Internet in general and on Pride of America in particular

[sunshine221]

We are on our 11th Carnival Cruise and we've never had this problem before. On the Dream, the WIFI is strictly for surfing the web. They must have ports blocked so that we cannot do normal work. I can use Outlook Web Access but not Outlook Anywhere (my normal Outlook), i cannot VPN or RDP to my own or clients computer and I cannot use Log Me In.

 

I know this is vacation but my husband and I are business consultants and we can't cruise without these key communication methods.

 

We did not have these issues a few months ago on the Sunshine.

 

We are on POA in March and I've assumed that at least in port my normal AT&T service will work, but what about away from port? We need to be in touch wihth our office and clients.

 

....signed...wasting my onboard minutes writing this instead of working.

[KeithJenner]

I've not been on the POA, and don't use Outlook, but have never come across such restrictions on other NCL ships.

 

I understand they restrict video streaming and things like Skype, but everything else has worked for me.

 

I use logmein quite regularly and don't recall ever having a problem with it (although it is possible that I haven't happened to try it onboard). I don't think you will have a problem with what you are trying to do. Obviously it's quite slow though.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[dexddd]

Never had a problem on any NCL ship using vpn or being blocked. If you are in port you should be able to use either a mobile hot spot if you have one or use your phone as a hot spot if you have that option.

[VideoTech]

NCL's internet system does restrict some activities, such as Skype and streaming. They probably do this with port blocking. I have not heard of people having trouble using Outlook, but perhaps those who do are using a company laptop with different security measures in place, that are conflicting with NCL's system?

 

In any case, the main problem with NCL's system is that it's very, very slow. Think dial-up modem speeds, if you can remember those. You should not have any problems reaching land-based AT&T systems when in port.

[herdingdogmom]

We are on POA in March and I've assumed that at least in port my normal AT&T service will work, but what about away from port?

 

You won't have any trouble on the Pride of America. Your cell phone will ping the land based towers and reception is good. Wi fi is readily available in all the ports. The ship doesn't interfere or block anything. I think I've read they don't turn on their cell tower or whatever the correct terminology is.

 

A couple of nights when you are sailing from island to island you will be far from land and not be able to ping the land based towers. Be sure to turn the phone off or it will run out of battery life trying to connect all night.

[dexddd]

We are on our 11th Carnival Cruise and we've never had this problem before. On the Dream, the WIFI is strictly for surfing the web. They must have ports blocked so that we cannot do normal work. I can use Outlook Web Access but not Outlook Anywhere (my normal Outlook), i cannot VPN or RDP to my own or clients computer and I cannot use Log Me In.

 

I know this is vacation but my husband and I are business consultants and we can't cruise without these key communication methods.

 

We did not have these issues a few months ago on the Sunshine.

 

We are on POA in March and I've assumed that at least in port my normal AT&T service will work, but what about away from port? We need to be in touch wihth our office and clients.

 

....signed...wasting my onboard minutes writing this instead of working.

 

As far as Outlook, it could be that your company has an exchange server for Outlook. So if you are not vpn'd in, Outlook is basically in disconnected mode (see lower right corner and it will say "offline". Hence the work around is Outlook Web Access which works via internet. What ever you do in one will synch with the other.

 

eta: Sometimes when you come back into Outlook, say via vpn or when you are back in the office, it won't automatically go back online so you have to go to the top, pick the right tab and look for the offline button and hit it once.

Edited January 29, 2014 by dexddd
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[sunshine221]

Thanks guys - I figured we'd pretty much have our AT&T service for most of the trip I am the owner of my personal computer sales, repair and consulting firm and I'm pretty much am the exchange administrator, etc.

 

I was just on the Carnival Dream and they recently changed internet vendors and are blocking vpn and rdp for staff and guests. I'm not 100% of logmein - I would get partially in so I assume it's a bandwidth problem. I don't mind the typical slow internet on ships but to compensate that's why I usually rdp into my company server and so if I lose connection I don't lose work.