Conclusion – which router is best?
Good transmission speeds boil down to one thing – good signal reception. It doesn’t matter how fast the device you’re connecting to is, if your link quality to the source is too weak to take advantage of it. Put simply, for the best data speeds your antenna is more important than anything else they might put into a fancy box. With that in mind you’ll often get a much better signal at High Water, as you’re more in line of sight with the transmitters. It’s also worth trying to hoist or mount your antenna as high as possible up your mast.
It’s becoming more common with family cruising for more than one user to want to connect to the Internet at the same time, which is where the router is needed. A Wi-Fi router is clearly the easiest method, and most will allow at least 15 devices to connect simultaneously (although data speeds will inevitably reduce in proportion to numbers logged on). If multi-user Wi-Fi hotspot access is all you need, then something like Digital Yacht’s iNAVConnect will do the job admirably, or if you’d prefer to stick with the cellular networks, then the Wi-Fi On Board router is hard to beat for the money.
If you’re lucky enough to be off on a world cruise and want a fit-and-forget system that offers the best data speeds and connection options, then we’d recommend the Hubba X4Go. This fully marinised MIMO device was lightning fast in our tests, as well as being one of the easiest to install and configure. If you want to link satcomms as well, consider the Red Box or Hubba X Duo.