Anyone have a link to an external marine Wifi antenna. I want to mount it
atop my mast and run about 40 ft to my computer.

Thanks,

Pat Harman
M/V Meriwether
Oak Harbor, WA

If you put it on the mast - then it must be an OMNI one - 360 degrees,
but not as strong as a directional one - which needs of course to be
directed.

You will find it all on e/bay -- as well as try in Google


Season Greetings from the Holy land

RR




On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 08:18:50 -0800, "Patrick Harman"
wrote:

Anyone have a link to an external marine Wifi antenna. I want to mount it
atop my mast and run about 40 ft to my computer.

Thanks,

Pat Harman
M/V Meriwether
Oak Harbor, WA

In article ,
"Patrick Harman" wrote:

Anyone have a link to an external marine Wifi antenna. I want to mount it
atop my mast and run about 40 ft to my computer.

Thanks,

Pat Harman
M/V Meriwether
Oak Harbor, WA

Unless you have a lot of money to spend on very "Good" quality
Coax cable, you would be MUCH better off putting the Client
Access Point up the mast, and use POE, on the ethernet wire,
to power it......

Bruce in alaska
--
add path before @

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:fast-
:

Unless you have a lot of money to spend on very "Good" quality
Coax cable, you would be MUCH better off putting the Client
Access Point up the mast, and use POE, on the ethernet wire,
to power it......

B

Got any S-band waveguide, Bruce?.....(c

Wifi will NOT go reliably over 500 yards because of the very intense
data storm which cannot tolerate the multipath reflections, which are
awful on 2.45 Ghz. The speed wifi runs is its worst enemy in range.

Larry
--
QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
"I have been to several major Chinese cities and have seen first hand
shops crammed with obviously fake American products." - Jon Dudas,
Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Rights.

How can they be fake? The Chinese make all "American Products" I
use!

In article ,
Larry wrote:

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:fast-
:

Unless you have a lot of money to spend on very "Good" quality
Coax cable, you would be MUCH better off putting the Client
Access Point up the mast, and use POE, on the ethernet wire,
to power it......

B

Got any S-band waveguide, Bruce?.....(c

Wifi will NOT go reliably over 500 yards because of the very intense
data storm which cannot tolerate the multipath reflections, which are
awful on 2.45 Ghz. The speed wifi runs is its worst enemy in range.

Larry

Not true at all Larry, I have a Western Mutiplex Unit (Part 15) that
brings in my twin T1's, that runs on a 16 mile Path, from here to Hoonah
Mtn.... as well as an 802.11b path that takes my LAN 2.1 miles down the
beach, so some Close Neighbors, can access the Internet, using my
MIcroISP. I am in the middle of upgrading that path to 54Mbs, using
MIMO AP's and Clients, getting ready to expand the LAN bandwidth for the
Summer Folks. We have 1100' of Ethernet Wire strung thru the woods that
feeds up the mountain for a couple of guys that don't live on the beach.
Works good so far, at 10BaseT speeds, and with a Hub/Repeater powered
using POE, at about 600' from the AP Client. WiFi works just SPIFFY, if
one takes the time to engineer the paths properly.

Bruce in alaska
--
add path before @

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:03:11 +0000, Larry wrote:

Wifi will NOT go reliably over 500 yards because of the very intense
data storm which cannot tolerate the multipath reflections, which are
awful on 2.45 Ghz. The speed wifi runs is its worst enemy in range.

That is totally incorrect. I have two external WiFi antennas on my
boat and routinely connect to access points that are over a mile away,
sometimes 2 or 3 miles.

One antenna has a 30 ft downfeed of LMR-400 low loss coax connected to
a high power USB adapter (Senao EUB-362 EXT), the second antenna is
connected to an adapter with power over ethernet capability
(ENGENIUS/SENAO EOC/NOC-3220). Both antennas are vertical high gain
omni-directionals.

I get most of my WiFi equipment from he

http://www.wlanparts.com/

and have been very satisfied with their prices and service.

Look at this

Inscape Data CB54E AirEther High Power 802.11B/G Wireless Client Bridge,
N-type Connector

http://www.wlanmall.com/airether-hig...tor-p-588.html


Ansley Sawyer
SV Pacem

Anyone have a link to an external marine Wifi antenna. I want to mount it
atop my mast and run about 40 ft to my computer.

A couple of points to consider. The farther you put the equipment from the
antenna the more signal you'll lose. It's often better to put the equipment
as close as possible to the antenna. Even higher quality cabling (don't
even bother with cheap stuff) will cause signal loss.

It's correct to state you'll need an omnidirectional antenna. The boat's
movement on anchor won't ever make it practical to try using a directional
antenna. You'd be constantly fidding with the antenna trying to keep it
aimed properly.

I'm sure there are more technically accurate terms to be applied here,
forgive me for using a layman's explanation.

That and mounting the antenna up high has it's own hassles. The signal
pattern from the antenna is doughnut-shaped. It tends to be a rather tight
vertical angle. So the closer you are to the target, the tighter the
vertical aperature will be. So if you're too close to the base you won't be
able to pick it up. But then there's the opposite side of the coin, the
wider aperature will end up picking up MANY more signals from father away.
This has the downside of reducing performance, as you end up 'hearing' too
many Wifi networks.

