Yachtspot connects wirelessly to marina, or near shore wifi hotspots using 802.11 b/g, and shares that connection between all of the Yacht’s onboard laptops, desktops, servers, PDA’s, VOIP phones, and any other device that can use an Internet connection.

Yachtspot is similar in functionality to the Broadband router you use at the office, or at home. The internal interface is Ethernet, which can be shared using a switch, or a wireless access point. The external interface is a wireless client, which connects to wifi hotspots.

Yachtspot provides security to the onboard network. It’s not a bridge, like a wireless access point, which shares its IP range with the entire marina, but a router which uses ‘Network address translation’ [NAT]. The onboard network on the Yacht will be separated, and firewalled from the marina’s network, and have its own IP range.

Logging on to a hotspot has been designed to be as simple as possible. To log on, just open a web browser, click to scan, then select a hotspot, and connect. see screenshots

To prevent tampering, and present a less cluttered interface, settings that are only required during initial configuration are hidden, and locked behind an additional administrator’s password. Yachtspot’s entire configuration can be simply backed up to, and restored from an XML file. Yachtspot is supplied with a Ubiquiti SR2 400mW wireless card specification

Yachtspot’s waterproof case is NEMA 67 rated, made from die cast aluminium, and comes complete with bulkhead, and pole top fittings. On the edge of the Yachtspot are two connectors

• N Type female connector photo for connecting an external marine antenna. We recommend using LMR400, or LMR240 cable.
• LTW waterproof Ethernet connection. The mating half of this IP67 connector is supplied, and assembled in the order shown here. Power to the unit is supplied from an auto sensing power supply, through the Ethernet cable using Power over Ethernet [PoE]. The power supply requires a standard IEC mains lead (not supplied).