Marina WiFi and re-broadcasting WiFi

Beren · 13 Jun 2017 at 03:56

It looks like I am going to spending a lot of time afloat in the near future which is awesome.

The boat will be in a Marina with WiFi - however the hull of the boat is 6mm Steel plate and the deck is 4mm steel plate so I rather doubt I am going to get great WiFi signal in the boat and don't really want to have to sit on the deck every time I want to read the Forum!

It has been a very long time since I have done any networking - the home wifi modem that came free with the internet has been sufficient for me for the last half a dozen years. So I am wondering if a few things are possible...

Case 1. I buy a reasonably expensive outdoor rated WiFi repeater and fix it to the mast. As it will then be repeating straight down it might be able to provide signal inside the boat.

Case 2. If I buy a WiFi repeater and a unidirectional antenna I could put an antenna on the mast and run a coaxial cable down to the repeater. Do all the antenna on a WiFi repeater receive and send? In this instance an antenna inside the hull will be repeating the signal. how much loss will I get from the CoAx - and does this even work?

Case 3. If I get a Motherboard with on board WiFi which has two CoAx inputs can I do the same as Case 2 but get to buy a new Motherboard not a WiFi repeater?

Case 4. I buy a Marine WiFi antenna solution for $$$

Would any of these work or is there a better / different solution that I have not thought of?

Steveocee · 13 Jun 2017 at 13:20

If it's 2Ghz wifi distribution you could look at getting a Ubiquiti NSM2 to receive the signal, drop it down a cat5 and then redistribute internally with a standard router of your choice?
If it's 5Ghz distribution ( I doubt) then do the same as above but with an NSM5

bremen1874 · 13 Jun 2017 at 18:05

Repeating Wi-Fi can get tricky if there's a captive portal in place (i.e. you need to enter details into a web page before connecting).

Beren · 13 Jun 2017 at 23:27

Steveocee said:
If it's 2Ghz wifi distribution you could look at getting a Ubiquiti NSM2 to receive the signal, drop it down a cat5 and then redistribute internally with a standard router of your choice?
If it's 5Ghz distribution ( I doubt) then do the same as above but with an NSM5

I have seen some pretty cool Ubiquiti kit they also make something called a Bullet which boasts extreme range WiFi reception. It is a slightly more expensive option than I was hoping for - but I may end up with that if other solutions don't work.

I was thinking about using something like the TP-Link Archer which has three inputs - placing either one or two high gain antennas on the mast and running them back to the card with Coax extenders and keeping one antenna in the boat to make sure that there is maximum available WiFi around the yacht.

If that solution doesn't work I can use the high gain antenna with the Ubiquiti Bullet which with the height of it should give me a good shot at picking up WiFi from half the city.

bremen1874 · 14 Jun 2017 at 03:14

Have you tried checking what the other users of the marina have done? You can't be the first person addressing the problem.

Beren · 14 Jun 2017 at 04:01

We are a bit unusual as most boats in marinas are fibreglass or wooden not steel, we will also be living aboard not just using it for pleasure at the weekend, lastly there are some really expensive marine options - but I don't want to go that way, the reviews I have seen suggest that even the best active systems die from salt spray regularly. Most of the people cruising on Yachts end up making something themselves - but salt spray is incredibly bad for electronics - so if I can leave all the powered stuff inside the boat and only have the antenna up the mast it will be far less likely to die.

Avalon · 14 Jun 2017 at 14:23

The bullet it well thought of and proven in marine applications, i'd start with that and a decent antennae set-up. It's really not that expensive and 2.4>5Ghz in this application.

Beren · 14 Jun 2017 at 23:55

Thanks Avalon, I think I may well just price up a bullet system from the outset. It is going to be an utter PITA to trunk Coax and the have to re-trunk Ethernet if it doesn't work. I also suspect the signal drop over the length of Coax might be the difference between something that works and a lot of frustration. Historically my ability to wire coax without ending up with a bad connection is also questionable.

The Bullet needs POE to operate, is there any motherboard that provides a powered ethernet output or am I going to need to get an injector as well?

The ideal scenario that is mapping out for me currently is an AM4 board with on board WiFi. I connect via Ethernet to the bullet and then use the PC as a data server / internet hub / mapping and navigation / entertainment solution.

Avalon · 15 Jun 2017 at 00:02

It comes with a PoE injector.

bremen1874 · 15 Jun 2017 at 00:22

How often to boat masts get struck by lightning?

Beren · 15 Jun 2017 at 00:23

I love this forum. Avalon you have the gratitude of a random. Thanks you have made a decision much more straightforward.

Beren · 15 Jun 2017 at 00:25

bremen1874 said:
How often to boat masts get struck by lightning?

LOL I have no idea. I will be putting the Antenna on the shorter of the two masts though

bremen1874 · 15 Jun 2017 at 00:29

I have no idea either but every marina I've seen is a big flat area with lots of tall lightning friendly poles sticking up into the air.

Avalon · 15 Jun 2017 at 20:39

Beren said:
I love this forum. Avalon you have the gratitude of a random. Thanks you have made a decision much more straightforward.

You're welcome, just remember to use external grade 5e, for a marina application a standard bullet will probably suffice, that said the HP version isn't usually too much more expensive, but buy a decent omni.

Beren · 15 Jun 2017 at 22:48

Thanks I was already looking at the HP model. While we are in the marina the standard will do fine but I think there is a really good chance of picking up WiFi while we are out and about with the HP model.