Wifi booster or extender?

[boomerang]

Is a Groove or a Bullet? We had a bullet (Re branded as a WebWhip by Shakespeare Antenna) on our last boat and while it worked great, it was a nightmare for someone like me who just wants the basic functions and doesn't have the need or patience to tweak everything. Plus it is 2.4 GHz and the Groove 2.4 & 5 (I've never used the 5 gig receiver side but it's nice to know it's there).
The OP asked for suggestions for an inexpensive wifi extender and MicroTik is exactly that. What they're not is super easy to program but for a $500 savings compared to other dual-band receivers, I can endure the learning curve.

Wait a sec...I'm wrong. Ubiquiti made the Bullet antenna that we had...a shakespeare rebranded as WebWhip.
Anyway, here's a link that might help Groove owners.

https://seabits.com/mikrotik-groove-step-by-step-setup-guide/

 

[The Brockerts]

+1 for pepwave, I run pepwave max transit, 3 different cell inputs(att, Verizon, t-mobile) and the pepwave handles delivering the best signal.

The Brockerts

 

[Darlin]

Recommend Starlink. Liberating reliability.

 

[eryn]

We just decided to get unlimited data on our cell phone plan rather than use a booster. ow we can use it as a hot spot. it works really well...

 

[Barrie]

It's a GROOVE. Thanks for the link Shawn. I started to read it and got heart burn. But will give it a go again.
Barrie

 

[DrissZougari]

I use this Mikrotik antenna to lock on some WiFi signals that are really far away and I am using Mikrotik RouterBoard for my boat network (ALL 12vDC). very good performance and reliability.

 

[MYTraveler]

I use this Mikrotik antenna to lock on some WiFi signals that are really far away and I am using Mikrotik RouterBoard for my boat network (ALL 12vDC). very good performance and reliability.

The antenna shown is an omni directional antenna, which offers very little gain. But, the device (which is fundamentally a Ubiquiti bullet with a more user friendly user interface) can accept a high gain antenna. To get good signal strength from a distant signal, a very directional antenna is called for. I use a Yagi, like this, which works great for that purpose.
https://www.amazon.com/Tupavco-TP513-Antenna-2-4GHz-17dBi/dp/B008Z4I7WQ

 

[Sleeping Bear]

Call OnSpot dirfectly, they are very helpful.

We use a pepwave

 

[stevemitchell]

Wait a sec...I'm wrong. Ubiquiti made the Bullet antenna that we had...a shakespeare rebranded as WebWhip.
Anyway, here's a link that might help Groove owners.

https://seabits.com/mikrotik-groove-step-by-step-setup-guide/

The MikroTik Groove is a good solution for grabbing a remote WiFi signal and bringing it into the boat, and my article above covers some of the steps in setting it up. It's a few years old now, and still mostly relevant, however there are a few things to note:

MikroTik is notoriously tech focused - at some point you will curse working on it if you're not tech minded.

More and more marina WiFi systems are blocking devices like the MikroTik for who knows what reason. Some want you to buy their device, others just want you to only use your device connections and not have something that can use more of their bandwidth which is a stupid way of solving a problem. You might want to test it first before investing in any of the more expensive ones or permanent outdoor setups.

Even with the MikroTik, you'll need an indoor router to re-broadcast the signal on your own WiFi network, or you will need to connect the MikroTik to the one device that you want to use it with, which is sort of limiting.

Other manufacturers have various features that could make this a lot easier, and I actually have an article on Peplink's WiFi as WAN feature that should be out in a few days, but they require a more expensive router overall.

In general, WiFi in marinas is hard for a number of good reasons. I wrote an article many years ago on this that is still relevant today: https://seabits.com/marina-wifi-hard/

Hope you find a good solution!

 

[DDW]

I've have the Wave and also Mikrotik. Both use a version of the same software. The MikroTik works better in my opinion while costing a lot less. It does require a wireless router, and is not user friendly if you are not tech savvy.

One of the thing not mentioned yet is signal to noise ratio. Many marinas are getting extremely noisy, as every boat may have several wifi hot spots in their chartplotters, appliances, and everything else being brought into the Internet Of Things. So often signal strength is decent, the marina has the bandwidth, but the noise floor is so high your throughput to the hot spot is low. It would be great if people would turn off all there noisy stuff when they aren't there, but that isn't going to happen.

If you can deal with the tech stuff on the Mikrotik, you can pick a 5GHz channel without too much noise and stick with it. Most computers will attempt to hop to one or another hot spot or channel that it thinks has a stronger signal, often in error in a noisy environment: strong signal but too much noise.

A big downside of the MikroTik (or Wave) is that since it is routing, if the marina has a challenge page asking to sign in or agreeing to T and C, there is no way to get beyond it - it won't let that device onto the network so can even see that page.

 

[SteveK]

Aww, the good old days when every boat for miles around had a CB radio on channel 22. No cell phone, no wifi, nothing else. There was a pay phone at every marina.