Getting the best connection

I WAS interested in the information about running internet connections into a boat. I have been doing this for about four years now, writes Mick Fitzgibbons.

Apart from the usual up and down price changes, service contract deals that change almost by the month, infinitely variable download limits and some of the service providers that have merged, overall I think that generally coverage has improved.

Quite good

Our experiences with T-Mobile (EE) have been in the main quite good. We have covered a great deal of the northern canal system and the coverage has been quite acceptable. We have not had a single time that we have not been able to receive a signal, though at times it has been weak. As we have been using T-Mobile, which has merged with Orange, the effect of this has been that we can now use both Orange and T-Mobile connections.

I have been playing around with dongles and MiFi options for a while. I used a dongle plugged direct into the laptop. Then I rigged up an external connection between the laptop and the USB dongle which I located permanently on the roof of the boat. Putting any USB dongle outside on the roof of the boat using a longer USB connecting cable will improve matters.

External antenna

However, I discovered that the Huawei dongle had an antenna connection socket. So the next mod was to use an external antenna. I purchased for a few pounds on eBay a high gain antenna (9dbi). Using a cable 20' long that connected back to the dongle (CRC9) connector, this improved the reception even more.

The next upgrade was MiFi. This is the latest trend in mobile broadband and some pay as you go deals are already on the market. MiFi devices work in the same way as a dongle but without needing the direct connection to the laptop. MiFi sits—in our case—on the roof of the boat with an external antenna at the top of a 20' lightweight telescopic alloy pole (from B&Q) that we use for the TV antenna. The MiFi device runs continuously for about ten hours on a full charge. The laptop now connects to the MiFi using a standard wireless connection.

Solar cell

The stronger the received signals are, the lower the transmitted output power of the MiFi unit. Weak signals require the transmitted signal to be increased. This can shorten the amount of time before a recharge is required. I am now using a small solar cell which connects to the MiFi device via the USB socket to help top-up the battery. In the winter the battery needs a charge every few days. In the summer months the solar panel seems to cope with the usage.

Using an external antenna on a dongle will improve reception. Using MiFi allows the cable connection back to the laptop to be done away with. Use an antenna with some gain. Measured in dbi, the bigger the number of dbi the greater the signal gain. Each 3dbi is a doubling of the received signal strength. The higher the antenna is placed the better the reception.