What you need to know about WiFi in a Marine Environment.

Most people that have WiFi either built into their computer or by using a PCMCIA WiFi card plugged into the laptop are familiar with its use in either the home or in hotspots, such as Starbucks and other public places. These environments are ideal for the average card or laptop because they are in close range. Rarely will the computer be more than 1,000 feet from the WiFi transmitter.

The Problem

In the Marine environment, the distances are much greater and this will effect your marine experience. While the transmitting equipment can be beefed up to operate at higher power than a home unit, like an Access Point you use in your home or apartment, the problem usually occurs at the other end, at the laptop. Typical transmitting HotSpots are sending a signal at 250 milliwatts but the laptop cards only transmit between 20 and 30 milliwatts. A laptop may receive the signal quite easily but it cannot send back the reply over long distances, due to its lack of power. In addition, where you position your laptop on the boat, assuming you are using just a WiFi card, not an amplifier or antenna, makes a huge difference. For example, a WiFi signal will not pass through your engine because of the mass of the metal . If, for example, you are in the salon and the engine is between you and the transmitter on shore, you will probably not get a signal. In addition, if there are a large number of boats, with metal masts, between you and the transmitter, the same will be true. Many times, you will find as the boat swings, the signal rises and falls, again due to metal interference between you and the transmitter.

The Solution

There are several solutions to this problem, although unless you know about them in advance, being in the BVI offers little chance of taking advantage of some of these solutions. You need to think about your needs and address the power issue before arriving in the BVI. By clicking on this link, you can get a relative idea of the signal strength issue.

Click here for signal strength info.

The first and easiest solution is to use a more powerful WiFi card. This solution holds true even if your laptop has built-in WiFi. There are several cards on the market that offer 300 milliwatts of power. The one we like the best is the Ubiquity Hi Power WiFi Card. There is only one model.. This card can have an external antenna attached by removing the built-in antenna. We do not have a link to a merchant that sells this card but there are links on the Ubiquity site for resellers. We suggest you search online using Google search after looking on the Ubiquity web site. There are other brands of high power cards but some do not have external antenna connectors and many are only good on channel 6 while we use all 11 channels..

Click on this link to search for the High Power Card.

The most elegant and powerful solution, is also the most expensive. A company manufactures a complete kit for Marine WiFi use that consists of an external antenna, an amplifier, a WiFi card and all necessary cables. This system makes your boat Laptop as powerful, both receiving and transmitting, as the HotSpot base station. This typically allows your boat to be as far as 3 to 5 miles, line of sight, away from the transmitting HotSpot. This is the ultimate solution for Marine WiFi Internet Service.

Click here for info on Marine Amplifiers and Antennas.

Although this is intended to be a permanent installation, I personally have installed it in a way that I can easily remove it from my boat and store it in the BVI when I am not there. I mount the antenna with an antenna C-Clamp attachment I purchased at a marine store and the amplifier is mounted on a wooden platform, 3" x 4" I may permanently install it so others that charter my boat can use it. This is a personal decision that you must make if you adopt this solution.