"thuss" wrote in
oups.com:

http://www.marinewireless.us/

Wow! $800 is kinda PRICEY! PAY, BOATERS, PAY!

I've had a wireless LAN on board Lionheart, an Amel Sharki 41' ketch, for
some time. A Compaq Latitude notebook runs The Cap'n nav software. The
router is a Netgear 802.11b WEP-protected wireless unit. The serial to
Ethernet interface is plugged directly into it. It's a WebFoot WF-1 serial
to Ethernet interface with full DHCP-enabled automatic IP assignment from
the Netgear router's DHCP server to all its LAN devices. Here's the little
device:
http://www.stayonline.com/serial_to_ethernet/3311.asp
I see it's price here is about $60 more than I paid for ours. The serial
port is hooked to the boat's NMEA multiplexer serial port. Webfoot
includes a "virtual serial port" program that runs on the notebook through
the network. NMEA-enabled programs merely connect to this faux-serial-port
dll spoofing them as COM3 on Windoze 2000. The Cap'n comes online thinking
the virtual serial port is connected directly to the multiplexer. No
interface setup is necessary.

It's a LOT less than $800!!

WebFoot - $110
Netgear Wireless Router - $90
Software virtual serial port - free

We also use a network-shared little HP printer plugged into the same
router's 4-port Ethernet hub. If you're laying on a beanbag in the bow (on
lookout, of course) steering the boat by LAN to the B&G autopilot with The
Cap'n.....you can printout the chart by remote control via the network
router for the person at our nav table....who's plotting on paper chart
with the B&G Yeoman electronic plotting board I stuck to the plotting
table's lift top. I can send that Yeoman waypoints from the wireless
notebook as we toodle along, too....(c;