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Splitting VOOM wifi signal

Jon in the ATL
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PCWalton1

PCWalton1

Posted
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Anyone have experience with splitting the wifi signal using a travel router on a RCCL ship? Why pay for 4 device access when you can pay one. Just curious.

 

Don't know if a router will work but if it did wouldn't all of you using it need to stay in the same general area?

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awestover89

awestover89

Posted
Posted
Anyone have experience with splitting the wifi signal using a travel router on a RCCL ship? Why pay for 4 device access when you can pay one. Just curious.

 

If you want multiple devices to access the internet at the same time you'll have to pay for it, a router won't do anything at all, you'd still have to access a browser and login on each device, and the number of devices that can use it at once is limited to what you paid for.

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MrYellowDuck

MrYellowDuck

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If you want multiple devices to access the internet at the same time you'll have to pay for it, a router won't do anything at all, you'd still have to access a browser and login on each device, and the number of devices that can use it at once is limited to what you paid for.

 

This is not true. A tool like Connectify would do exactly what is required. Due to the faraday cage that is the cabin the signal won't get far but that's fine if you want to use multiple devices in the cabin at the same time.

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reedl

reedl

Posted
Posted (edited)

A device like the the Netgear PR2000 travel router will take a single internet connection and deliver a signal which multiple devices can use.

 

It will only work in the cabin where the device is located of course.

 

I used one on the Majesty in Sept 2016 and it worked quite well.

 

Remember they have hundreds of access points on the ship. Your little access point is not going to carry much beyond the room door.

Edited by reedl
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Clarea

Clarea

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I tried using my phone as an access point for my iPad yes the iPad connected but when I tried the internet there was no conductivity.

To my knowledge, the phone can only be used as an access point when it is getting internet access via cellular.

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reedl

reedl

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Posted (edited)
I tried using my phone as an access point for my iPad yes the iPad connected but when I tried the internet there was no conductivity.

 

Sent from my R1 HD using Forums mobile app

 

That will not work since your phone cannot both connect to wifi and generate a wifi access point at the same time.

Edited by reedl
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blackshirt

blackshirt

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That will not work since your phone cannot both connect to wifi and generate a wifi access point at the same time.

 

Correct. When you turn your phone into a wifi access point or hotspot, it is so that other devices can use the phone's cellular data connection. When you turn hotspot on, the phone will drop its wifi connection.

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charmed1959

charmed1959

Posted
Posted
Anyone have experience with splitting the wifi signal using a travel router on a RCCL ship? Why pay for 4 device access when you can pay one. Just curious.

 

We just got off the Harmony, and they way their wifi works was you would get a login and password that would work for as many devices as you paid for at a time. For instance, we paid for two, and we could move back and forth between it being for my phone and my ipad, or my husband's ipad and my ipad, or his phone and my phone. So you only need to pay for as many devices as you will have accessing it at a time.

 

You can also pay by the day, so if you only wanted access for a second device on sea days you don't have to pay for two for the entire trip.

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MrYellowDuck

MrYellowDuck

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It's called Integrity. Some people have it. Some people don't.

 

The package is designed so that you can use it in any way that you please. It's rate limited so you can't suck down more than you've paid for. While the impression can be created of all devices being online at once in reality only one is.

 

There's no cheating being promoted here. Most people are only capable of using multiple devices by signing-in on each device one at a time. Some people can reduce this effort. Without being silly this can be done only for those devices in the immediate vicinity of the primary device accessing the wifi; there is no practical way of achieving the outcome for devices in different parts of the ship.

 

There is no legitimate integrity concern here.

 

If the question were "I looked over the shoulder of another cruiser and watched them tapping in their wifi password and I am wonder whether it's okay for me to use this rather than buy my own package", then we'd be in the realm of needing to explore integrity.

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reedl

reedl

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At best VOOM gives you 3.5 Mbps. Split it once it degrades the bandwidth by 60% split it 3 ways 80% signal loss. Have fun with .45 mbps.

 

TCP does not work like that. If you have three devices, and only one is transmitting at a time, then it would get the full 3.5 Mbps connectivity speed.

