International INTERNET service on my CELL

[Lyndihop]

I hope that someone can help me.....Is there any reliable internet service for your cell phone while travelling internationally? i.e. LA-HNL-Tahiti, etc. and while at sea.........

I have to manage a property and keep in touch. I'm thinking AT&T???

Anyone have feedback for reliabilty?????????? And costs??

[garydm]

Why not just use the internet service on the ship using their computers or a laptop using their wireless connections? When in port, there are always internet cafes also.

Gary

[sail7seas]

HAL has onboard satelite telephone service but it has been reported AT & T does not get the signal. There is a high per minute charge for those phones which do get service.

[sueclark]

I just use the ship's internet or occasionally a port internet cafe (which are much cheaper!). I also have a business to keep up with when I travel. I've found that on a 7 day cruise I easily use the 100 minute package. On our Alaska cruise a month ago, that package was $55.

[CrystalLady]

AT&T wireless recently signed a joint venture with Sea Mobile, who has the telecommunications service on HAL ships and most other cruise lines as well. I've had AT&T wireless for years, and my personal experience has been most satisfactory. I found their international rates lower than Verizon's.

You can also purchase satellite phone service cards on all HAL ships - either in the Neptune Lounge or at the Front Desk. The calling cards are $25.00 for 12 minutes - which works out to a bit over $2.00/minute, or about the same as using your cell phone at sea. You will need a global phone if you plan to use it in Tahiti (or anywhere else internationally). You can activate international service with AT&T for the time you will be overseas - it costs peanuts - and then terminate it once you return home. It goes on a monthly basis.

If you have a laptop with camera and microphone, and those with whom you need to "speak" on the other end also have a web cam, there is a way you can communicate verbally and visually with your laptop.

As others have suggested, you might also consider an internet package and keep in touch via internet. Usually, the ships offer a perk (discount or extra minutes) if you sign up within 24 hours of sailing.

[sail7seas]

That's great to hear, Crystal Lady.

We have AT & T so it's Good to know our phones will now work as in the past they did not. DH uses e-mail mostly but cabin phone as well while on the ship (and FAX). We try hard to make as few calls as we can and save the few odd calls we make for port days. The whole idea is to keep DH OFF the phone while we're away, if at all possible. :rolleyes:

[CrystalLady]

Sail - I was delighted when I found out about AT&T/Sea Mobile because I couldn't use my cell phone at sea for awhile either. I also make use of HAL's phone cards. I keep in daily contact with "home base" unless we're out of satellite range. Out of courtesy for others, I only use my cell phone in my accommodations.

[Benita]

For internet, we have been using out iphone internationally. The iphone roaming costs a fortune, so we turn that off and actually switch it to airplane mode, which shuts off the phone service, but then we turn wifi on. Whenever we hit a wifi hotspot (and there are free wifi spots all over ), we can check and send out emails. Using the phone is pretty expensive - usually ranging from $1.50 to $4.00 a minute), so we reserve that for emergencies.

[Benita]

Just wanted to add something about ATT. You have to call them to have international roaming ability turned on.

[Lyndihop]

Is it difficult to access the "net" on the ship?? It's been a few years, but I found that the computer rooms were usually very busy.

So can I use the ships "net" while in Tahiti??

[Benita]

Ships internet service is very hit or miss. On our last Princess cruise, they never had a signal for internet access. When we were the same ship a couple of months earlier, the signal was strong and access fast. Newer ships have more antennas for access, so on our Eurodam cruise, I will bring along my small (7inch screen) ASUS laptop and try for the access in the cabin. Internet is such a money maker on cruise ships, that they all tend to have lots of terminals these days.

[cf_chuck]

Is it difficult to access the "net" on the ship?? It's been a few years, but I found that the computer rooms were usually very busy.

So can I use the ships "net" while in Tahiti??

In my experience there are usually computers available in the lounge.

Most likely, no. They typically turn off passenger acccess to the sat feed when in port. This includes cell phones and internet service.

