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wifi device

lvpet

By lvpet,
in Princess Cruises

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Sea Hag

Sea Hag

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, lvpet said:

With the Plus package, you can connect one device.  Does that mean one device at a time or one device?

Thanks.

Currently, it means one device at a time. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if they make it hardwired to one device in the future. 

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lx200gps

lx200gps

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, lvpet said:

With the Plus package, you can connect one device.  Does that mean one device at a time or one device?

Thanks.

It's one device at a time. If you have more than one you want to connect, all you do is disconnect one and log on to the other. If you try to log on with two devices, the system  warns you that you are already connected with one device and kindly offers to disconnect you from the first one so you can connect with another.

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Rick&Jeannie "Live from...." Rare

Rick&Jeannie

Posted
Posted

Actually, you don't even have to "disconnect" the first device.  This is one system that Princess actually did right! (Of course...it probably wasn't Princess at all...)

 

When you try to connect your second device it senses that another device is currently using your account and asks you if you want to disconnect it automatically.  Very easy to switch back and forth.  Before the advent of the Plus system, where we both have our own internet package we did this all the time while "sharing" the internet time between us.

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kapsgp

kapsgp

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, lvpet said:

With the Plus package, you can connect one device.  Does that mean one device at a time or one device?

Thanks.

You do not have to log off and log on when switching between devices. On the medallion app you scroll down to medallion net and tap swap and it will automatically connect your other device.

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david63

david63

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, Sea Hag said:

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they make it hardwired to one device in the future. 

Can you explain how you "hardwire" a wifi connection?

 

8 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

wouldn't a travel router eliminate having to switch devices when in your cabin?

Yes - use one all the time when onboard a ship

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MissP22

MissP22

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, david63 said:

Can you explain how you "hardwire" a wifi connection?

 

Yes - use one all the time when onboard a ship

So as I understand it, a portable router will feed back into the intranet system. thus providing for switching anywhere on the ship, not only in the cabin?

 

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Sea Hag

Sea Hag

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, david63 said:

Can you explain how you "hardwire" a wifi connection?

I said that badly. What I meant is that it would be very doable to change the way that the login cookies are written. The first time a person logged in, their account would be updated with the fact that they'd "registered" a device. The login cookie would, of course, be written to that "reigstered" device. After that, the cookie would be read on an ongoing basis to keep the person logged in and any other log in from a different, uncookied device would be rejected. The cookie would be set to expire at the end of the voyage. I've never set up cookies to write to a router, and I frankly don't know what's possible there but I think even that is still a simple case. I think that probably the first device a person logged in with going through the router would get the cookie, and other subsequent logins would be rejected. Maybe.

 

Now, there's still the case of a person who has their device set up to dump cookies when they close their browser or some such. Those people have to keep logging in all the time. I'm pretty sure this is solvable, one way or another.

 

For anybody who thinks I'm getting way carried away on this and that it'll never happen, I sincerely hope you're right and I'm wrong. I'm wrong all the time, so that comes as no surprise to me.  I'm just saying that this is a real possibility. I see this as comparatively low hanging fruit for Princess to gather more revenue at a time when they're all about gathering more revenue.

Edited by Sea Hag
one more thing
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Rick&Jeannie "Live from...." Rare

Rick&Jeannie

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, Sea Hag said:

 I think that probably the first device a person logged in with going through the router would get the cookie, and other subsequent logins would be rejected.

I suspect you would be correct in this scenario.  Like you, I hope it never happens!  I'd be willing to bet that this small "sub-routine" (for lack of better words to describe the WiFi access) was probably written by a third party.  And NOT the current people who are handling Medallion App!  This has been in place for quite some time and it works very well.  I particularly like that you don't have to log out of the first device.  When the second device comes along wanting to log in...it just posts a message that the first will be disconnected and you go on your merry way, none the wiser as to what's going on in the background.

 

BTW...I knew what you were trying to say when you said "hardwired"...but it was a bit confusing for anybody not in IT.  We tend to get a little loose with the terminology!  (At least I do!) 😄

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Thrak

Thrak

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, david63 said:

Can you explain how you "hardwire" a wifi connection?

 

 

Not hardwired but you can restrict the connection to a particular MAC Address (Media Access Control Address). Every device has a unique MAC address. The MAC address is a Hexadecimal number. An example would be: 00-B0-D0-63-C2-26

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Sea Hag

Sea Hag

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Not hardwired but you can restrict the connection to a particular MAC Address (Media Access Control Address). Every device has a unique MAC address. The MAC address is a Hexadecimal number. An example would be: 00-B0-D0-63-C2-26

I like that. This is better than my cookie solution, and this just didn't occur to me. Bravo!

