As usual I am probably missing something here, but anything that impacts on our satphone bills, the owner will love.  We have an FBB250 and fire it up when out of 3G/4G data range.  Its use is entirely for data, mostly grib files, YB tracking via Expedition, and onshore weather station reports.  It is not generally used for voice, and never for email.  For this I have tried to use XWeb as a compression software.
I can make XWeb work OK with 3G/4G, I have not succeeded with satphone, but I think that will be a proxy IP address issue i.e. fixable with enough mental toil.
My question is, how else do people use XWeb/XGate for data compression?  And happy to hear this is the wrong question.!

DuncanR wrote:

As usual I am probably missing something here, but anything that impacts on our satphone bills, the owner will love.  We have an FBB250 and fire it up when out of 3G/4G data range.  Its use is entirely for data, mostly grib files, YB tracking via Expedition, and onshore weather station reports.  It is not generally used for voice, and never for email.  For this I have tried to use XWeb as a compression software.
I can make XWeb work OK with 3G/4G, I have not succeeded with satphone, but I think that will be a proxy IP address issue i.e. fixable with enough mental toil.
My question is, how else do people use XWeb/XGate for data compression?  And happy to hear this is the wrong question.!

I have used XGate for many years.., and even another similar french product before GMN existed...

I do not use XWeb

But, if you have FBB 250, XGate is not worth the trouble, at least i don't think it is. When i use FBB (even FBB 150) or VSAT , I don't bother with it.

XGate is an excellent solution for people using either an Iridium handset or an Iridium Go as a data connection.

With those very slow data connections, you basically have to use email for everything - gribs, position reports, weather images, and so on. You can not (or should not) browse web sites, or use any type of http connection.

What Xgate offers is a low-bandwidth optimized email service with an email account on their domain, a simple email client, and a dialer to initiate a dial-up connection, which is what you get when you use what is basically a phone modem. you should not use your regular email account or email client over an iriidum handset or Go. There are several benefits to Xgate email. one is that "regular" email has a lot of data overhead - there is a lot going back and forth besides your message and attachments. Xgate email has almost no overhead. Another thing it offers is that it restarts failed downloads where they left off - so you don't have to download the same data again when your iridium data connection drops out.

definitely some people do use XGate with an FBB connection - but i don't...

In an upcoming race, i will be on a boat with only a Go for a data connection - no FBB or VSAT.., so i _need_ low bandwidth email.

For you with FBB 250 - there is no reason not to use email.., and you could just use regular email, although you may want to get an account just for offshore an make sure no body sends huge attachments. For me in that situation, I don't use XWeb - i am just careful with websites i go to.
 

DuncanR wrote:

us
Thanks for this masterful explanation of the XGate issue.  I know I am accustomed to high end systems (and owners!), so yours is a great explanation of how The Other Half Lives.  Why would you not use XWeb for compression for web pages?

because i don't do any web browsing over the iridium handset or Go - they are not suited to it.., and anything i need, i can get as an email attachment - GRIB's, weather fax images, position updates.., everything.., and that's the best way to do it.

the handset and the Go both have an actual data speed of 2.4kb/sec - that's incredibly slow..., even if you are old enough to remember dial-up modems for home internet.., you probably never had one slower than 56kb/sec.

you will see claims that compression yields speeds of 9.6kb/sec for these devices, but much of what we download is already compressed - GRIB's often use jpeg compression - so really you won't be getting better than 2.4kb/sec, and often less...

FBB or VSAT is definitely the way to go, and that's what i usually have..., but not for this race. FBB/VSAT data is cheaper than iridium per MB.., but you will use a lot more, so you will spend more.., but really.., compared to the other costs of an offshore race, FBB data is trivial, and it makes the navigator's job so much easier that it's well worth the cost. 

Hi All!

I would love to have this figured out, as it seems that many are having similar issues.  I have used Iridium Go! and SaiMail together to request gribs through the sail mail interface and saildocs requests, and then successfully taken them over to Expedition for import.  I still have not been successful in importing the YB expedition text file from saildocs into expedition, and end up having to put the positions in manually.  I tried XGate in lots of configuration, and have successfully set it up for email, but have not had the luck of direct integration to Expedition.  I get many of the same errors described above.  Is the Iridium Go just too limited?  Has anyone got this set up to work reliably?

Can anyone provide me with a properly formatted YB-Expedition text file and give me some direction on how to import that information.

Thanks very much!