[sail7seas]

Ships internet service is very hit or miss. On our last Princess cruise, they never had a signal for internet access. When we were the same ship a couple of months earlier, the signal was strong and access fast. Newer ships have more antennas for access, so on our Eurodam cruise, I will bring along my small (7inch screen) ASUS laptop and try for the access in the cabin. Internet is such a money maker on cruise ships, that they all tend to have lots of terminals these days.


I've been thinking about getting a 7" ASUS laptop. Are you happy with yours for travel? Does it serve your needs reasonably well?

I'd only load the very basics into it. I would have no private info included and only want it for e-mail and web surfing when traveling.

[Benita]

I adore this computer. It only weights a little over a pound and fits in my average sized handbag. It is very fast and comes preloaded with Skype. It is perfect for web surfing and emails (and the screen certainly is bigger than the one on my iphone). Best of all, it was only $399 including shipping from amazon.com last year and I think it is even less money now.

[sail7seas]

Thanks, Benita.....


I WANT one. Sounds like it is perfect for what I want.
Think I'll check out Amazon. Does yours have Windows? Vista?

[jtl513]

Does yours have Windows? Vista?
They come with Linix (a PC version of Unix) that is Windows XP compatible.

I believe they don't have an Ethernet/WLAN port, which means they can't be used in hotels that have that type of connection but no wireless.

There's four models available. See http://eeepc.asus.com/us/product.htm

[sail7seas]

Seeing as all the ships and (most) airports have WiFi, they can be used in both places?

Any hotel without WiFi in the rooms cannot use the ASUS? Actually, now that I think of it, every hotel we've been in the last few years all have WiFi.

[Benita]

Wow, they now have an 8G model. Only the 2 and 4G were available when I bought mine. I did not bother to change to Windows XP, as the Linix is fine - I just made my opening page the same as my home page in my home computer and really can't tell the difference.
As long as the hotel is wired for internet and has the ethernet connection in the room, you can use your computer, even if the connection is not wifi. Most hotel rooms have the cable there, but we travel with a short one, just in case - only costs about $5 at any computer or Office Depot type store- it is the cable that looks like it has a phone jack at either end.
The ASUS can be used anyplace a laptop can be used. If there is free wifi available, it will be free to use. If they charge for it, like on a ship or some hotels, when you turn it on, you will get the home page of whichever, and can sign up for the use. If they charge, you will have to enter your credit card info (or ship or hotel room) and sign up for whatever package they offer - sometimes by the minute, sometimes, by the day.
Sure beats standing in line at the business center of the hotel or in the computer room on the ship.

[sail7seas]

Benita....... Have you run across many places where you could not use it?

[jtl513]

Any hotel without WiFi in the rooms cannot use the ASUS? Actually, now that I think of it, every hotel we've been in the last few years all have WiFi.We tend to stay in mid-range Marriott chain hotels (Courtyard, Residence Inn, etc) and many of them (maybe even most of them) that we've been in the last few years have an Ethernet/WLAN connection but no wifi in the room.

[Benita]

The only places where I cannot use it are in places were there is no computer access. Some airports only have secured wifi, which means you have to have their security code to use it. Some older hotels only have internet access in their business centers, but almost every place we have been in the past year has had proper access. I also have an iphone, so if I am really in need of email access, I can use that for emails, but if there is no wifi, it has to go over the 3G or edge network, which can be quite costly overseas, as you are billed for the airtime used.
Think of the ASUS as the same as your regular laptop (although it is a lot smaller, lighter, and cheaper). Wherever you can use your regular computer, you can use the ASUS. With its limited memory and small hard drive, you can't use it to download pictures or for work purposes, but for emails and web surfing, it is fabulous.
JT, the ASUS has the ethernet port as well as a printer port and 2 USB ports, as well as another one that I can not figure out (maybe for a camera cable). It also has a port for headphones and two other ports that look like holes for speakers.

[sail7seas]

Sounds absolutely wonderful and I greatly appreciate your patience with my endless questions.

