WiFi Internet access on board

I’ve finally got our Internet access working the way I’ve always wanted. Now, whenever we arrive at a new destination, we can flip a single switch on our main panel, sniff out a nearby WiFi network and get online.

In a marina finding a WiFi network to connect to is straight-forward. When at anchor, it means searching for a decent WiFi signal from a coffee shop followed by a trip to buy an espresso or two and leaving with their network password in our pocket.

Unlike much simpler solutions which can be plugged directly into a PC’s USB port, we have a large, permanently mounted high gain antenna which is capable of connecting to networks miles away. Once connected, our ship’s WiFi router allows all our devices (laptops, phones, iPods) to share the same Internet connection without having to re-enter usernames and passwords.

Today, our neighbors have been complaining about the poor quality of the WiFi provided at the marina, yet we’ve had a reliable connection all day and have even been able to stream video.

This setup is the result of a couple of years of trial-and-error using a variety of hardware made all the more difficult as everything has had to be restricted to 12 volts.

In this article, I’ll give a brief overview of how it all works. I hope it proves useful to others who’d like to set up a similar installation in their boat or camper van.

A list of parts:

A similar all-in-one ‘Pro’ solution from a commercial marine vendor can be expensive, but if you buy the parts individually and are willing to spend a little time setting it up, then you’ll be left with the change from $200 dollars:

The Bullet is the key component in the system. It attaches directly to the high gain antenna and contains all the jiggery-pokery-magic that sniffs out WiFi networks for you. I bought the Titanium model (actually made from aluminum) as it looks much more robust and weatherproof than it's only slightly cheaper plastic counterpart. I chose an 8dBi antenna, as higher gain means a narrower beam angle that might miss a WiFi base station. It works well and given a clear line of sight has a more than an adequate working range of over 5 miles. I found the guys at broadband buyer really helpful when I phoned for advice on this, and they helped to select a model that was more suitable for marine use, and very reasonably priced too.

You’ll need a short patch cable too. I decided to make my own and bought some RJ45 connectors and a crimping tool from eBay (it’s possible to learn how to do just about anything on YouTube). This also meant that I could terminate cables where I wanted to rather than having untidy coils of cable hidden behind panels around the boat. The cable tester proved invaluable as the first few leads I made had faults in them.

The trickiest item to find was a decent antenna bracket; they were either ugly, poor quality or laughably expensive. In the end, I had one fabricated from stainless steel specifically for the job – it looks great and only cost $20.00.

Putting it all together:

I’d spoken with a few vendors of all-in-one WiFi solutions at the London boat show and the general opinion was that the ‘sweet spot’ for a WiFi antenna is about 3m above the water line. We already have a Navtex antenna mounted on the pushpit, so I just added the WiFi antenna to the same pole and ran the CAT5 cable from there inside the boat.

In the closeup image, you can see the bracket I had made, and the nice weatherproof fixings on the Bullet Titanium model. The only cable that runs to the Bullet is the CAT5 ethernet cable; the POE injector sends it to power up a pair of otherwise unused wires in this cable.

At the other end of the CAT5 cable, the remaining components are attached to a plywood board:

Power from the switch panel (1) is supplied to the POE injector (2) and the USB power adaptor (3), which in turn powers the TP-Link WiFi router (6).

The CAT5 cable from the Bullet plugs into the POE socket of the injector (4) and 12 volts is sent to power it up. The network signal from the bullet is sent back down using different wires in the same CAT5 cable and relayed via the patch cable (5) to the TP-Link WiFi router (6).

The TP-Link WiFi router creates our ship’s WiFi network (to which we connect all our devices with a single password) and it forwards all requests for web pages to the Bullet.

The plywood board is backed with heavy duty Velcro which holds it snugly at the back of a cabinet by the chart table. The blue monkey-fist knot allows the board to be easily pulled out for maintenance.

Network configuration:

Wiring the components together is relatively simple. Configuring the networking can be quite tricky and I suggest that you get this all working on a bench before even thinking about installation. If you have some experience configuring networks, then you’ll be fine – if not, it might be worth buying a friend who has experienced a couple of beers.

As far as I’m concerned, the trick to configuring everything is to be methodical and take small steps. Start with the Bullet and no WiFi router. To do this replace the patch cable shown above with a cable connecting the LAN side of the POE injector directly to your laptop or PC. Then follow the configuration instructions in the Bullet’s user guide. Set its network mode to ‘Router’ and enter the I.P. settings you want it to use.

Once you’re in a position where you can connect to a remote WiFi network using the Bullet, it’s time to start thinking about setting up your own local WiFi network for your devices to connect to. Again, do this with the Bullet turned off so that you can focus on the WiFi router. Importantly, you should make sure that the WiFi router will use a different subnet address from the Bullet. So, for example, if the Bullet is configured to use 192.168.1.X, then the WiFi router must be configured to use something like 192.168.2.X. Once this is working as you’d like, use the patch cable to connect the Bullet to the WiFi router and you’re done.

You should now be able to connect to the Bullet’s configuration pages via your local WiFi network and search for remote WiFi networks:

Sort the networks by signal to noise ratio. Counterintuitively the best signal will be the one with the lowest value; in this case, the Vodafone network is shown at the top of the list. Select this network and click the button to make the Bullet connect to it.

You should now be able to connect any number of devices on board to your local WiFi network and they will all have internet access.

WiFi Internet access on board

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