The shock of connecting to wireless networks in unexpected places starts to wear off when you have WiFi built-in to your laptop, but it was still a happy occurrence when I picked up an access point from the deck of Sweet Destiny in La Paz, MX. However, it quickly became clear that while my machine was “seeing” the hotspot, the signal wasn’t good enough to actually use it. Turns out that just getting the signal up and outside the boat was a big factor, so to use the laptop inside I needed some kind of external antenna. The simplest and cheapest solution was a new WiFi adapter which plugs into a USB port (in this case a cheap, but powerful unit from Zonet). With a USB extension cable out the window and the little adapter on deck, I got a usable connection a fair amount of the time. Of course, this isn’t exactly a marine grade solution!
The next step up the food chain is to get a WiFi card that has an antenna jack (most don’t), a good quality antenna, and some low loss cable to connect them. Orinoco, SMC, and Buffalo all offer cards with connectors. Carefully note the type of connector when purchasing a card—it’ll be something like MC or MMCX—because you’ll need to order the right connector for the cable to your antenna. Just as with your VHF, the cable can be a major source of signal loss, so you want nice, fat stuff. Happily there are some marine grade WiFi antennas out there, with the standard threads to fit a rail mount. Hyperlinktech is one good source. And make sure to pick an antenna with moderate gain, as a high gain antenna sends out such a flattened pancake of signal, that rolling at anchor could disrupt your wireless connection.
