The following question was posed by the Owner of FPB 64 #3. We thought the technical minded amongst you might have some helpful suggestions.
“We are building a new boat and intend to put a WiFi signal booster on board for routine in port use. In addition, for offshore, we intend to install a Fleet Broadband 150 satellite phone and internet system. As part of the process
we are looking at the various ways these devices can be interfaced with our onboard computers and laptops and thought some of your readers might have been thru this process and have some recomendations.
“Computers will consist of a few laptops with wireless capability and a iMac for heavier duty stuff. The Mac, as well as a printer, will be located in a dedicated office area. The below deck units for both the WiFi booster and the FB 150 will also be located in the office area along with the IP phone for the FB 150. My initial thoughts are to keep the FB 150 off the network – it will only connect to the iMac. Given the per megabyte charge ($10 or more per MB), I want to avoid any possibility that any of us go surfing over the FB 150 and run the bank account to $0 in the process. From the manuals on the FB 150, it looks like you can also password protect access to the FB 150, so by separating it from the WiFi network, there would little likelyhood of making a costly mistake.
“On the WiFi booster, we have been talking to a number of folks while cruising. The system we have been the most impressed with is to tie the WiFi booster to a wireless access point on the boat. Any computer on the boat with WiFi capability could then log into the WAP and have access to shoreside WiFi thru the booster. With something like Apple Airport Express, even the USB printer can be available to other computers wirelessly. With a system like this, there wouldn’t seem to be any need to hard wire a network on the boat.
“Would appreciate any thoughts on this or other arrangements. Pete”
Posted by Steve Dashew (June 12, 2010)
June 12th, 2010 at 4:37 am
Hi Steve,
Sounds good, except I would not want that much RF bouncing around inside an aluminium boat. On “Morgan’s Cloud” we use a WiFi hub with built in 1 watt amp, for external conection to the internet, but all internal networking is by hard-wired ethernet.
Best
John
June 12th, 2010 at 6:09 am
Read this on Panbo (marine electronics blog). Might be a solution:
http://www.panbo.com/archives/2008/12/super_routers_istaboa_tenacious.html
June 12th, 2010 at 6:46 am
Hi there, check out skymate (www.skymate.com). Looks like the best(and affordable) way to go for internet,weather,fax/voice,navigation,banking etc.
June 12th, 2010 at 9:14 am
I suggest – a server – hard wired – WiFi combination.
ethernet network to the various compartments/accommodation/areas you wish to have WiFi available
place a AirPort at each of the ethernet termination points – this provides good WiFi availability
A MAC mini as a server/hub – email/data/media – perhaps combined with an Apple TV or two in the network – providing you do not want Blue Ray movies.
Use the MAC mini as the internet server/manager – feed your sat links into it as well for a centralised user management/Internet access management system. Port based WiFi and MiFi units will also route via the MAC Mini
WiFi units are low power, I suspect the issue will be the WiFi not passing through or being affected by the aluminium.
Whilst there is a potential for RFI I believe it to be quite small. A bigger issue will be the RFI from items such as VHF and HF radio’s when transmitting. Keep the network equipment well away from your radio gear.
It’s all COTS (commonly of the shelf), affordable and lends itself to easy backup (time machine and a Drobbo of your choice as an example). Bits and pieces available world wide. User friendly and you are capable of managing/trouble shooting/fixing yourself.
My thoughts – need a little development
Paul
June 13th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Thanks all. I will review your thoughts as I am just back to the world of reliable WiFi. Should have also mentioned that I am installing an HF with Pactor 3 modem for weather and simple email.
As Steve mentioned, my wife and I are the proud owners of hull 3. We had the good fortune to be on hull 1 during owner’s trials (along with the owners of 2 and 4, some prospective buyers, and most of the FPB 64 team). If you thought the boat looked great based on the posts, you should see it in the flesh.
Can’t wait for ours early next year!
Cheers
June 14th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Steve & Pete,
Tying the 802.11 WiFi booster to an on-board access point on a different channel should work. If you anticipate being in congested areas or using the microwave oven frequently, it might be worth the extra $200 or so to upgrade to a 5 GHz access point and client adapters. The 2.4 GHz band gets extremely cluttered and, due to overlap between channels, it’s hard to get more than four or five usable channels even though there are supposed to be 12 or 13. Neither band will carry through aluminum, but from the photos I’ve seen to date, it looks like the FPB 64 has enough clear paths for either signal to carry fairly well within the boat.
Isolating the FB 150 sounds like a good idea. I would never allow any pay-by-the-byte device to be accessed via the network- it’s just too easy to rack up a four-figure bandwidth bill this way. The FB 150 and whatever cell phones you carry can be tethered to the individual computer that needs them, for just long enough to do what you need to do. I’d make sure to turn off all auto-update functions on the computers while they’re tethered to the satellite phone or cell phones, otherwise they might clog up your bandwidth with background update processes. You can always turn the updaters back on when you find a free WiFi connection.
July 18th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Thanks for all of the thoughts.
After much thought, the plan for FPB 3 is as follows. WiFi – a Port Networks WiFi signal booster tied to an Apple Air Port Base station which will serve as a WAP for an on board network. The apple Airport is dual frequency, has lan ports, a USB port to connect a printer that is then available on the WiFi network, and an audio out that can connect to the stereo system and play items from the IMAC. HF – an Icom 802 tied to an SCS Pactor II USB modem. This will be connected to an IMAC USB port for Sailmail and its companion weather viewer. For Sailmail (and a variety of other things) the IMAC will also need to run Windows.
I have already set up and tested the IMAC with Parallels 5, Windows 7 and Office 2007. In the coherent mode, it is simply awesome – light years ahead of Parallels 3. Windows runs transparently right on the Mac desktop and is completely invisible and seamless – Windows programs are launched from a start icon on the Mac doc. Files can be placed anywhere regardless of which operating system they were created in and the proper program (windows or mac based) will launch when they are double clicked – in short it is like you have only one operating system.
The FB 150 will be standalone and will tie directly to the Mac ethernet port – it will have no access to the any other on board network. Access to the FB 150 will be password protected.
For the moment, I am going to skip the 3/4G services, but this could be quite easily added if I have it wrong.
All of this equipment will be located in the office in the aft companionway – most of it behind the wall panels. The visible items will include the IMAC, printer, Icom 802 control head, IP handset for the FB150 and a net phone for Skype use tied to the IMAC.
I’ll report back when its up and running.
Cheers
Pete