Setting up a Wi-Fi Solution for a boat or a yacht

Introduction:

We’re looking for the most cost effective/high performance solution to provide wireless internet to a yacht when moored in a harbour, tapping off neighbouring Wi-Fi Hotspots that may be provided. This is a cheap and cost effective way to bring Wi-Fi to your boat or yacht. This blog post focuses on the configuration of the devices, but not the physical installation.

Today we’re going to be using an Ubiquiti Bullet M2 HP with the Ubiquiti airGateway LR.

We'll also use a generic 2.4ghz Omni Antenna for the Bullet & the Ubiquiti airGateway POE-24 power supply that clicks together nicely with the airGateway.

Configuration:

We'll configure these devices separately at first, starting with the airGateway

airGateway:

So when we first plug in, the airGateway has a DHCP Server on it, so as long as my laptop doesn’t have a static IP, I can plug in and direct my web browser to the IP address, which is 192.168.1.1

It'll bring you to a page looking something like this:

 

The default user name and password is ubnt & ubnt, and we'll change this later for security purposes.

I also select the country code as United States as most devices can only see the channels that the United States country code allows. You may run into issues if this is set to another country.

Click login

 

The Quick Setup Wizard appears! Lets follow it. Ignore the airMAX CPE detection and put in a password of your choosing & hit Next.

 

 Enter a SSID (network name) and a password for it (between 8 and 64 characters long) and hit Next. The next screen will ask you to verify your details that you've entered in, and click finish.

The router will display a status page but in the background it’s secretly confirming the changes and you’ll loose connectivity for around 10 seconds

Before we kick our self's off the device by changing the IP, head to the system tab find the username box, change this to admin and it will give you the option to change the default password. We recommend doing this :)

 

Head on over to the Network tab, we change it from a SOHO Router to Bridge mode, as we want the Bullet to be the router for the network. I’ve put in some basic IP addressing

Network Mode: Bridge

IP: 192.168.99.2

Subnet: 255.255.255.0

Gateway: 192.168.99.1

Bullet M2 HP:

Set a static address on your laptop or device to 192.168.1.10 with a subnet of 255.255.255.0, and go to 192.168.1.20 in your web browser. 

 

 Once again, default username and password (ubnt/ubnt)

Before we kick our self's off the device by changing the IP, head to the system tab and change the default password, like we did with the airGateway

 

Head over to the Network Tab page and change:

Network Mode: Router

WAN Settings:

WAN Interface: WAN0

WAN IP Address: DHCP

Enable NAT

Enable Block Management access

LAN Settings:

IP Address: 192.168.99.1

Netmask: 255.255.255.0

DHCP Server: Enabled

Range Start: 192.168.99.32

Range End: 192.168.99.254

Netmask: 255.255.255.0

 

Apply the changes on the page, and then remove the static IP off your laptop or device. You can now plug the airGateway into the power injector for the Bullet M2. Both devices should have power and you should see a new wireless network broadcasting from the name that you chose.

Congratulations! That's all you need to do to set it up!

How to use it

In your web browser, go to your default gateway (http://192.168.99.1) (which is the Rocket M2) in your web browser. Enter in your username and password and login.

 

Once logged in, head to the Wireless tab and next to the SSID box, you’ll see a button that says Select…, click this.

Your device will now do a scan of neighboring wireless networks. 

Once the scan is complete, the Signal/Noise column, the first number (-66 / -89) needs to be below 80 for the network to connect successfully.

Also take note of the Encryption Column, if it says NONE, no further action is required, if it says WPA or WPA2, you’ll need to know the password to be able to join this network.

 Click on the radio box to the left of the network you want to connect to, and click Lock to AP at the bottom of the page.

(If it does have WPA or WPA2, once your back on the main wireless page, down the bottom will have Security, select either WPA-AES or WPA2-AES, and leave the rest as default, and enter in the key before you submit the main page)

Back on the wireless page, select Change, then once the page refreshes, click apply.

If you go back to the main tab, if all successful, you should see information on the right hand side in relation to signal strength, CCQ and TX and RX Rate 

 

(In brief for best performance, the lower the number the better for Signal Strength, and the higher the number the better for Transmit CCQ & TX/RX Rate)

Congratulations! Providing that the wireless hotspot is providing internet, you'll have straight access out to the internet, or you may be redirected to a login page for a hotspot service. You'll only need to do this once, and if it's a paid service, only pay for it once, and you can use it on multiple devices connected to your wireless network.