Internet Resources

Online weather resources are extensive. Having internet access onboard is an unnecessary luxury for most near-coastal and inland boaters. More problematic is the connection to the internet. Whether you are tethered to a cell phone modem, hotspot or satellite phone - online web resources need to load quickly. Much of the time this means websites that are not graphics intensive. To test load time download a Java program to mimic load speeds of various weather websites that you use at home.

Ocens Weathernet is a standalone program that when connected to the internet will download selected weather products for a yearly subscription fee ($99) and a pay-per-product fee ranging from $0.30 to $5. We found that this pay-to-play pricing structure could potentially be less expensive for satellite phone users when compared to internet searches for weather details due to the slow connection speed.