One problem with putting together a high power marine WiFi system is the need to use finger-thick low-loss LMR 400 coax—the shorter the better—between the high-gain antenna and the radio. The stuff is hard to run and particularly ungainly when plugged into the dinky connector on a laptop’s PCMCIA card. One solution is a WiFi “Ethernet bridge” which can be installed near the antenna and then connected to the boat’s computer or network router via a slim, no-loss Ethernet cable. GeoSat Solutions has gone the next step by designing a 12v, 250 mW bridge into a waterproof box and packaging it with a 10 dB omni-directional antenna. This is a serious ($1,395) big boat system.
It’s a little confusing but note that one of these bridges—there are inexpensive non-marine versions—can connect to a conventional WiFi router. Thus a boater can use a normal WiFi laptop on board, connecting to shore via two WiFi hops. Here’s an interesting example of such a system installed on a Greenpeace vessel.
Posted by Ben on May 9, 2005 7:52 AM
Comments
Great setup yes, wrote about it last year as well. It was even slashdotted.
I fixed up a good system with a 9dBi omnidirectional aerial and some cable from thewifishop.net. Direct fit to my pcmcia card in my laptop. The prices were reasonable and really fast delivery.
GeoSat Solutions, Syrens WiFi, makes some very nice gear. This picture and article obviously quite old... but it's getting good ratings on Google ;-) This old one looks like an Army Radio Box. The newer ones are quite sleek and fairly easily installed. They are also still quite easily expandable to more wireless access points and wired ethernet connections onboard a vessel. The Syrens unit, which remains on all of the time, maintains automatically the IP Settings on computers "connected" to it onboard a boat. This allows other things to work as well that need IP Addresses, like wireless printing and file sharing. You can also use many broadband telephone (voice over Internet or VOIP - Voice over IP) services over WiFi Connections.
Just watch out that you don't have more than one Internet router "gadget" onboard jacked into the wired and wireless networking, that will want to be the "Boss". Syrens would normally be the server and nothing else should be. Sometimes this takes some design, planning, and instructions to be able to throttle over to different types of connections. (Say you have broadband cellular, or satellite Internet.)
I have the newer 1 watt unit that can also be used as a bridge. The unit is well built and performs. I have tried almost every other type of marine WiFi combinations and this is a proffesional product. If your serious about WiFi this is it! Regards Bill
Posted by: billlentz at July 12, 2008 1:32 PM
I am looking to do a wifi install this winter and would appreciate any advice. Looking for decent range (2 mi) and reasonable price (bang for buck). I want to mount the radio unit in the Laz (water resistant, but doesn't need to be water-proof) and then run about 15' of high quality cable to an antennae on the radar arch (8ish db I figure). I would like to power the unit using POE to simplify the installation and turning off power to the unit when not in use. I plan to run a "normal" wifi router (or switch if that is how I need to do it) to network the two permanant computers and various laptops, iphone's, etc. Thinking about an airport extreme to take advantage of the "airtunes" feature to play music through the stereo and control via iphone's new "remote" software.
I can't find any details on what is available from GeoSat (website sucks). I had bought the Syrens lite unit from Capn Jacks, but it was already sold out. Any advise would be appreciated.
Can they PLEASE use one product name and create a decent website. This is soooo confusing. Syrens still seems to be selling products (website still active) and I can't tell the difference between their units and the wavewifi units.
Has anyone used the EC-lite (syrens or wavewifi) who could give me a user review? This is the sort of price I would prefer to pay and it seems like it should provide a reasonable level of reception.
One problem with putting together a high power marine WiFi system is the need to use finger-thick low-loss LMR 400 coax—the shorter the better—between the high-gain antenna and the radio. The stuff is hard to run and particularly ungainly when plugged into the dinky connector on a laptop’s PCMCIA card. One solution is a WiFi “Ethernet bridge” which can be installed near the antenna and then connected to the boat’s computer or network router via a slim, no-loss Ethernet cable. GeoSat Solutions has gone the next step by designing a 12v, 250 mW bridge into a waterproof box and packaging it with a 10 dB omni-directional antenna. This is a serious ($1,395) big boat system.![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.panbo.com/nav-commenters.gif)