Oddball Boat WiFi Question

[Doug P]

I’m new here and certainly no networking expert, so please be gentle! ;-)

I have an oddball issue and I hope the experts here and steer me in the right direction OR tell me to drop it as not do-able.

I live on a sailboat. Virtually all Marinas I stay in have some form of public WiFi and most of the time it’s more than adequate. And since we are often surrounded by taller power vessels and since our sailboat sits low in the water, I setup a typical Boat/RV type system to “bring” the marina signal below.

GEAR:
I have a MikroTik Groove 52AC mounted about 20’ above the waterline. This router is connected to the Marina's public WiFi in Router Mode.

The output of this 52AC comes below over Cat6 where it is connected to the WAN port of my TrendNet TEW-812DRU router. I also have my NMEA2000 backbone connected via WiFi so I can see data from my Raymarine system’s sensors/devices.

This all works great when we have decent marina signal/bandwidth we have solid WiFi on the boat.

When I occasionally leave the boat, I can access my laptop (If left onboard) fine with Team Viewer, I can also access two security cameras (with android apps) easily from anywhere because they are P2P cameras.

My problem is that I need to access my boat’s network from outside the Marina when we are away from the boat so I can check the data being sent by the various sensors.

When we had cable internet at our house, I had no problems doing this by DDNS and port forwarding, but now no matter what I try, I cannot get thru to my network from outside.

Can this be done? What do I need to do to make this work?

Thank you very much!

Doug

 

[degrub]

when you state "i can access my laptop..." are you still on the marina wifi with the device that you are trying to access the laptop with ?

It sounds like the marina has a firewall that is blocking connections not originated from within their network.
You might have to explore using a vpn out from the boat to a service and then vpn into the service when you are outside if the marina's network.

If that is the case, you could also talk to the IT person that set up the marina network to confirm and ask what possible solution are for them to allow the outside access.

 

[dosborne]

More or less at the mercy of the various marinas security. A 3rd party solution where your internal router (or a client) connects to a server, and you remotely connect to that service *may* be the most viable and generic solution. Otherwise you run into port forwarding issues so your own DDNS or VPN solution may work in some cases and not in others

 

[Doug P]

when you state "i can access my laptop..." are you still on the marina wifi with the device that you are trying to access the laptop with ?
No, it's when I am off of/away from the Marina WiFi, I can access the laptop when away from the marina using an android phone or another computer. Ditto with the P2P cams.

It sounds like the marina has a firewall that is blocking connections not originated from within their network.
You might have to explore using a vpn out from the boat to a service and then vpn into the service when you are outside if the marina's network.
Thanks. I was thinking I might need some sort of VPN service (I have Private Internet Access on the laptop but only for security, not remote access).
Can you suggest a service or method for doing this?

If that is the case, you could also talk to the IT person that set up the marina network to confirm and ask what possible solution are for them to allow the outside access. That might work at some marinas but most of the WiFi systems are getting pretty sophisticated and are managed by outside companies, so probably won't be an option.
Thanks much!

 

[Doug P]

More or less at the mercy of the various marinas security. A 3rd party solution where your internal router (or a client) connects to a server, and you remotely connect to that service *may* be the most viable and generic solution. Otherwise you run into port forwarding issues so your own DDNS or VPN solution may work in some cases and not in others
Thanks for the suggestions. Do you have any specific recommendations as to services that will allow me to do this?

 

[degrub]

maybe a micro cell hot spot on the boat that links into a cellular network that you could then access from phone or laptop (with another hotspot) would be the route around the marina issue. That might get expensive though. And you would have all of the security issues with an "open" cell hotspot on your boat.