 

If two were using the connectivity, unless you are streaming video, the amount of data is actually quite low so you would not notice any perceivable slowdown.

 

Furthermore, if you are talking about 802.11, the raw bandwidth of 802.11G is 45 Mbps, which means a real throughput of about 20 Mbps. Typical 'travel routers' like the one I specified, can access a WiFi on one channel, and distribute another WiFi access point name on a different channel.

 

As an aside, this is my area of expertise. I have worked on internet software for over 20 years, and wireless internet technology for 10 years so I know of what I speak.

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spookwife

spookwife

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Posted
The package is designed so that you can use it in any way that you please. It's rate limited so you can't suck down more than you've paid for. While the impression can be created of all devices being online at once in reality only one is.

 

There's no cheating being promoted here. Most people are only capable of using multiple devices by signing-in on each device one at a time. Some people can reduce this effort. Without being silly this can be done only for those devices in the immediate vicinity of the primary device accessing the wifi; there is no practical way of achieving the outcome for devices in different parts of the ship.

 

There is no legitimate integrity concern here.

 

If the question were "I looked over the shoulder of another cruiser and watched them tapping in their wifi password and I am wonder whether it's okay for me to use this rather than buy my own package", then we'd be in the realm of needing to explore integrity.

 

he specifically asked about connecting four devices at a time for the price of connecting one device. sorry, to me that's cheating the system.

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Biker19

Biker19

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If two were using the connectivity, unless you are streaming video, the amount of data is actually quite low so you would not notice any perceivable slowdown.

They may not perceive the slow down since the original connection is so crappy to begin with. On a non-O3B equipped ship, the Surf connection is .5 Mbps down at best with a very high 600+ ms ping - you split that among any devices and are getting even crappier connection. The performance might be better on an O3B equipped ship, but again, the convenience gain by splitting the signal is questionable.

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Biker19

Biker19

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he specifically asked about connecting four devices at a time for the price of connecting one device. sorry, to me that's cheating the system.

 

Not really - think of the WiFi package as ordering a water service to your cabin that delivers 5 cups per minute. No one cares (including RCI) if you install 4 pipes to divert that water in 4 different directions inside you cabin - you are not getting any more (or consuming) than 5 cups per minute. Sure, 4 people at a time can drink the water instead of waiting to line up at the original pipe, but there's no gain/cheating - still drinking 5 cups per minute. You are paying for the water - not the pipe.

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reedl

reedl

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Posted (edited)
They may not perceive the slow down since the original connection is so crappy to begin with. On a non-O3B equipped ship, the Surf connection is .5 Mbps down at best with a very high 600+ ms ping - you split that among any devices and are getting even crappier connection. The performance might be better on an O3B equipped ship, but again, the convenience gain by splitting the signal is questionable.

 

But the type of data transmitted for normal surfing/email/Facebook, etc is bursty and not a continuous stream of data. Therefore even if you split it three ways, you probably will not notice any slowdown.

 

We used to run a whole company of 100 people on a single T-1 (1.5 Mbps). This was before streaming, etc. We had no issues with 100 people surfing, email, etc.

 

The bandwidth hog is video.

 

...And there is no overhead for sharing the connection even ten times. If you have ten people connected, but two are actively using the connection (at that moment in time), they each will typically get half the bandwidth. But because of the way the ships internet works (very high latency, but pretty fast speeds) your requests for text/pictures/etc. typically take a while, but are fast when they start.

Edited by reedl
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reedl

reedl

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Another piece of data. I worked with a company that had a site that used the Hughes Satellite delivered internet (same type of latency as the ship's internet), and we had 10 people using that single .5 Mbps connection without issue for surfing, etc. Of course they could not stream anything, but that was not what they needed.

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reedl

reedl

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While I have not tried this device myself, it is supposedly setup to log into a wifi signal itself and then split the data on it's own hotspot. This is supposed to include those systems where you need to sign into a webpage first to activate the signal.

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/WL330NUL/

 

That looks like something that should work. Actually that is a cool device in that it is sort of a 'swiss army knife' of internet connectivity.

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