On train wifi with different Train Operating Companies (TOCs)

[whole diary]

[John R]

Good wifi on my current journey from Oslo to Trondheim. And the 3G signal has been excellent too even in the middle of nowhere. The service is excellent too - an electrically loco hauled 8 coach set for the 7 hr journey costing just ^30 for comfort (ie first) class. Just like long distance travel should be, rather than Voyagers!

[IndustryInsider]

I tested the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Wifi last week and ran the Railcam train describer maps feed all the way from Plymouth to Westbury and the maps updated within 10 seconds of passing each signal

It's worth giving a heads-up to the Railcam site as it offers excellent train described maps for much of the country (as well as loads of webcams) for only ^10 per year.  A lot of the FGW franchise area is covered, though only as far east as Didcot, so I'm hoping it will offer maps through to Paddington before too long.

An excellent resource for enthusiasts as well as knowledgeable commuters.

[thetrout]

Did you ever reach coach A, or was the wifi non-existant? :-)

Negative. Got distracted by this...



I'm on the trains again tonight so we'll see later on.

Oh and getting off the train and on again... FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Please...

Airplane Mode ON, Airplane Mode OFF. Will have the same effect.

The WiFi however when it works does seem very good. I can use VMware vSphere Web Client. Something that seriously dislikes dodgy connections and periods of super high latency.

Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection and LogMeIn also work very well. It's also the only on train WiFi I've found that seems OK with Microsoft DirectAccess (VPN Type Technology). I know it works fine for IPHTTPS. (Running the VPN over a Secure Web Connection) But I have yet to try it with Teredo.

I know it doesn't work with CrossCountry WiFi however. Neither does VMware. Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection does work only when it's running in conjunction with a Remote Desktop Gateway Server - as the connection then runs over Port 443 (for HTTPS - Secure Web Traffic) instead of the default port 3389.

[TonyK]

Crikey, thetrout, I speak French and can get by in German and Spanish, but...

[Chris from Nailsea]

Be careful: he is a radio-active shark. 

[johoare]

I was on the 7.49 Maidenhead to Paddington on Friday (27th March) - the back three carriages were a class 166 (can't tell you about the front 3) and I had perfect FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Wi-Fi on there.. I was at the very back of the carriage though not sure if that makes a difference on how well it works or not..

[thetrout]

Be careful: he is a radio-active shark. 

I call foul play. Since when was "activ" spelt "active"

[TaplowGreen]

I was on the 7.49 Maidenhead to Paddington on Friday (27th March) - the back three carriages were a class 166 (can't tell you about the front 3) and I had perfect FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Wi-Fi on there.. I was at the very back of the carriage though not sure if that makes a difference on how well it works or not..

...........I believe there are a group of hamsters in a huge wheel at the very back of each train which is powering the Wifi - your proximity to them may explain the perfect service! 

[Chris from Nailsea]

Be careful: he is a radio-active shark. 

I call foul play. Since when was "activ" spelt "active"

You are entitled to do so, thetrout: please accept my humble apologies for my innate spell-checker inadvertently 'correcting' the spelling. 

[johoare]

I was on the 7.49 Maidenhead to Paddington on Friday (27th March) - the back three carriages were a class 166 (can't tell you about the front 3) and I had perfect FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Wi-Fi on there.. I was at the very back of the carriage though not sure if that makes a difference on how well it works or not..

...........I believe there are a group of hamsters in a huge wheel at the very back of each train which is powering the Wifi - your proximity to them may explain the perfect service! 

[Brucey]

I notice there is a Twitter account @fgwwifi.  Looks like a certain commuter isn't happy with the service.

[Jason]

I notice there is a Twitter account @fgwwifi.  Looks like a certain commuter isn't happy with the service.

I tried it in a refurbed 1st class carriage for a few evenings the other week between PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) and RDG^‡(resolve) but it was unuseable. I managed to partially load maybe two pages during each journey.

NB: The above mentioned twitter account is not me!

[ChrisB]

Cornwall & back on Good Friday - other than slightly patchy in Cornwall (you'd expect that with intermittent mobile coverage), it worked as well as my mifi dongle does the entire way & way back.

AS I said, limited connectivity will occur on busy trains both in number of connections available &bandwidth availability.

[PhilWakely]

Exeter to London and back on Easter Monday with a friend - out on 1A19 via Bristol, Swindon, Oxford and Banbury and back on 1V97 from Waterloo.

I used my mobile provider whilst my friend attempted to use on-train wifi. Unfortunately, the on-train wifi was next to useless, whilst mobile provider connection significantly better than I expected. I could understand the lack of connection beyond Swindon as 1A19 was full and standing, but until then it was relatively sparse. 1V97 was positively empty in comparison.

[ChrisB]

Routers do tend to need resets every so often - I wonder whether on-train crew are trained, or whether it has to be done remotely?

IMO^▸ (in my opinion), FGW^▸ (First Great Western) need to advertise the (external) helpdesk details better.