Our Wi-Fi Internet service provider in Anacortes is Beacon Wi-Fi, formerly BroadbandXpress (BBX). Due to problems connecting to their service, we haven’t been able to get a dependable Internet connection for more than two weeks. We haven’t been able to even get a connection for the past week! We’ve been working for days to try to resolve the problem…it seems to be a problem with BBX’s equipment…but it has been so time consuming to try to find a solution that we may have to give up for now.
We’ve done all we can…we’ve checked our own equipment/wiring multiple times and made repeated calls to BBX…but the problems continue. They say they have issued a trouble report to have a technician come to check their Anacortes equipment, but it has been over a week and we still don’t have working Wi-Fi.
Yesterday we decided to try to get to the Internet using the Verizon Wireless cellular network. We set up a Wi-Fi hot spot using my iPhone, but then ran into problems when we tried to connect from my laptop. Even with help from Verizon Wireless and Apple, we have not been able to connect my laptop to the hot spot. More troubleshooting is required. But I CAN connect to the hot spot from my iPad, so thought I’d explore using WordPress on the iPad to publish this post with an explanation.
We’re only going to be staying on our boat for three more days, as we plan to return home this weekend. So, we will hold additional blog posts until we’re home and I can use my laptop with a dependable cable Internet connection. So, there will be a slight delay, but I WILL publish posts covering the rest of our September cruise and more as soon as I can…starting next week.
Cruising With Phoenix 
Look forward to your return. Simpson round-about delayed further…traffic in west Bend is terrible! More photos for you when you can get to it!
Regards,
Howard
Hi David Wesley here, with ‘Excalibur’ an Island Packet catamaran in Anacortes, F-30 (partner with Marilyn Kays) Bought the antenna and bridge from BBX. Continual problems, Told mid August that a technician was en-route to Anacortes. Asked for money back from 6 month subscription, the next week. Told I would get 1/2 back. So far, no deposit to my account. Unfortunately, that’s all I know. Will return stateside Oct 16 == We have really enjoyed your posts, the way they are put together, we have cruised many same locations.
Hi David, ‘Phoenix’ is in B-54. Small world! Still no service from BBX, so we assume they are still “on their way” to check their access point equipment here. We’ve used BBX for years and have had repeated problems from time to time, but never as bad as now. We also have the long-range external antenna and bridge from BBX. Worked great earlier this summer, but certainly is dead now. We’re getting good service from Verizon’s iPhone-based hot spot (but still need to figure out why our MacBook Pro won’t connect to the hot spot). Think we’ll look into Verizon’s MIFI device and cancel BBX. Your adventure in Paris sounds terrific and we’ll look forward to reading more of your blog once we get home with a good Internet connection. No more time for blogs now…we have to get things packed up to go home this weekend. Maybe we’ll see you sometime around the marina. Thanks for your feedback!
—Alice & Jim