Internet on Galaxy

[cwilloz]

We're on the April 1 Galaxy sailing out of Galveston for Panama Canal. Have just found out that my friends in the Federal Government are going to release a Request For Proposal on 30 March....arrrgh. Have arranged for a standin for my part, but I know from experience that the time is going to come during the cruise when I get a "hey could you edit this for me?", or a request for some history etc.....From what I have been able to see, Galaxy only provides net access through their own machines, no wireless. Can anyone confirm this, and the correlating question...will their machines accept the USB jump drives so I can move necessary files between my notebook and their machine for relay?

 

Thanks,

 

Cliff Willoz

Riverhouse, Williamsburg, VA

[canderson]

We're on the April 1 Galaxy sailing out of Galveston for Panama Canal. Have just found out that my friends in the Federal Government are going to release a Request For Proposal on 30 March....arrrgh. Have arranged for a standin for my part, but I know from experience that the time is going to come during the cruise when I get a "hey could you edit this for me?", or a request for some history etc.....From what I have been able to see, Galaxy only provides net access through their own machines, no wireless. Can anyone confirm this, and the correlating question...will their machines accept the USB jump drives so I can move necessary files between my notebook and their machine for relay?

 

Thanks,

 

Cliff Willoz

Riverhouse, Williamsburg, VA

Let me try to answer all of the questions together in 3 different ways.

 

1) There IS Wi-Fi access on the Galaxy. If you bring your notebook, this will then also allow you to use VPN software to access your company email if you're required to get at it by this method. In fact, if you need VPN, using your own notebook is the only practical way to solve your problem since you won't be able to load any software onto any of the machines on the ship.

 

2) The machines in the internet cafe are locked down tight. You won't be able to transfer anything to anything. No floppy, no CD writer, no accessable USB ports, no nothing. However, if you can get the RFP info sent to you on an internet or webmail mail account (e.g., Comcast, Yahoo, whatever), you'll be able to access that email account, and you can copy the information or attachment while logged in for $, log out on the machine, and then do your editting for free. This is because there are two modes of login on these machines. The first is free -- it provides basic Microsoft applications like Word (and printing), giving you a chance to take info copied from your email and manipulate it and prepare it for return by email while you are "offline" at no charge. Once your work is completed, you can go "online" again for $ and paste or attach your results back into an email on your internet or webmail account and get off right away.

 

3) The machines in the training area (a whole bunch of notebook machines) DO have normal I/O access, including USB. The folks from Celebrity@sea are pretty cooperative, and can help you access an internet or webmail account and get a copy of the document to you on your USB dongle. Of course, you'd have to repeat this process to send your results back.

 

In all cases, be aware that the satellite connection on all of these ships isn't exactly 3G. I keep forgetting to ping off of some of the speed measuring sites, but I'd bet it isn't any better than a 33.6Kbps dialup modem.

[canderson]

I forgot to mention -- my favorite hot spot is around the Cova Cafe. Of course, the cappucino there may have had something to do with that!

[cwilloz]

Thanks for the reply.....WiFi is the key answer...just hadn't seen any reference to it. Used it on Summit and worked fine.

Thanks again,

Cliff Willoz