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Thrak

Thrak

Posted
Posted
On 3/21/2023 at 1:15 PM, Sea Hag said:

I like that. This is better than my cookie solution, and this just didn't occur to me. Bravo!

 

I just hope Princess never adopts such a policy. On the other hand I'm not sure their IT department could figure it out.

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david63

david63

Posted
Posted

The main problem with such a system is that you have to be connected to the network in order to acquire the MAC address as it is not part of the user agent (browser). In any event a MAC address is not a unique device identifier - it is only the network card identifier and there are multiple ways that you can connect the same device but have different MAC addresses.

 

As most of this is theoretically possible I doubt that the average cruise passenger would be doing such things and in reality it could be made to work in 99% of cases.

 

Also as Princess "push" their packages the requirement for such controls will probably become less important and all may well change with Starlink

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  • 1 year later...
VRVacations

VRVacations

Posted
Posted (edited)

So Princess just uses the MAC Address of the device to determine whether the device has access to the internet. I’ve tested this. I’ve had the plus and premier plans that have 2 or 4 simultaneous devices to connect to the internet, respectively.

 

Once you login using the other device ie laptop (there’s a couple of different options), the network uses the devices MAC address to permit access to the internet based upon the plan purchased.


I use a “travel” router where I use the MAC address of my laptop. I first use my laptop to “login”, then clone the MAC address of the laptop on my travel router. The travel router then relays the medallionet network to the travel router’s WiFi access point. And bingo. You can connect other devices using the travel routers access point ssid instead of medallionet. I’ve even setup a mesh network with another access point in an adjacent cabins.

 

I use a GL iNet B1300. You want to upgrade the firmware to 4.3.11 or above then install OpenWRT 23.x. Then install TravelMate. TravelMate on OpenWRT allows you to connect as a WiFi client replacing the MAC address of the router with another MAC address such as your laptop.  
 

 Note, the WiFi signal between adjacent rooms drops tremendously because the cabins are made out of metal cages. It’s almost a faraday cage. If you want to setup a mesh network, you want to use a mesh backhaul on a 2.4Ghz network on channel 6. It’s not as fast as 5Ghz but 2.4Ghz goes farther. I did a network scan and apparently, they only use channels 1 and 11 on the 2.4Ghz bands. So channel 6 is pretty open.

 

I setup the access points using 5Ghz for local devices to connect.

 

I’ve also used a TP-Link AC750. It’s so small and can be powered by a portable battery. You can walk around the ship with a portable travel router in your pocket like a hotspot relay.

Edited by VRVacations
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Rick&Jeannie "Live from...." Rare

Rick&Jeannie

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, VRVacations said:

So Princess just uses the MAC Address of the device to determine whether the device has access to the internet. I’ve tested this. I’ve had the plus and premier plans that have 2 or 4 simultaneous devices to connect to the internet, respectively.

 

Once you login using the other device ie laptop (there’s a couple of different options), the network uses the devices MAC address to permit access to the internet based upon the plan purchased.


I use a “travel” router where I use the MAC address of my laptop. I first use my laptop to “login”, then clone the MAC address of the laptop on my travel router. The travel router then relays the medallionet network to the travel router’s WiFi access point. And bingo. You can connect other devices using the travel routers access point ssid instead of medallionet. I’ve even setup a mesh network with another access point in an adjacent cabins.

 

I use a GL iNet B1300. You want to upgrade the firmware to 4.3.11 or above then install OpenWRT 23.x. Then install TravelMate. TravelMate on OpenWRT allows you to connect as a WiFi client replacing the MAC address of the router with another MAC address such as your laptop.  
 

 Note, the WiFi signal between adjacent rooms drops tremendously because the cabins are made out of metal cages. It’s almost a faraday cage. If you want to setup a mesh network, you want to use a mesh backhaul on a 2.4Ghz network on channel 6. It’s not as fast as 5Ghz but 2.4Ghz goes farther. I did a network scan and apparently, they only use channels 1 and 11 on the 2.4Ghz bands. So channel 6 is pretty open.

 

I setup the access points using 5Ghz for local devices to connect.

 

I’ve also used a TP-Link AC750. It’s so small and can be powered by a portable battery. You can walk around the ship with a portable travel router in your pocket like a hotspot relay.

LOL! While I'm pretty sure that I could probably achieve what you are describing (I'm a retired network manager...) I don't think there's more than a handful here on CC that have a clue what you're talking about! 😄 No disrespect to *anyone* intended...just that we're talking about some rather sophisticated equipment and setup.

 

Also....that was a rather old thread you've resurrected.

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Edited by Rick&Jeannie
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