Does anyone work on the Internet while sailing?

[aeventyr60]

Yes. Good WIFI the key. maybe not able to do long passages, but coastal cruising easy. Was also commuting to Japan and leaving the boat in a marina in Asia. Sailing and working off the internet in remote anchorages, boy did i have the last laugh. being laid off wasn't that bad either....now I can just tease my friends about sailing and NOT working....

[Minnewaska]

What do you need to do on the Internet? There is huge difference between strictly accessing email and needing to surf, watch videos, access remote mainframes via VPN, etc.

In season, both my wife and I will work on the boat a bit on Fri and Mon. Mine is almost strictly email, with the need to edit or create a document. Hers requires that she can access her office via VPN.

I now get away with an Ipad and can easily use either the marina wifi or cell network 3G access almost anywhere. As Murphys Law would have it, whenever I find something time critical, the marina wifi acts up. It's either buggy or just slow, which I suspect is a symptom of many users accessing it at once. I often find myself switching to 3G which has never been down and perfectly fast for email.

The iPad itself has become an incredible piece of marine technology. I have chart apps, gps, entertainment, radio, movies, email, etc, etc.

My wife has to use her office laptop for VPN and connect to the marina wifi. However, it would be possible to get her a cell receiver for an additional subscription. She just tries harder to avoid work on the boat.

[LauderBoy]

Originally Posted by Hawaiigirl

Hi...I cannot retire right now and probably never will be able to...I accept that...I would like to know if it is possible to be a cruiser and take care of a web business at the same time? Does anyone do this? I am so new at this lifestyle....

Ah yes, the "I wanna be in the middle of nowhere and still have internet" request

Here's how it shapes up. On land in remote areas you can get land based satellite pretty reasonably in the 200-1k price range. I have a friend in Afghanistan I'm chatting with right now with such a setup who uses it to download the TV shows from the states he likes to watch.

Once you get offshore you lose access to those birds. You have to use marine based satellite providers and they're just not interested in the low end market. I know because I work for a company that installs this equipment on ships. The price at this level is 7-15k for the hardware and $10 a MB for the traffic. Speeds are slow to decent, around 256k is average. Reliability is good. If you're day trading a few million shares a day, this is the route to go.

But for the rest of us mere mortals you're left with wifi and 3G/4G. Wifi will be cheap, fast, and available at most marinas and quite a few harbors. It'll also be unreliable because the people that run marinas don't know anything about internet technology and the guys that actually own the equipment(Yachtpals and Beacon wifi) really don't seem to care if their equipment isn't working right.

3/4G works very well, though that'll depend on the area, but can have caps depending on your provider and location. I use Verizon in a 3G area and have a 10G cap. So it's great for surfing, video games and doing business, but don't try watching Star Trek on Hulu over it. You'll burn up your data cap.

Personally I use both wifi and 3G/4G with a wifi router that let's me switch between the two as needed.

Equipment and costs:

Rogue Wave Wifi antenna($300-400): Rogue Wave | Wave Wifi, the #1 Name in Marine Wifi, Yacht Wifi, Marina Wifi & Wireless Internet
Verizon UML290 3G/4G Modem($250), I also picked up a straight 3G modem off of ebay for $10 as a backup. If you're not in a 4G area, just do this.
Outdoor antenna for the 3G/4G modem($100): 9.5" Full Band Outdoor Omni 3G/4G Antenna (Adapter Cable Sold Separately) [CM4GLTEACCELLKIT] : 3Gstore.com
My MBR1400 wifi router which links together all of the above($340): CradlePoint MBR1400 3G/4G Router (MBR-1400), Includes WiFi as WAN Firmware 3.4.0 [MBR1400] : 3Gstore.com

My Verizon contract is about $100 a month with taxes and fees while my wifi internet at the marina is free.

[Ulladh]

When out for more than a few days I will send myself an email with attachments I may need and work when at a marina with free wifi or go to an internet cafe. Most marina internet wireless connection don't have enough bandwidth for more than a handful of heavy users.

Cell phone on silent and computer off while sailing.

