Xcelerate test requested from techie.

[serialcruiser48]

I was on the Summit this past Dec and Internet service was horrible. I spoke to the tech folks on the Summit about this horrible service and they mentioned new service coming soon. I asked if their new service was from 03b and was told their new service was NOT from 03b.

I'm currently on the Holland America Westerdam with their new upgraded service and it's horrible. The ping rates are 1000-1300 ms and web pages take forever to load. Testing proves the bandwidth has improved, but it does not help with the poor performance.

If you are on a Celebrity ship, please ping wg.net and report it here. If the ping rates are less than 300 ms, then you are probably using low orbit satellite. If ping rates are more than 600 ms, you are still using the old high orbit satellites.

PLEASE don't post anything if you don't understand.

Edited April 15, 2016 by serialcruiser48

[TommyD3]

I was on the Summit this past Dec and Internet service was horrible. I spoke to the tech folks on the Summit about this horrible service and they mentioned new service coming soon. I asked if their new service was from 03b and was told their new service was NOT from 03b.

I'm currently on the Holland America Westerdam with their new upgraded service and it's horrible. The ping rates are 1000-1300 ms and web pages take forever to load. Testing proves the bandwidth has improved, but it does not help with the poor performance.

If you are on a Celebrity ship, please ping wg.net and report it here. If the ping rates are less than 300 ms, then you are probably using low orbit satellite. If ping rates are more than 600 ms, you are still using the old high orbit satellites.

PLEASE don't post anything if you don't understand.

 

I was on the Eclipse two weeks ago when they implemented the upgraded internet service. It is the same provider (a division of Harris Corp) that they were using previously.

 

I ran the test at speedtest.bhn.net. They call it latency and it was REALLY slow - like 800 ms. Download speed varied betwwen 5 to 6 Mb/s from day to day and upload was 1/10 the download speed.

 

Royal Caribbean has it easy because many of their ships only sail in the Caribbean. All of the Celebrity ships sail all over the world. I believe the low earth orbit satellites only service the Caribbean.

[serialcruiser48]

I was on the Eclipse two weeks ago when they implemented the upgraded internet service. It is the same provider (a division of Harris Corp) that they were using previously.

 

I ran the test at speedtest.bhn.net. They call it latency and it was REALLY slow - like 800 ms. Download speed varied betwwen 5 to 6 Mb/s from day to day and upload was 1/10 the download speed.

 

Royal Caribbean has it easy because many of their ships only sail in the Caribbean. All of the Celebrity ships sail all over the world. I believe the low earth orbit satellites only service the Caribbean.

 

Thanks for the post. The IT folks on the Summit told me they were staying with high orbit satellite since 03b excludes the northern and Southern Hemispheres. That means my World of Tanks Blitz is not going to work and web pages are still slow to load.

I was able to improve Westerdam service by using static IP with most info from the DHCP minus DNS IP which I replaced with Googles DNS public servers. I think much of their awful service has to do with the ships DNS server. Of course this breaks unique local addresses like logout.com .

[guy999]

by the way i'm on fios and it's still 55ms

[masspector]

Thanks for the post. The IT folks on the Summit told me they were staying with high orbit satellite since 03b excludes the northern and Southern Hemispheres. That means my World of Tanks Blitz is not going to work and web pages are still slow to load.

I was able to improve Westerdam service by using static IP with most info from the DHCP minus DNS IP which I replaced with Googles DNS public servers. I think much of their awful service has to do with the ships DNS server. Of course this breaks unique local addresses like logout.com .

 

Thought wg.net looked familiar. WOT's fan here. Not a big fan of blitz.

 

Sounds like you know your IT. I also work in IT. Not to be rude, but I would never expect speed on a cruise ship to be up to snuff for playing online games.

