Help me spend money on wi-fi stuff for my boat!

[followtheboat]

Happy new year to you.

I live on a boat and I'm looking to resolve some internet connectivity issues I've encountered. Here are my issues:

1) We have two computers on board, an Acer with Vista Home Basic and a Dell with XP Pro.

2) They don't always both connect to near-by networks with their built-in wifi cards and we have one external USB wifi antenna (9db, Ralink, pretty average bit of kit with rubbish software and driver support)

3) The antenna, on 6m of USN cable, doesn't always pick up near-by networks. This is nothing to do with the fact it's 6m of USB cable (it's recommended to go no longer than 3m...this has never been a problem for me), it's because we move about on the boat

4) ICS is problematic, quirky and a pain in the ass.

5) We run on 12v but if the solution is a low powered mains job then we could run the box through an inverter.

6) Being at anchor we move about so a directional antenna isn't much good, it needs to be omni-directional

7) Some networks could be some way away, and across water (a poor conductor of wifi I believe) so it needs to be powerful.

So, I'm thinking I need a magic box (a router or a booster that splits signals? I'm not so up on my terminology) mounted externally, high up, waterproof, that picks up near-by wifi networks, splits the signal and asigns individual IP addresses to the two computers sitting down below so that they can work online without conflicts.

Reckon I could justify about GBP150 on equipment and cables. What should I look out for, consider, avoid? Should I be using CAT5/6 cabling? and so on...

Any constructive help much appreciated.

 

[followtheboat]

No one out there help a newbie?

I just tried buying a AP but its signal pick-up was worse than my little cheapie usb antenna.

I really need some kind of receiver-booster box.


Any ideas?

 

[cckens]

A Parabolic reflector may help.
Try:

http://www.freeantennas.com/

Worse comes to worse you could try building a cantenna. The pickup from the unit could be boosted by such devices. Problem with most off-the-shelf antennas is that they're not that great. Using the cantenna, or a parbolic reflector may help in that instance.

Ken

"cckens is a nick... why the H-E- double-hockey-sticks am I using a nick for a name? Am I afraid of who I am?"
-me
"...don't know why, but I think of chickens when I see that nick...maybe even choking chickens???"
-Tony (wahnula)

 

[followtheboat]

A cantenna is too directional. It needs to be omni. Also I have the issue of connecting two laptops, not just one, so this would mean building too aerials!

Is building two aerials really better than buying a magic box that picks up a signal and splits it for two computers?

 

[G0AOZ]

Not sure I fully understand this... "Being at anchor we move about so a directional antenna isn't much good...".

Are you saying the boat shifts about so much at anchor because of choppy water/surge from passing craft, etc? If you're too far away from the nearest WiFi Access Point, then a directional antenna (which will generally have significant gain over an omni) is really your only answer to getting a half decent signal. Could you not place a directional antenna on a pole and then lash the pole to a fixed location on the bank of the river/canal?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[kjv1611]

Is it possible to get one of the cellphone company wireless cards with good reception in that area? That may be your best bet. Not as fast as broadband in most cases, at least, but they're made more for mobility such as that, I would think, and they'll be picking up the signal from satellite.

Also, another option (not sure if it'd be possible) would be to find a Wireless N Bridge, then connect a Wireless N router on your end of the bridge via ethernet, and connect to the on-boat router wirelessly with the laptops.

If that would work, you could buy possibly this:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=663

And connect it to this:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=548

Or this:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=530

I don't know for sure that would work, but I would imagine some sort of setup like that would. I've not personally used or setup a gateway or inbetween access point, so I'm not 100% sure which of the 2 would best fit your situation.

Perhaps someone else can offer up an suggestion/clarification on this.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me