One more........ Can you watch a move; listen to a CD?

Thank you very much for all your help.

[Benita]

In order to keep the computer small and light (and cheap), there is no built in CD or DVD player. If you have an external one, you can connect it, via the USB port to the ASUS. However, as the screen is only 7 inches, it won't be any bigger than the one on your DVD player.

[sail7seas]

Thanks, Benita. I'm finally out of questions and seriously think I am going to buy one on Amazon. I wish it would play CD's but that is okay. Sounds like a perfect small computer for travel. As I said when I started my endless questions, all I really want is e-mail and web surfing.

The other I am/was considering is the Dell Inspiron Mini Notebook. It has windows and 8.9" screen but costs about $300 more, I think.

[Benita]

I'm sure you will be happy with whichever you chose. I would not let windows be the dealbreaker for me, as both Windows and Linix seems to do the same thing. Granted, I am no computer pro, but I have three computers - my desktop is Windows Vista, and my laptop at the office is Windows XP and the ASUS has the Linix, and I can not tell the difference between Windows XP and the Linix.

[maxipup]

Just read this very interesting thread on ASUS/mini computers.
Iphones are too small for me to see and read, but a mini computer should be just the ticket.
As a techno-peasant, I read the comments, but really understood not much, so some clarification would be much appreciated:
1. with a mini-computer, I can email anywhere there are wifi?
2. using the wifi involves a credit card info?
3. occasionally, the wifi is free?

[Benita]

Maxipup, If wifi is free, you just go ahead and email. If you are in the space of somebody's personal wifi which they have secured (like in an office), you will be asked to enter their code. If there is no unsecured wifi around and you do not have their code, you will not have internet access. If there is wifi which you pay for, you will be asked to enter your credit card info. If you are in a hotel without wifi, but with internet access through a port (looks like a phone jack), you can plug in the computer to the jack and have internet access that way. When you connect to the internet, you will get the home page of that hotel and it will give you instructions on how to pay, if it is not free.
About half the hotels we have stayed in have free internet access - although many require you to plug into the port, which is why I pack the cable (lots of guests steal the cable from the hotel room, so they run short in loaners). Many coffee shops and restaurants have free wifi (they usually have a sign out front, or I can find the places with a program on the internet) and then I just turn the computer on and press connect to internet and voila.
The ASUS computer is a regular laptop, just very small and without a huge amount of hard drive or memory, so it is not for photo storage or chores that require a more powerful computer. It is for email, web surfing, and Skype.
Although there is a big difference in how it works, to simplify, wifi is internet access where you do not need to plug in a computer (other than the power source, if your battery is low). The other form of computer access is where you plug it in with the ethernet cable. This works just about as well.

[Hutch&Pat]

If you have a laptop with camera and microphone, and those with whom you need to "speak" on the other end also have a web cam, there is a way you can communicate verbally and visually with your laptop.

.

Is the ship's internet fast enough to do this? Video chat with Voice works great from home on high speed internet. Not sure how fast the ship's internet is ..... guess it just seems really slow when you're emailing and paying by the minute : ) Has anyone tried it on a ship?
Pat

[sail7seas]

I think the connection is too slow, CrystalLady. I wouldn't count on being able to do that.

[jtl513]

Is the ship's internet fast enough to do this? Video chat with Voice works great from home on high speed internet. Not sure how fast the ship's internet is ..... guess it just seems really slow when you're emailing and paying by the minute : ) Has anyone tried it on a ship?
PatI've never tried VOIP on board, but doubt that it would be very good. I have run many speed tests on HAL ships in many locations and have never found a download speed in excess of 55 Kbps ... just a tiny bit better than dial-up.

With a laptop you will get a 54 Mbps connection to ship server in the best locations, but the problem is the satellite link.

