wifi signal booster....

Just a quick question; even if you have the best booster/extender or whatever and are able to receive WiFi signals from miles away, the signal and connection still must not need a password, is this correct? If so aren't almost all WiFi signals coded to require a password? My point is like belliswood above experienced, what good is spending a ton of money trying to get a WiFi signal if you can't use it.
 
timjet said:
Just a quick question; even if you have the best booster/extender or whatever and are able to receive WiFi signals from miles away, the signal and connection still must not need a password, is this correct? If so aren't almost all WiFi signals coded to require a password? My point is like belliswood above experienced, what good is spending a ton of money trying to get a WiFi signal if you can't use it.
Click to expand...

The primary benefits of good and reliable wifi booster are:
- You can maximized list of all available networks (locked and unlocked)
- Even though we see it less and less, the open networks still pop up once in a while. This obviousy your easiest solution.
- With locked networks, you almost don't care how far you're placed in a marina (homeport or transient) as most likely you'll pick up their wifi with deceent signal strength.

In addition, quite often people take advantage of their home based ISP. For example, TimeWarner, Optimum, Xfinity have tons of WiFi hotspots available. They are usually make the top 5-10 on your list of available networks. If you have an account for your home, your probelms are solved, as you'll be logged in to secured and fast network.
 
timjet said:
Just a quick question; even if you have the best booster/extender or whatever and are able to receive WiFi signals from miles away, the signal and connection still must not need a password, is this correct? If so aren't almost all WiFi signals coded to require a password? My point is like belliswood above experienced, what good is spending a ton of money trying to get a WiFi signal if you can't use it.
Click to expand...

You are correct. If it is password protected then you are out of luck unless you get the password. Every place that I have been to since I set up my system has had an open network or has given me the password.

It is funny though that I can actually get the signal from Dunkin Donuts which is about 3/4 a mile a way as the crow flies.

The islandtime setup is a prefabricated version of what I made up and works well too. It was just out of my price range.
 
OK, so it's likely if you can receive a WiFi signal that either will not need a password or you can get the password.
Very cool.

On a somewhat related matter, this summer we cruised the ICW from Key West to the Chesapeake. Knowing that we would need reliable WiFi I got a MiFi unit from Verizon. A MiFi unit receives cellular data and rebroadcasts the data as a WiFi signal that any WiFi enable device within range and with a password can use. This worked well and we were never out of Verizon's cellular data range.

A MiFi unit is a good option for those who want reliable WiFi and cruise within range of their carriers data coverage. But there are drawbacks. If you need WiFi for viewing TV like slingbox or movies via netflex, you will need enough data to use these devices and that can get very expensive.

We also found that over the air TV signals on the mostly rural ICW, north of FL, was worthless. So a free robust WiFi signal to view TV would be ideal, but I suspect no matter how good your equipment is a free WiFi signal with enough bandwidth to enable viewing a slingbox or Netflix is just not going to happen. Maybe once in a while but I doubt with enough reliability to depend on it.

So wanting a reliable way of watching TV I figured the best and cheapest way to do this is with a satellite antenna and receiver. I recently purchased a Track-It-TV system which will track broadcast TV satellite signals in azimuth but not elevation. This system should work well at anchor or at a marina but probably not so well underway, which is not a limitation for us. The Track-It-TV system has an exposed sat dish so it doesn't look real neat but is a fraction of the cost of dome systems, especially if you buy it used.

I'll install it this spring for our trip south. I'll report back on it's effectiveness.
 
k9medic said:
You are correct. If it is password protected then you are out of luck unless you get the password. Every place that I have been to since I set up my system has had an open network or has given me the password.

It is funny though that I can actually get the signal from Dunkin Donuts which is about 3/4 a mile a way as the crow flies.

The islandtime setup is a prefabricated version of what I made up and works well too. It was just out of my price range.
Click to expand...
Can you actually exchange data with everything you see? My booster shows me a lot of free access points. But most of them the IP acquisition process fails. I am guessing signal strength is good enough to see it, but not good enough to exchange data. Right now I consider this booster probably the worst money I have spent on the boat.
 
