Internet Connections - SC Suite

[PirateShark]

Maybe I missed this already somewhere (and if so, I apologize) but do the SC staterooms have internet connections or just wifi? This would be on the Oosterdam. Still trying to decide if I take the laptop or not.

Thanks!:D

[jtl513]

Maybe I missed this already somewhere (and if so, I apologize) but do the SC staterooms have internet connections or just wifi? This would be on the Oosterdam. Still trying to decide if I take the laptop or not.

Thanks!:DWifi is an internet connection. If you mean like a broadband LAN port, then no. It wouldn't be any better than wifi anyway, since the bottleneck is the satellite link.

You will probably find a dial-up port that may work, but that will be slower than the wifi.

Even if there was no internet connection possible, I would still bring my netbook to back up my pictures every night, and edit them during times when nothing else interests me.

[PirateShark]

Well Doh! You can see how "internets" challenged I really am now :o Thanks so much - may take this darn contraption with me just for the picture saving (a great idea!).

[English_in_Spain]

The other thing I found our netbook useful for was to keep a spreadsheet of our onboard spending.

At the end of each day I input all our receipts and kept a running total. Once a week or so (we were on for 33 days) I got a copy of our account and checked to make sure it agreed.

[jtl513]

The other thing I found our netbook useful for was to keep a spreadsheet of our onboard spending.Me too. Even on much shorter cruises than yours, that makes it much easier to find billing mistakes at the end of the cruise.

Another thing that my netbook is good for is bringing along copies of things:
* the complete edocs for DW and myself
* email confirmations of excursion and restaurant bookings
* photos of passports and credit cards (front and back)
* pages from guide books about the ports we'll be visiting with maps, info about restaurants, ferry/bus schedules, etc, etc
* just about any other useful info collected over months leading up to the cruise.

Also having a netbook/laptop is a big money saver if you're going to be doing much email, because reading/writing can be done off-line. And of course you have your address book and all of your favorites/bookmarks so that those don't have to be remembered and typed in while you're on-the-clock at a ship's computer.

[PirateShark]

You guys are awesome! Thanks for the great suggestions for use on this thing while I'm out on the high seas. It definately would be handy just for the e-doc back up alone.

[PathfinderEss]

Just a caution about using wifi thru the ship. Make sure you have really good secruity on your computer. I had a strange thing happen a few weeks ago while on board the Oosterdam. Did not take my computer, but had DH's work computer, which has so many safe guards on it, pobably takes 5 mins to get thru the securities, anyway I use it to get to my computer and had someone hack into my computer and send out emails from my address book. I had security but not extra security, which I was told if you go wifi you need. At first I though I had a virus but just turned out to be "spoofing" mail, at least that is what my provider told me. The other thing that will help is changing your password maybe for the cruise.

[jtl513]

The other thing that will help is changing your password maybe for the cruise. Can you explain why you think this will help? :confused:

[PathfinderEss]

Can you explain why you think this will help? :confused:



Well I wish I could but I really don't know why, that is what my Internet provider told me to do and it work. First I contacted my security provider and ask them to check my system for a virus, they said I had none. So the next thing I did was contact my Internet provider because a friend of mine said I should and that is what my provider said to do, after they ask me if I had checked about having a virus. I'm certainly not real computer savvy. According to my friend, it is really easy for someone to hack into wifi systems.

[jtl513]

According to my friend, it is really easy for someone to hack into wifi systems.
That depends on what you call the "systems".

It is easy for someone to "eavesdrop" on you when you are using wifi on an unsecured, public access point such as on a HAL ship or in a coffee shop, etc, but it is really no more easy to hack into your computer than on a non-wifi connection. I suspect that is what happened to you: someone "watched" you type some email addresses, and possibly a lot more.

If you changed your password after the cruise that would help protect you from someone using your email account that point on, but by then a lot of damage could have already been done.

The best thing to do when you are on an unsecured access point is to not type any sensitive information unless you are connected to a secure site: the URL starts with https:// and you have a locked padlock icon either on the address bar or down in the lower right corner of the screen. If you have that, everything going through the air via wifi is encrypted, and can not be "watched".

Still, as you said, it is important to have good security software on your computer to keep hackers out.

:)