Then couple the aperature issues with a boat that's swinging on anchor. An
antenna mounted higher up will end up causing signal loss as the wave action
swings the aperature away. The donut keeps tilting up/down and 'misses'
the base station.

I used a 10db omni up on the radar arch. I ran the cabling to an access
point mounted inside the arch (cable was about 18" total). From there I ran
CAT5 to another access point below in the cabin. The one on the arch
connects to shore as a client. The one in the boat provides a network to
things just on board (I've got the power set quite low on it) Works great,
provided you can find reliable free WiFi.

And after two seasons of screwing around with trying to find reliable free
Wifi I decided to just use cell data instead. I picked up a Verizon data
card and a Linksys WRT54GS3G router for it. Works great, even just using
the plain data card antenna plugged into the router while it's below decks.

So before you go through all the effort of fiddling with wifi, with the
expectations of getting something "free", you should really look at whether
a cell data plan would provide effective coverage instead. For the
$50/month it costs for the card (which gets used in laptops during trips
otherwise) it's been well worth it for us.

-Bill Kearney

Bill and I took similar routes, but I didn't have a radar arch.

So, to your original question, I have what I believe you were asking
for.

The project has been discussed at length both here and in
alt.internet.wireless, with both Bill and my "from" lines, so I'll not
go into details other than to say:

If you have a fixed computer, are willing to get up to speed on the
router or bridge you use, and have a couple of NICs (one to configure
the router or bridge to receive the signals, the other to then take
and address from the AP you use), it's actually pretty simple.

I have a NEMA box (aluminum in my case) atop the mast. It has on it
an 8.5dbi omni antenna, coupled to a lightning arrestor (through the
box), and thence to a 6" pigtail (inside) which connects to the output
on the bridge. In my case, I started with a Senao, but am now using a
LiteStation2 from Ubiquiti, a superior unit. That's powered over an
ethernet cable, using a POE.

Most of the gear if you choose 12V would tolerate a direct feed (e.g.
5-16 volts operating OK), and a correspondent in my Island Packet
mailing list (we considered an IP in our search, and I stayed on the
list) has said that using the two unused data pairs, one each for a
conductor, is plenty to get the voltage up there. However, that
requires you to have the appropriate tool and gear to terminate the
other data pairs on both ends. In my case, I'd used a commercial unit
to inject the power, buying it before hearing about that method. It
avoided the tools issue, too, but the point is that it works.

So, you have a receiving and transmitting unit atop the mast, with a
cable to your computer. In my case, I studied the patterns for a long
time before settling on my antenna. Bill's, while more powerful, has
the downsides he's pointed out. Mine has very rarely failed to pull
in a signal, wherever I've been, with a population nearby. The rocking
of our boat, with its 64' top point, has not caused problems with
reception, presumably due to the fatter donut resulting from the lower
gain.

In our most current trip, I was able to pick up stations a couple of
miles offshore, picking up my mail as we approached the inlet. On the
hook here, we have several to choose from. None are good enough to
use our internet telephone (the same number we've had for 30 years),
but plenty good enough for browsing, web searches and email. However,
we've had adequate broadband for our Vonage router's requirements in
probably half of our locations. Skype and GoogleChat both work at
lower bandwidths so those persist, and nearly always we're able to use
those, giving up the convenience of the standard telephone handset to
do so.

The only times I've not had a connection since we left last July has
been when we're on the hook in a remote location - without cell
service, either, FWIW, which would render those services dead. We're
very happy with our outcomes. Our next step, always having been
pushed back due to the efficacy, if nuisance value, of our current
setup (we have to swap NICs from acquisition to communication steps)
and the other myriad projects of higher importance, will be to do as
Bill did and have another router which will allow seamless
communication with the mast-top gear as well as provide a wifi signal
to the boat and - depending on how you set the power and/or encryption
- any around you who care to share the signal.

And, finally, another correspondent on the Island Packet list uses
something similar to Bill's, and since he's been entirely inter-
coastal, has been able to upload MOVIES while under way, an entirely
acceptable broadband service. However, that card isn't a cell phone,
nor would it allow the use of our internet telephony, either, so, and
especially as we expect to spend the bulk of our cruising lives in the
Caribbean (once we get some obligations stateside finished up), our
setup appears best for us.

YMMV :{))

L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to
make it come true. You may have to work for it however."
(and)
"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its
hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts."
(Richard Bach, in The Reluctant Messiah)

I would like to thank everyone who assisted me in my quest for a WiFi
solution on my boat. I am considering the following as my solution:

EOC-3220 EXT

see data sheet at:

http://www.engeniustech.com/resource...3220%20EXT.pdf

cost about $160 from many sources plus shipping and taxes.

Comes as a complete kit with mounting hardware and Power Over Ethernet (POE)
adapter. I will see from experience if a higher gain antenna will be
beneficial. It comes with a 5db rubber duck antenna.

Anyone with hands on experience, I would like your comments.

Pat Harman
M/V Meriwether
Oak Harbor, WA


"Patrick Harman" wrote in message
. ..
Anyone have a link to an external marine Wifi antenna. I want to mount it
atop my mast and run about 40 ft to my computer.

Thanks,

Pat Harman
M/V Meriwether
Oak Harbor, WA