ZZ13 said:
Can you actually exchange data with everything you see? My booster shows me a lot of free access points. But most of them the IP acquisition process fails. I am guessing signal strength is good enough to see it, but not good enough to exchange data. Right now I consider this booster probably the worst money I have spent on the boat.
Click to expand...

I just bought a ubiquiti bullet and antenna. It is pretty much the same as the rogue wave. It works well at home let's see how it goes on the arch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
ZZ13 said:
Can you actually exchange data with everything you see? My booster shows me a lot of free access points. But most of them the IP acquisition process fails. I am guessing signal strength is good enough to see it, but not good enough to exchange data. Right now I consider this booster probably the worst money I have spent on the boat.
Click to expand...

I can connect on most of them. So far it has been good enough for me to run Netflix at the dock. You are correct though that just because you can see them doesn't always mean you can connect.
 
CliffA said:
thanks Steve...i will try that this WE to see how strong the signal is at different locations...this may sway the decision on what type of booster to get or if one will even work at all....

cliff
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i checked the wifi signal strength this WE with my smart phone while walking all around the marina....the strongest signal i got was 'fair' and this was right outside of the marina store which muist be where the router is located....so the 'free' wifi advertised by the marina is at best weak....

we have been thinking about getting either DirecTV or Dish TV installed to watch while we are docked and also to record shows and movies to watch while on the hook....i believe both of these satellite TV compamies also offer satellite internet service....if i got the satellite internet service we obviously should have a good wifi signal on the boat while docked, but i am not sure if satellite internet is robust enough to allow the cloud based secutity camera and cloud based remote temperature monitor to work properly....does anyone have any experience with satellite internet service?...

cliff
 
I've been searching the web and the threads here. Still perplexed. Just want an easy to use wifi antenae to pick up signals and use with wireless devices onboard. So far, BitStorm BadBoy and Rogue Wave seem to be the recommended solutions. That said, they all seem to have "software" challenges. So what's the best one with the least amount of "technowheenie" hassles.
 
"Technowheenie"? I like that. I do believe I have run into that a time or two? JC
 
I have the Rogue Wave. Most of the time it works great. Unfortunately my marina sucks at wifi, so without a good signal to start with, the antenna is useless.
 
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Cliff, do you have to plug another wireless router into that? Or does it just find the existing wifi signal and sort of "send it out" again? I'm thinking this might work good for my back porch and yard at my house.
 
Jack380AC said:
I'd rather have a 12V setup for when ay from dock.
Click to expand...

not sure how may available signals you will find once way from dock.....most wi-fi routers have a very limited range for their signals....when away from dock we have to use 4G instead of wi-fi to connect to the internet....

cliff
 
Dennis,

I have that signal booster. It works very well. You don't need to hook a router up to it. It basically takes your existing home wifi signal and then transmits it, usually with a _EXT (extension) appended to it. You associate to the _EXT ssid and that then transmits back to your base wifi unit. It's not something water proof so I wouldn't use it outside, but if you put it anywhere near the door where your porch is, it surely should get you what you need. It works well for me.

Seeing it makes me think I might try it in my boat as well. I currently have a wifi cam that has a built in transmitter that will support up to 5 additional devices. What I like about that is I can set up the retransmitted ssid to be the exact same as my home that way my kids aren't always pestering me to add the marina's wifi password. It also ensures they are on wifi when they are in the cabin and not burning my data plan on 4G.

Hopefully that makes sense - if it doesn't feel free to PM.

Dale
 
just one more thing about the booster - mine also has an ethernet port in it so if you have a network device that does not have wifi you can connect it into the booster to get it on the internet. It will also continue to act as a booster when something is attached.
 
That makes sense, Dale, thank you. I'm going to get one of those and try it out.
 
I have a netgear wifi extender at home. It works but my devices don't automatically select the strongest signal. I have to reconnect to the stronger signal when I move around the house. PITA.
 
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