5MileWiFi
Bring the Internet to your Boat
5MileWiFi is an acronym labeling a handful of marine electronics components which when put together can offer boaters a viable method to get internet service aboard their vessel from as far as 5-miles from a source ashore.
According the company website the unit is capable of locking onto a WiFi signal at a range of up to 5-miles over open water. Consider too that some customers have claimed a successful range of near 10 miles. In a marina or other confined area with building and trees you should expect far less range capability.
The custom wireless adapter, just one of the components that make up the 5MileWiFi system. Coupling to the supplied antenna offers up internet service on your boat from as far as 5-miles from a hot spot.
The system ships with a souped-up wireless USB adapter, an antenna with 25-feet of low-loss cable attached, nylon swiveling antenna mount and a CD with software and owner's manual.
5MileWiFi Custom USB Wireless Adapter
The USB wireless adapter is the heart of the system. In appearance and size it is similar to other such devices I have seen and used with a couple of noticeable differences. The first thing you will notice is the robust construction and smartly designed case which is made using polished aluminum. When was the last time you saw anything related to a home computer that was robustly constructed? I sure can remember. The aluminum case also serves to cool the chipset inside.
The next obvious difference between this and most other wireless adapters is the extra wire with a USB connector. Because a computer USB port is limited to 500mA this adapter needs the second connection to supply additional power. During operation the adapter can draw between 100mA and 1000mA.
Antenna and Mount
The 32.5-inch antenna looks like any other VHF or FM antenna one might find on a boat except this one is tuned to the 2.4 GHz band used by wireless communications. Throughput capabilities to up to 300Mbps, but will vary below that number for a wide range of environmental, hardware and software factors.
Testing at Sea
The first thing I did was print the owner's manual and install the driver and accompanying software on my laptop. A quick test on shore with the antenna attached and the USB adapter plugged into to my laptop showed an increased number of available wireless networks.
To facilitate on the water testing I temporarily secured the antenna about ten feet above the water line and went offshore approximately 5 miles from the nearest point of land. Since I was testing in the sparsely populated Florida Keys there were a limited number of open networks available and all were at least 5 miles from my position.
I was able to lock onto to an open network with no problems or issues. To test the speed of the connection I tried using my email account and perused a number of webpages. All actions worked well and pages seemed to load quickly.
In my opinion, the addition of a 5MileWiFi system to a vessel with a personal computer aboard offers would be a real bonus if you spent a substantial part of your time cruising area close to land where you would be able to pick off a network connection easily.