[eherlihy]

Why not just get a MiFi wireless router and be done with it.

~$50 for the access point, and ~$80 per month for 10GB (This price per GB is ridiculously high -there is no reason for it, other than because they can... it would be great if Wireless access were NATIONALIZED - but I digress)...

[Hawaiigirl]

That is what I was thinking...expensive...I am an artist...not a starving one but I certainly do NOT want to become one...ha ha!!!! How about the mail service? I could go snail mail...

[way-happy]

Its a wonderful world to live in where you can make money online while sitting on a sailboat in a beautiful anchorage off some exotic shore.

Points to consider based on experience:
If you are dealing with deadlines then it can be stressful counting on someone else's wifi. It may or may not work when you need it, and you may or may not be able to make it to an anchorage or marina with wifi by the time you need to get online. If you are just blogging then this is no big deal as you can schedule your posts in advance, but if you have production deadlines and skype meetings, then you have to get there early and make sure you have the connection ironed out the day before you need it, or else you'll be stressed.

Another major concern (and one that has prompted me to start consulting in this area) is security over public wifi. I know too many cruisers that log into their online businesses and check their bank accounts and order things from amazon or defender over open unsecure public wifi in who-knows-where. If you are going to rely on unsecured and unknown wifi, you'd better be smart and take some security precautions, or else be prepared to have someone steal your identity or money or accounts, etc.

Either way, yes, it can be done and is a joy when it all works out alright, and if you don't protect yourself adequately you could be in for one hell of a long headache.

[AdamLein]

Originally Posted by way-happy

I know too many cruisers that log into their online businesses and check their bank accounts and order things from amazon or defender over open unsecure public wifi in who-knows-where.

Aren't these sorts of connections usually encrypted anyway?

[killarney_sailor]

Originally Posted by Hawaiigirl

That is what I was thinking...expensive...I am an artist...not a starving one but I certainly do NOT want to become one...ha ha!!!! How about the mail service? I could go snail mail...

Generally snail mail is an alternative, although it is quite slow. You have access to UPS/Fedex/DHL but the cost can be quite high and not as reliable as you might be used to, depending on where you are. I think it is much more of a problem trying to get stuff delivered in that sending it out. A bit tricky with art work since you are dealing with something irreplaceable unless you are doing digital stuff in which case you can start with internet availability and fall back to regular mail if need be.

Living on a boat and cruising to interesting places constantly involves making things work. Part of the challenge and part of the fun.

[Bene505]

Originally Posted by way-happy

...Another major concern (and one that has prompted me to start consulting in this area) is security over public wifi. I know too many cruisers that log into their online businesses and check their bank accounts and order things from amazon or defender over open unsecure public wifi in who-knows-where. If you are going to rely on unsecured and unknown wifi, you'd better be smart and take some security precautions, or else be prepared to have someone steal your identity or money or accounts, etc...

It's no less secure than someone sitting in any of the 100 houses that share my cable modem loop, right now, here at home. And anyone parked in front of any of the 50 of those houses that have wifi. Or sitting off (controlling) a router in the path between you and your bank. If your bank isn't using SSL for encryption (with the little locked symbol at the bottom of the window), then you had better switch banks fast because they are probably keeping your account balances on stone tablets.

Regular IDs like your sailnet ID are open to being intercepted and stolen. But I don't think anyone would get away with that after you surfaced on sailnet using a new ID and explained it to the mods -- or after you called in some other help first. They could steal your email credentials, depending how you set that up, so yes, there is a business for you there. (If they don't do a google seach for protected email credentials.) The same exact concerns exist if you are on a land line at a hotel overseas, with people tapping into the connection. Keep changing those sailnet, ftp, etc. passwords periodically.

You're actually more vulnerable to payloads in websites you visit -- even if you did have an encrypted path to them.

But banks? That's a scare tactic.

Regards,
Brad,

Certified Information systems Security Professional (CISSP)
Cerfitied Cryptogolic Egnineer (CCE)
Chief Information Security Officer (by title) for super big company
Paper Pusher (in actuality)