offer higher bandwidth but it also has a much shorter broadcast range

 

[Strypes]

So let's say that there's a McDonald's 1 mile or so from our marina that has free wifi... with one of these antennas, I can grab wifi from said McDonald's while at my marina?

Our marina has free wifi, but it's not the greatest, especially when it's busier on the weekends. We have better luck with our cell phone network.

Thanks in advance.

???

 

[Alex F]

So let's say that there's a McDonald's 1 mile or so from our marina that has free wifi... with one of these antennas, I can grab wifi from said McDonald's while at my marina?

Our marina has free wifi, but it's not the greatest, especially when it's busier on the weekends. We have better luck with our cell phone network.

Thanks in advance.

That's exactly where wifi booster we're discussing here will come in to play. For example, I'm in a marina but wifi signal is only good close to the marina office. My cell can't even pick it up, my laptops pick it up but with poor signal strength. I turn on my Wave Rouge and the antenna booster reaches to the marina office with ease and delivers full bars signal to the boat. Now, of course my booster is plugged in to my boat's router, so wha-la...my entire on board network has full strength wifi signal and every on board device can use it.

The same scenario take place when you're away from a dock. Say I anchored in some gunkhole. I scan wifi networks with my cell or latptop and nothing. But, when I scan with wifi booster I pick up several networks. Granted, now days 95% of them will be locked. But, say you're Optiomum or Xfinity, or other cariers customer and one of the networks on the list is their hotspot. Wha-la...I got few accounts, so when I see a network I have account with, I connect to it with my booster and my entire on board network is up and running.

 

[Strypes]

That's exactly where wifi booster we're discussing here will come in to play. For example, I'm in a marina but wifi signal is only good close to the marina office. My cell can't even pick it up, my laptops pick it up but with poor signal strength. I turn on my Wave Rouge and the antenna booster reaches to the marina office with ease and delivers full bars signal to the boat. Now, of course my booster is plugged in to my boat's router, so wha-la...my entire on board network has full strength wifi signal and every on board device can use it.

The same scenario take place when you're away from a dock. Say I anchored in some gunkhole. I scan wifi networks with my cell or latptop and nothing. But, when I scan with wifi booster I pick up several networks. Granted, now days 95% of them will be locked. But, say you're Optiomum or Xfinity, or other cariers customer and one of the networks on the list is their hotspot. Wha-la...I got few accounts, so when I see a network I have account with, I connect to it with my booster and my entire on board network is up and running.

Thank you! I think that I will invest in a booster. Sounds great!

 

[Jeremygavin]

???

I responded to your question in post #11 with my opinion of how well you will receive signals from inland. Sorry, I didn't include your post in my reply.