[SheriffJoe]

Geeks gotta geek! :eek:

[guy999]

onboard solstice, we just got xcelerate 634 ms ping and .5 down and .3 up... that's right 0.5 and 0.3, but it's fast enough to be usable. I just run adblock and turn off all flash/java/ and image downloading and you can work.

[ghstudio]

Suggest you first ping logout.com for its IP address, then change your dns to google dns and use the logout ip to sign out. That's what I'll be trying on the eclipse on Tuesday.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[serialcruiser48]

Thought wg.net looked familiar. WOT's fan here. Not a big fan of blitz.

 

Sounds like you know your IT. I also work in IT. Not to be rude, but I would never expect speed on a cruise ship to be up to snuff for playing online games.

 

I play WOT on Xbox 360, Xbox one , Ps4 and Blitz. Guess you can say I'm hooked on WOT.

I founded Dicount Internet Inc. Of Texas in '96. Back in Slackware Linux days. Later moved to Redhat. Now I cruise and rave about bad Internet.

Speed on the Aulure of the Seas was 276ms, 25 mbps down. Don't remember the up, but it was just like being at home. The real Voom.

[serialcruiser48]

onboard solstice, we just got xcelerate 634 ms ping and .5 down and .3 up... that's right 0.5 and 0.3, but it's fast enough to be usable. I just run adblock and turn off all flash/java/ and image downloading and you can work.

 

I'm currently on the Liberty of the Seas and this ship is supposed to have Voom which it does not. My results are about the same and in my book sucks. I'll talk to the Concierge Host and ask him to find out when Voom will be ready.

[guy999]

Suggest you first ping logout.com for its IP address, then change your dns to google dns and use the logout ip to sign out. That's what I'll be trying on the eclipse on Tuesday.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

 

 

 

Ok but I started with using googles dns and if you logout it won't do auto direct now maybe after login changing to google dns. Maybe that would work

[MaryAnn&Don]

serialcruiser- Thanks for this thread. It was enlightening.

 

I was on Anthem to Bermuda recently and was very impressed with VOOM service. I was able to stream 10 security cameras any time. Also watched some YT video and low res Netflix.

 

In September, I will be on Celebrity Summit and am concerned about how good the Xcelerate is compared to Voom as we will be going north to PEI and Quebec. From what I understand, Xcelerate may not be as fast as Voom but it has better coverage north of Halifax, NS.

 

I wonder if there are any compare web sites for Voom vs Xcelerate in the common coverage zone?

 

I found this coverage map for Voom which may be of interest:

 

Edited July 2, 2016 by MaryAnn&Don

[Chunky2219]

Was on Sillhouette in May and the service was dreadful. Xcellerate was being advertised so I assume it was implemented.

 

It was much more than a case of which satellite and how much bandwidth was available, the connectivity on board by WiFi was so incompetent that I frequently couldn't even log in to try and get an internet connection. Worse, when after much trying I ended once up with a flat battery, I remained logged on with the minutes counting down. That was until I went to the iLounge and got the technician to reinstate the minutes. This is absolutely rubbish system design - if you are charging people by the minute like old-fashioned dial up used to be then it should trigger an auto logoff if the user device loses contact.

 

I took the chance while there to interrogate him on why I often couldn't get a logon. He gave me some guff about my laptop possibly being tied up to a distant WAP somewhere on ship and he "released" me to try again. I've had the same standard excuse given a couple of years ago aboard Constellation. It didn't improve things on either occasion.

 

When I could get a good logon (usually by finding a nice comfy chair in Cafe al Bacho) speed could still be pretty miserable. This wasn't a bandwidth issue or caused by rough seas, it was occuring when moored in port when there was almost no-one else aboard.

 

There have been some suggestions on here that the service drops off a cliff as you go north, with a bit of a consensus that Iceland was too far toward the top of the world. This ties in with the OP's original question. Having said that, Denmark and Sweden where we were in May is hardly the top of the world and it's no use crowing about having a great system if it only works well in the Caribbean.

 

 

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