I went and looked at their site, and some of their claims are disingenous at best.
They seem to have a repeater, which is nice, but that likely - if you want the best reception/transmission for your shoreside link - will be at the top of the mast, not the best receptivity of the transmitter function for you in the cabin. On the beach, though... And, a repeater, if that's what it is, will give you half the bandwidth of a direct feed. Prolly not so important if you have true broadband, but I'm here to tell you that you'll rarely find that anyplace you're cruising, and rarely, even, at a dock... Their power comes through your USB port, at .29A. If you have a long run, it had better be big wire (they claim no USB cables, but, the power comes from there - just no data passes, as it's a repeater, and all the data handling is at the unit) - and, while I've not had my hands on one to prove the point, it may require TWO of them, as many USB-powered WiFi amp/adapters do, to support it. The math tells me that it will cost 8AH/day, not counting the amps your computer eats to provide it (if it requires USB for power, it's not going to work without your computer being lit up), assuming you have no power loss getting wherever it's mounted. I started down this road (cruising and getting internet) over 7 years ago, so appreciate what they've done - I wanted to do exactly that, but the technology wasn't there to accomplish it. My personal choice is what you'll find at www.islandtimepc.com. My installation, along with a couple of others, can be seen by mousing over the WiFi section. I'm a customer and have no interest in the company other than to say that the owner, Bob Stewart (cc'd), is the king of customer service. We met as I was trying to slay the dragon of the junk I'd been sold by some other vendor who clearly didn't know what he was doing; he told me how to make it work, at all, just not like I'd wanted (a receiver and a transmitter, both mounted in the same NEMA box was what I expected from the original vendor; they simply would not talk to each other without generating conflicts), when legions of other internet helpers, some with the exact same gear, had failed. Needless to say, I got my computer (12V - my entire system is 12V now, including the many external HDs I have for music, movies and backup/storage) and subsequent generations of my WiFi setup from him. I'm followed around anchorages wherever I go, because I use my local household router, in the cabin, to spread out the signal I receive. I routinely am under way 5-7 miles out and connected; at anchor, as much as 15 miles away (in Marsh Harbour, my three primary sites were 6, 8 and 12 miles away, e.g - some of my site scans are reproduced in his section on my and another boat's setups, too). I don't know if Wirie users can say the same, though it's entirely possible given the specs I've seen. Their comparison chart is a bit disingenous, too, as the pricing shown for our setup has been lowered more than a year ago from what they show - and may well be based on a prior generation's equipment... I'd be interested to hear from some who have used this unit, as it may be another way to skin a cat, but with the shortcomings I've been able to identify immediately on just a quickie skim through their site. Also, FWIW, I believe I've copied this list on the seminars I do in Georgetown on all flavors of wireless communications for cruisers; some of my concerns as well as a considerable expansion on the challenges faced in all the other flavors of wireless (not just WiFi) communications while cruising, are covered therein... L8R Skip, enjoying (along with many of my neighbors who have connnected to my local router) close-to-broadband in Ft. Pierce while we work on the boat; it's raining at the moment or I'd be under it, sanding and fairing! Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
