Cell Tethering vs. WiFi

[Roger Long]

I’m leaning towards cell tethering at this point, at least initially.

I already have WiFi on my laptop and there is quite a bit of stuff to buy and rig just to extend the range. Chances are there will be cell phone service anywhere I can get “legal” WiFi. That’s an issue for the next few months I’ll be spending in Canada. I can’t find the link now but I saw an item which indicates that the Canadians take a dimmer view of “borrowing” WiFi from unsuspecting users. While I understand from previous discussions that it’s hard to detect, sailing around with a thing hanging in the rigging intended to scoop up signals at long range seems sort of like walking around with a set of lock picks hanging on your belt. It’s always seemed good policy to me to be squeaky clean when a guest in someone else’s country.

Monthly costs for the tethering will be higher but the data costs will be an incentive not to spend my time watching You Tube videos and just stick to email and keeping up with a couple of forums like this one.

When I get to the ICW or if I go to the Bahamas for any length of time; I’ll probably reconsider. I’ll also probably reconsider a few dozen times between now and when I leave.

[FONT=&quot]If anyone knows more about the Canadian perspective, please speak up.[/FONT]

 

[MSter]

Roger,
I don't think you'll find any significant difference with WIFI here in Canada vs your experience in the US.
There are both free hotspots around the major centres as well as many " pay as you go ". They will be happy to take your credit card info.
There's no guarantee though that once away from the major centres in NFLD. that you'll have any service at all.
Roaming charges for Cell phones can get very expensive and you may want to consider a Pre-paid cell phone.
Be prepared, both Cell and Internet services are more expensive in Canada. Not enough competition amongst the big players.
On the other hand not many places as ruggedly beautiful as Newfoundland as well.
Best of luck.
Mster

 

[zeehag]

in mexico, my sprint is telling me they charge 1.69/min for fone and 50 cents a kb for data transfer--i am using wifi here.. marinas and restaurants having wifi will have a sign in window looking like a wifi signal. i am in ensenada now. was a delightful sail forme-- was filled with mal de mer for tom .... and a gooood business opportunity for david.

 

[CarlN]

I'm going to try out Nova Scotia this summer but up and down the East coast of the US, I have found wifi to be a huge disappointment. The days of pulling into port and finding a lot of unsecured private Wifi - at least on the East Coast of the US is long gone -- if it was ever there. For three years or so, routers have come with WPA2 turned on out of the box. And marina Wifi is almost always slow whether free or $10 a day. I think the providers limit the bandwidth to each boat. It's easier to go ashore and find a coffee shop with free wifi.

The least frustrating and most reliable solution I've found are the Mifi mobile hotspots. For $60/month you get 5GB of data with pretty good speed, good reliability, and good security. This is much more data than you get from a tethered cellphone plan. And if you try to move a lot of data over a cell phone without paying the provider the tethering extra fee, they can spot it quickly and shut you down.

The Mifi connects to anything computer with no special setup and you can connect from anywhere in the boat. it's also easy to take ashore, etc. AT&T's is free with a two year contract and has Canadian data at some extra charge. Verizon just released one that also does 4G - although only in a few cities - and 3G everywhere else. Don't know about Canada.

You can give your Mifi an extra antenna by snapping it into this little $100 beauty. Use it's included rubber ducky antenna sitting on top of the dodger or attach a separate antenna up the mast (but the rubber ducky works really well).

http://www.amazon.com/Wilson-Electr...PS/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&qid=1302222508&sr=8-24

I also do carry a Wifi amplifier that has gotten used 3 times this winter. It's the Ubiquiti NanoStation M. This is from the same company that makes the very popular Bullet but this also has an extremely fancy directional antenna built in. It costs me $79 plus shipping. I just sit it on top of a halyard winch pointing in the general direction of shore. Normal anchor swinging doesn't bother it. Initial setup is a walk on the techie wild side (lots of IP addresses) but that's a one time challenge.

http://www.ubnt.com/nanostationm

Carl

 

[seadaddler]

Droid

We just got a droid with 4G and free tethering for 29 a month unlimited with Verizon and using my notebook with it right now on our H-36 inTampa,Florida.
Nick

 

[All U Get]

I’m leaning towards cell tethering at this point, at least initially.

I already have WiFi on my laptop and there is quite a bit of stuff to buy and rig just to extend the range. Chances are there will be cell phone service anywhere I can get “legal” WiFi. That’s an issue for the next few months I’ll be spending in Canada. I can’t find the link now but I saw an item which indicates that the Canadians take a dimmer view of “borrowing” WiFi from unsuspecting users. While I understand from previous discussions that it’s hard to detect, sailing around with a thing hanging in the rigging intended to scoop up signals at long range seems sort of like walking around with a set of lock picks hanging on your belt. It’s always seemed good policy to me to be squeaky clean when a guest in someone else’s country.

Monthly costs for the tethering will be higher but the data costs will be an incentive not to spend my time watching You Tube videos and just stick to email and keeping up with a couple of forums like this one.

When I get to the ICW or if I go to the Bahamas for any length of time; I’ll probably reconsider. I’ll also probably reconsider a few dozen times between now and when I leave.

[FONT=&quot]If anyone knows more about the Canadian perspective, please speak up.[/FONT]

Hi Roger,
A few years back my wife and I traveled to Yarmouth, NS and our cells didn't work on their service. We used a free computer in the visitors center, no worries. Last summer on Cape Cod we brought our laptop into a herbal tea and coffee shop to use for emails. The young people had those hand-held phones and only noticed us when the lights went dim. A young lad in an apron came over and said they would leave two AC units off until we were done with our emails, just had to give him a minute to reboot the server. Everyone was whispering until I open the automatic cup holder on the laptop. Try that with one of those Ipods.

All U Get

 

[Bill Roosa]

If all you need is email and BBS service then HF would be the cheepest way to go. The bandwidth results in automatic reduction in interest in you-tub and such but text based stuff (set the browser to not recieve pictures or low bandwidth mode) goes right through. You are going to want to get an HF radio if you venture far ashore anyway for the safety issue alone. Get one that can tap into sailnet-winlink etc frequencies and your set for world wide access.
Try it you will like it.