Need help setting up your Wave WiFi system or figuring out which product is right for your vessel? Explore our most frequently asked questions organized by topic to get quick answers and helpful info.
No, Wave WiFi provides products to help you connect further than you otherwise would, using Cellular and WiFi technologies. We help you connect to Public WiFi Hotspots and Cellular Towers (with a Sim Card and Service from a Cellular Carrier/Provider). We don’t provide the actual Internet Service; we just help you connect to it and share that onto an Onboard Network of wired and wireless devices.
No, Wave WiFi provides products to help you connect further than you otherwise would, using Cellular and WiFi technologies. We help you connect to Public WiFi Hotspots and Cellular Towers (with a Sim Card and Service from a Cellular Carrier/Provider). We don’t provide the actual Internet Service; we just help you connect to it and share that onto an Onboard Network of wired and wireless devices.
No, Wave WiFi provides products to help you connect further than you otherwise would, using Cellular and WiFi technologies. We help you connect to Public WiFi Hotspots and Cellular Towers (with a Sim Card and Service from a Cellular Carrier/Provider). We don’t provide the actual Internet Service; we just help you connect to it and share that onto an Onboard Network of wired and wireless devices.
No, you would not connect to your wireless router. That would make a circle – looping you back to your network, without any Internet access, and causing other networking problems. Newer Wave WiFi products, the firmware, has a feature allowing you to “Ignore” such access points and routers – to take them off the scan page and prevent you from attempting to connect to them.
You are generally looking for Public WiFi. The only exceptions will be if you know what you are connecting to – such as someone else’s boat that has allowed you or a Personal Hotspot that you own. You would not connect to your boat name and should not connect to things that are not public. Connecting to someone’s HP Printer would not get you Internet access.
If you are attempting to connect to a Marina (Public) Hotspot and you get:
Connected to network: YES
IP obtained: YES
Internet detected: NO
But you don’t get a Captive Portal indication. Check on the Settings page to see if STATIC IP got turned on. Using a STATIC IP can cause connectivity problems. We want new current IP settings, by DHCP, from the current Hotspot. Otherwise, the connection gets broken. We can’t get to the Internet FROM an IP that is not valid for this Hotspot.

Turn that toggle switch back to OFF, click the “Change Settings” button, and then recheck the Current Connection information. I should populate with settings obtained from the Hotspot. Check on the Scan page if it now indicates connected. You might have to disconnect and re-connect again. But you should get connected and online.
A captive portal is a web page displayed to newly connected users of a WiFi network. It requires some sort of interaction before granting access to network resources. In other words – if you want to connect to a network that runs that, you need to go through a captive portal first.
Captive portals present a landing or log-in page, which may require credentials or other agreements acknowledged to gain Internet access.
Wave WiFi receivers usually detect Captive Portal and display means to open the required page. If that doesn’t work, you might have to get creative to force that page to appear.
No, you would not connect to your wireless router. That would make a circle – looping you back to your network, without any Internet access, and causing other networking problems. Newer Wave WiFi products, the firmware, has a feature allowing you to “Ignore” such access points and routers – to take them off the scan page and prevent you from attempting to connect to them.
You are generally looking for Public WiFi. The only exceptions will be if you know what you are connecting to – such as someone else’s boat that has allowed you or a Personal Hotspot that you own. You would not connect to your boat name and should not connect to things that are not public. Connecting to someone’s HP Printer would not get you Internet access.
No, you would not connect to your wireless router. That would make a circle – looping you back to your network, without any Internet access, and causing other networking problems. Newer Wave WiFi products, the firmware, has a feature allowing you to “Ignore” such access points and routers – to take them off the scan page and prevent you from attempting to connect to them.
You are generally looking for Public WiFi. The only exceptions will be if you know what you are connecting to – such as someone else’s boat that has allowed you or a Personal Hotspot that you own. You would not connect to your boat name and should not connect to things that are not public. Connecting to someone’s HP Printer would not get you Internet access.
If you are attempting to connect to a Marina (Public) Hotspot and you get:
Connected to network: YES
IP obtained: YES
Internet detected: NO
But you don’t get a Captive Portal indication. Check on the Settings page to see if STATIC IP got turned on. Using a STATIC IP can cause connectivity problems. We want new current IP settings, by DHCP, from the current Hotspot. Otherwise, the connection gets broken. We can’t get to the Internet FROM an IP that is not valid for this Hotspot.

Turn that toggle switch back to OFF, click the “Change Settings” button, and then recheck the Current Connection information. I should populate with settings obtained from the Hotspot. Check on the Scan page if it now indicates connected. You might have to disconnect and re-connect again. But you should get connected and online.
A captive portal is a web page displayed to newly connected users of a WiFi network. It requires some sort of interaction before granting access to network resources. In other words – if you want to connect to a network that runs that, you need to go through a captive portal first.
Captive portals present a landing or log-in page, which may require credentials or other agreements acknowledged to gain Internet access.
Wave WiFi receivers usually detect Captive Portal and display means to open the required page. If that doesn’t work, you might have to get creative to force that page to appear.