Basically, there are several different ways to get internet access on a cruising sailboat, depending on where you're cruising.
If you're coastal cruising, your two choices are usually either a cellular data plan or using WiFi.
Cellular data plans range in price and in data limits. Many smart phones, like the blackberries, some of the Windows Mobile phones and the iPhone, can be used to tether a laptop via a USB or BlueTooth connection. BTW, the iPhone will have to be a jailbroken one to tether for the most part, since AT&T can't pull its head out of its @$$ and get the tethering working on the non-jailbroken phones yet.
WiFi can be useful in many anchorages and harbors, as WiFi becomes more commonly available. Using an amplified WiFi antenna setup, much like the ones I written about on
my blog, allow you to take advantage of open WiFi hotspots from a fairly significant distance.
Further away from civilized areas, the only real choice is satellite-based internet. Be aware that these access plans have high equipment and monthly costs, as well as a per-mb data costs.
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Sailingdog
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Telstar 28
New England
You know what the first rule of sailing is? ...Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take
a boat to the sea you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps
her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home.
—Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity (edited)
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Still—DON'T READ THAT POST AGAIN.