Wifi Kemah?

[RockBottomCat]

Ok here is my problem, and hoping there is someone in the area with a solution. I am a liveaboard in Kemah, at Legendspoint Marina, good, inexpensive and clean marina, on Clear Lake Shores. My problem is there is no good open wifi, and the idea of putting a cable across my bow other then the shore power I have makes me sick! I am hoping to find another liveaboard in Waterford, or Watergate that can provide me with a password. Both these marinas provide free access, but neither has room for my Lagoon? I have a nauticloud, which works great, when I can find an open wifi, but this is becoming harder and harder to do, Currently I am using a Virgin Mobile hotspot , but they want to charge for anything over 50mb a month!!

Any Help out there would be appreciated.

[Sailormantx]

Are you using a good external wifi access point with your antenna outside? Sometimes there are some unlocked signals around depending on how good an antenna you have. Not for free but there is a decent wifi service provider that is serving the Boardwalk and Marina del sol that has good reception if you are out on the eastern end of Clear Lake. I used to live on the E dock and could not pick it up in there.

[RockBottomCat]

Could you provide the name of the providers? I don't mind paying just cant find any!

[Sailormantx]

Sorry, I don't have that information on hand. I am working on the east coast and wont be home for another month or two. It was an access point with a 713 area code phone number for a name and it shows as unlocked but will go to their sign in page when you connect. They have decent signal strength anchored of of Seabrook shipyard and at Blue Dolphin. For reliable internet try an internet only service with an air card or in combination with your cell phone plan. I use Tmobile with good results, they have usable signal all over the bay including Redfish and 12-15 miles out in the gulf. Also check out Cricket and Clear. If you only need it occasionally take you laptop to one of the local coffee shops, IHOP and Seabrook waffle company are the closest.

[Driftwoods]

I used the wifi with the 713 area code in Kemah to watch the Alamo bowl over my ipad while in Portofino Marina (streamed it from a laptop at home in Austin). It wasn't great but I did get to watch the game - cut out the last 3 minutes though and I couldn't get it back!

It works pretty well, I think it peaked around 2 Mbps, but I believe my big issue was connectivity. It seemed like I dropped a lot or had huge fluctuations in network latency. I think if I used a external antennae I'd probably have gotten considerably better results. I traded email with Paul Mailloux, the owner of the wifi service, and he recommended the Engenius EUB9603H High Power Wireless N USB Adapter. As he told me, this one has a 600mw transmitter where most wifi cards are only 60-100mw. I haven't tried it yet but if I was going to rely on his service I'd definitely get it. I may get it anyway just to use whenever I'm in a marina that offers wifi. It's a cheap solution at $39.99.

I'm thinking of going to Clear though since it would be a little more mobile - going to Port Aransas pretty soon. Check out Clearly Wimax Solutions or WiMax San Antonio TX. They offer some external antennas for Clear hardware that would make a big difference. If you give Clear a shot, let me know how it works for you. I'll post back here if I use it as well.

[Sailorman375]

Check with Paul at PC solutions I think. He supplies the service to several marinas in the area. Clear probably will not work at Legend Point. Other than that you're going to need a wi fi card.