Part 4 – Internet for a boat
This is part 4 of “Internet for a boat.” In case you missed it and want to follow along in order, be sure to check out part 3 here or start at the beginning.
The heart of the onboard network is the router. While I have previously referred to the networking hardware in a generic sense, I can now define what that is for our particular situation. I searched extensively to find a device that would meet our needs and after much research, I decided on the Pepwave MAX BR1 MK2. The router is rather pricey, but in my opinion, it has been worth every penny. It’s worth noting that this router is intended to actually be mobile. It’s comprised of a solid metal enclosure and is also certified for shock and vibration resistance, electromagnetic compatibility and even railway applications. The unit can operate effectively in harsh conditions and extreme temperatures with a range of between -40 degrees Fahrenheit and 131 degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, it can handle variations or fluctuations in voltage with a DC input range of 10-30V, so converting it to be powered off of the boat’s primary 12 volt system is no problem and running it under average load consumes only about 10-11 watts.
The router has many advanced features with nearly unlimited configurations. The powerful functionality is more akin to what I see in the enterprise rather than in simpler consumer units.
With that being said, it also does a good job at allowing for a quick and simple configuration if that is all that is required. There is also great documentation for Pepwave devices and they have detailed user manuals which can be found online with a quick Google search. As the router only comes with a single AC power adapter, I recommend purchasing a backup adapter to be used as a sacrificial power cord which can be cut, spliced and ran to a DC power source. What is great about the power consumption in our setup is that the WiFi booster, cell booster and router all are directly powered by the 12V DC panel on the same isolated breaker and only consume about 1-2 amps. We can leave the network on all the time and get the benefits without requiring the inverter / AC outlets. The only network devices which require AC are the printer, NAS (to be discussed in a later post) and other computer devices as they have more picky CPU’s and would not do well with the minor changes in voltage that regularly occur on the DC side.
The hardware
The router has four antennas that are fairly powerful on their own. Two of the antennas are for WiFi and the other two are for cellular. It has one LAN port which we extended by buying a simple 8 port switch (any unmanaged switch will do, but this model is the one I purchased and it handles everything we could possibly want to connect). This gives me the flexibility to interface more devices via a direct Ethernet cable, which so far I haven’t had to do. The router also has one WAN port. This is the key to getting the WiFi booster connected and bridged into the network as another source of internet access. The Ethernet run from the outdoor antenna WiFi radio booster through the PoE controller terminates at the WAN port. Finally, there are two slots for SIM cards. This was one of the crucial aspects of me wanting to put together a custom solution for onboard internet. As I mentioned in a previous post, there are some solutions out there that try to put a WiFi booster and/or a cell booster with a version of a router and package it all together. From what I have seen this is usually all housed in a dome that is mounted fairly high outside the boat. That also means the SIM card slots are mounted fairly high outside the boat, which isn’t too much trouble until you are crossing from one country to the next and need to change a SIM card and there is a squall passing through. Also, I don’t like the idea of one router and network being housed outside. While it would be possible to setup multiple networks and connect them together, it’s needlessly more complicated and more expensive. I want the router inside the boat, so I can interface with it via Ethernet cables as needed. For example I knew that the network attached storage (NAS) would need a direct connection and I want the flexibility to add more connections (hence the aforementioned switch).
The software
This router would be perfectly suitable for a small business as it is extremely powerful with tons of configurations and ways to customize almost everything. While an entire post could be written about many of the different features, I’m only going to focus on what you would need to get up and running. Initially I setup the admin account and changed the password to something much stronger. After that, I setup the main Local Area Network or LAN, which can be done with a few button clicks. Most users will only need one LAN, but again if you have advanced needs you can create other LANS, VLANS, etc. The next step is to create at least one service set identifier (SSID). In layman’s terms this is what most people think of as a wireless network when they search for a WiFi connection on their phone. I created two: one is called SeaMonster and the other is called SeaMonsterGuest. I would recommend setting up some basic security on each of these SSIDs, especially if you will have them broadcast which is the normal use case. Require WiFi protected access (version) 2 (WPA2) which is the security method added to WPA for wireless networks which provides strong data protection and network access control. In our case you would see these two names and then be prompted for the passcode before being granted access.
