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All things wi fi

NorbertsNiece
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Clarea

Clarea

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Hi - Can a Verizon4G LTE Mobile Hotspot be used on the ship? with 3 or 4 different people in the cabin connected to the hotspot? Does it work?

Sure, but you will be paying big time for data roaming. Check with Verizon to confirm data rates on the ship. With AT&T it was $20/MB.

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Clarea

Clarea

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Verizon's rate for data on board is $25.00/ 100MB

I believe that's with Verizon's Global Data Plan. Verizon's pay-as-you-go plan for cruise ships is $20.48/MB. I have no idea how much the Global Data Plan costs.

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audome78

audome78

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I believe that's with Verizon's Global Data Plan. Verizon's pay-as-you-go plan for cruise ships is $20.48/MB. I have no idea how much the Global Data Plan costs.

 

Clarea...you are correct. Exactly why I have a global-data capable Droid. Thanks for the "Clareafication" :D

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Clarea

Clarea

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Clarea...you are correct. Exactly why I have a global-data capable Droid. Thanks for the "Clareafication" :D

How much extra is the Global Data Plan, over and above whatever the domestic data costs?

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Clarea

Clarea

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I use Internet Explorer on my laptop. Can anyone tell me from experience if Firefox or Netscape (or something else) works better with the ship's wi-fi?

I've never seen a difference in speed between IE and Firefox on the ship. I think the speed of the Internet is the limiting factor, i.e., it's so slow that any difference in browser speed is a very small percentage of total response time.

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wscott52

wscott52

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I use Internet Explorer on my laptop. Can anyone tell me from experience if Firefox or Netscape (or something else) works better with the ship's wi-fi?

 

The browser you use has nothing to do with how well your wifi works. Your browser only knows HTTP, not entirely but basically true. The incoming wifi signal is converted to something the browser recognizes by the physical electronic hardware built into the computer and the wifi subsystems of the OS. At that point the data will appear the same to any browser. Differences in speed are most likely caused by browser compatibility with the website you are attempting to load. HTML is supposed to be a standard but not all browsers decipher it the same. IE used to be the standard all websites were written to but that is changing. Still, if you want the most compatible browser IE is probably going to be it. Most people I know who use Chrome or Netscape still occasionally have to use IE to get some websites to display correctly. I've used Firefox and Netscape, but not Chrome, and didn't see any real advantage for my basic form of web browsing so IE is still what I use.

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fletch1027 Great Review Rare

fletch1027

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Posted (edited)
I've never seen a difference in speed between IE and Firefox on the ship. I think the speed of the Internet is the limiting factor, i.e., it's so slow that any difference in browser speed is a very small percentage of total response time.

 

Has anyone ran a speedtest.net or similar test while connected to the ships wi-fi? I was curious what kind of up & down speed I will be getting for my $110 per week... :)

Edited by fletch1027
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audome78

audome78

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How much extra is the Global Data Plan, over and above whatever the domestic data costs?

 

I believe $60.00/ MO, but prorated, So, on my B2B in a few weeks, I'll only pay for two weeks worth- $30.00. when I first sailed with a smart phone, it was UNLIMITED data for that charge...very handy. Now, I only use the data plan while at sea. In port, I'll always look for local, free, wifi.

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Clarea

Clarea

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I believe $60.00/ MO, but prorated, So, on my B2B in a few weeks, I'll only pay for two weeks worth- $30.00. when I first sailed with a smart phone, it was UNLIMITED data for that charge...very handy. Now, I only use the data plan while at sea. In port, I'll always look for local, free, wifi.

That's actually not a bad price then. If I understand correctly, you would pay $60 ($30 prorated) to enable global data, and then $25 more for each 100MB of data. So $55 to get 100MB of data for 2 weeks at sea. Much better than AT&T. I wish I had that option. Thanks for the info.

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audome78

audome78

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That's actually not a bad price then. If I understand correctly, you would pay $60 ($30 prorated) to enable global data, and then $25 more for each 100MB of data. So $55 to get 100MB of data for 2 weeks at sea. Much better than AT&T. I wish I had that option. Thanks for the info.

 

That's correct. And, I can use my Droid as a wifi hotspot for my laptop to logon, get email, logoff...reply to email...log back on, send email, log off, etc.

 

Then again, my DW can do the same thing to check Facebook on her tablet, too!

 

The best part? We're going on Brilliance in a few weeks, and I don't HAVE to buy their wifi package, if I don't want to. I will, however, use their coupons for (2) 1/2 hours of "free internet", each week.

 

Unfortunately, I DO need to stay in touch with my office, especially on a B2B.

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Clarea

Clarea

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That's correct. And, I can use my Droid as a wifi hotspot for my laptop to logon, get email, logoff...reply to email...log back on, send email, log off, etc.

 

Then again, my DW can do the same thing to check Facebook on her tablet, too!

 

The best part? We're going on Brilliance in a few weeks, and I don't HAVE to buy their wifi package, if I don't want to. I will, however, use their coupons for (2) 1/2 hours of "free internet", each week.

 

Unfortunately, I DO need to stay in touch with my office, especially on a B2B.

Yes, I know how that is.

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wscott52

wscott52

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Has anyone ran a speedtest.net or similar test while connected to the ships wi-fi? I was curious what kind of up & down speed I will be getting for my $110 per week... :)

 

I haven't seen any but I plan to do that onboard the Oasis in 3 weeks. I hear descriptive like "slow as molassas" to "ok" and I'm a numbers kind of guy. If everything works out I will have a speedtest.net report sometime late on 2/23 or 2/24. Something like this:

 

2472094643.png

 

Although I suspect not quite as fast.

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steveru621

steveru621

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Never used wifi in a ship so don't laugh...is there enough bandwidth to use Skype, or at least the audio portion (if not video). I thought I remember reading somewhere that Skype was blocked.

 

Internet access changes constantly. The prices, plans, and the many differences between ships. Skype may not be blocked on some ships, but during peak usage time you may not be able to get enough packets through to make it useful.

 

The only advice I can give you is listen to somebody just off the Explorer OTS that has actually tried to use Skype on that particular ship. Sorry I can't give you a specific answer.

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fletch1027 Great Review Rare

fletch1027

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I haven't seen any but I plan to do that onboard the Oasis in 3 weeks. I hear descriptive like "slow as molassas" to "ok" and I'm a numbers kind of guy. If everything works out I will have a speedtest.net report sometime late on 2/23 or 2/24. Something like this:

 

2472094643.png

 

Although I suspect not quite as fast.

 

Thanks, as I'm a numbers guy also I'm curious how fast/slow it is. I saw your speedtest image and I was excited until I saw that it was a sample... :D

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