Tangent: You might notice that I actually created 2 separate SSIDs and designated one for guests. While this might seem unnecessary it is actually quite useful for this architecture. By designating a different SSID for different users of the system, one can easily segregate and control different areas such as access, usage or permissions. This is a common configuration in charter boats to grant different rights or restrictions to guest, crew, the captain etc. While this scenario might still be applicable for personal situations, it can be potentially more useful for other reasons. For example, onboard Sea Monster it is possible for me to grant access to friends or even new acquaintances and do things like allow either uni-directional or bi-directional sharing of files. What this means is that a guest or even neighboring vessel who can see the network can gain access with our permission and do something like “borrow” a movie to watch for the night by transferring the file or even streaming it directly from our network!
The last thing that is required is to configure and prioritize the way you want the router to connect to the internet. There are multiple options out of the box. If we had land based internet from an American ISP, it would obviously get priority one. As that is not an option, we have to choose from what else is available. The options are 2.4GHZ and 5.0 GHZ WiFi as WAN which comes native with the router. These actually attempt to scan for available wireless networks in range and allow you to connect them and use that connection as the source of internet for the network. While this sounds great, I would almost never use it! This is essentially a less powerful version of the WiFi booster we installed. Unless we are very close to the source of the WiFi, where boosting the signal could cause unwanted distortion, we would almost always use the WiFi booster which plugs into the WAN port. Under ideal circumstances, we would be able to connect to a hotspot via one of these three options and they would be set as the highest priority. The next highest priority would be to use a SIM card from the country we are cruising. In the Bahamas, I started out testing with BTC, which is one of the two carriers available in the country, the other being ALIV. I plan to give ALIV a try as they have some good plans, but I wanted to start with BTC as I heard their coverage is better (I have no idea if that is true – it’s just what I heard). To use a SIM in the router you will likely have to configure a few options. You will likely have to set the APN and to allow roaming. The last priority is to use a second SIM card. While this could be any SIM, including one from your country’s own provider, keep in mind the cellular infrastructure (cell towers etc.) will still be the ones used in the country you are in. We think we found an option for the secondary SIM that is fantastic for cruisers as well as anyone who travel abroad frequently. The secondary SIM we use is a data only sim from Google as part of their Project Fi. Note Google did recently change restrictions which limit the number of consecutive months you can use the service outside the US or US territories.
Google Fi
Google’s approach to the cellular market is to integrate with existing cellular providers worldwide and offer one simple plan for all their customers. For a US customer, the plan comes with unlimited talk and text in the US. In any of the 200+ countries they cover there is unlimited text and $0.20 per minute for international voice calling. That is all included for $20 per month. Data is $10 per Gb until you hit 6GB, then its is free until $15GB at which point your speed may be throttled or you can opt to again pay $10 per GB of data for as much data as you want. That applies to any of the 200+ countries they cover!
We have a basic Motorola smartphone that is unlocked and ready for use with a standard SIM from Google Fi. We also have a data only SIM that shares the same data as the phone (they are both part of the same pool of data). Therefore we have a dedicated Google Fi phone and data only SIM that allows us to smoothly transition to and from any country without the need to buy a SIM ahead of time or hurry to get one if we arrive in a new country. If we will be in a country for a long time, it makes sense to get a SIM card and plan. We can also swap the current country’s SIM into the phone and use it as well. In the Bahamas we often swapped the Bahamian SIM into the Motorola phone to make international calls back home as the plan come with lots of free talk time (why spend $0.20 per minute when there are 1000 free minutes every 15 days).
Helpful Hint: The Access Point Name (APN) is the name for the settings your phone reads to set up a connection to the gateway between your carrier’s cellular network and the public Internet. You carrier reads these settings, then makes sure to determine the correct IP address, connect to the correct secure gateway, and see if you need them to connect you to a private network like a VPN. All the heavy lifting is done on the carrier side, but we need to make sure the right settings are in place to get on the network we need, in the way we need to connect. Below, I’ve listed some of the APNs you may need to setup depending on the carrier.
Google Fi – h2gh
Bahamas BTC – btc.bahamas.com
Next we begin to explore how this architecture can start providing value – Internet for a boat – Part 5