[maxipup]

Thanks to Benita on clarifying the ins and outs of using a computer while travelling.
Just been to Future Shop, and they have an ACER that is 8.9" wide, 4 G harddrive for C$300, and 8G for $400. So I shall have to do some comparison shopping. The whole concept is so exciting - a computer small enough yet still has a readable screen and usable keyboard, unlike the Blackberries.

[Benita]

When we bought the ASUS, the main availability was on Amazon.com and bestbuy.com It was not sold in any stores at the time. Amazon.com gave free shipping, so we bought it from them.

[Lyndihop]

I looked on AT&T's site, and it seems they offer an international/ship program.

How dependable is your cell for e-mail while at sea??? Or does it just depend on where in the world you are??

[garydm]

I must be missing something. Why use your iPhone for email on the ship when you can use the ship's computers at less cost? I left mine on "airplane mode" while on the ship to avoid the high per minute charges and then turned it on when in port.

Gary

[Benita]

I agree with Garydm. You can set up the wifi on the ship to use on your cell phone, but for the same price you can use a real keyboard and monitor - either the ship's or your own laptop. Make sure you disable call roaming on your cell. It is safest to leave the phone on airplane mode with wifi enabled, if you want to use your cell phone for the internet, or you might want up using the edge network (I doubt they have 3G at sea) and being charged while you are online - at $3 or so a minute, it will really add up.

[richwmn]

They come with Linix (a PC version of Unix) that is Windows XP compatible.

I believe they don't have an Ethernet/WLAN port, which means they can't be used in hotels that have that type of connection but no wireless.

There's four models available. See http://eeepc.asus.com/us/product.htm
John - I really hate to disagree with you but Linux is not Windows XP compatible. They are, however, similar in operation. Linux has many programs that provide the same capabilities as Windows, but Windows programs will only run under Linux with an emulator. Linux programs will not run on Windows either. Several programs exist (open office, firefox, thunderbird to name a few) that are made available for all systems including MACs. The eeepc can be ordered with Linux or a modified WinXP designed for it.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=eeepc&x=0&y=0

Rich

[jtl513]

John - I really hate to disagree with you but Linux is not Windows XP compatible.Yes, I know. I misspoke. :o I meant to say "and {the ASUS} is XP compatible, not "that is XP compatible" ... meaning that the standard Linux could be replaced by XP. I saw that error after the 20 min correction period had lapsed, and was hoping nobody noticed! :D

[richwmn]

Yes, I know. I misspoke. :o I meant to say "and {the ASUS} is XP compatible, not "that is XP compatible" ... meaning that the standard Linux could be replaced by XP. I saw that error after the 20 min correction period had lapsed, and was hoping nobody noticed! :D
As you know I use Linux exclusively for myself, and I didn't want someone to be misled in thinking they could get the eeepc and run a standard program like quicken on it.
Don't get me wrong, there are programs available to do most everything Windows will do, just not the ones you are used to.

Rich

[kenish]

My contribution to the thread as a techhie:

- The Asus eeePC models are great. They sold so well that other manufacturers are coming out with competing models such as the HP Mini-Note. This genre of PCs are called "Netbooks". The eeePC has a flash memory drive instead of a mechanical hard disk drive but I believe competing models use a hard drive. Flash drives are more tolerant of abuse, but have a lot less capacity (32GB is a big one). Netbooks usually lack a DVD/CD; you can buy an external one but that starts to defeat the purpose. Some Netbooks may have a wired Ethernet connection; the specs will say "Ethernet port" or "100baseT" if it has one. The port is square and looks like a bigger version of a standard telephone jack.

- Linux is an operating system, just like Windows or OS-X (Apple). Programs like email and word processing have to be compatible. Standard Microsoft products are difficult to run on Linux systems since it's the only serious threat to the Gates empire. But there are lots of programs that run under Linux. It's "open source", meaning Linux program code has to be public, and the community is constantly improving and debugging Linux itself and programs. Since Linux is not as ubiquitous as Windows it tends to have fewer viruses since it's not as big a target.

- Shipboard WiFi is usually very slow due to the satellite link. It reminded me of the old dial-up days! Video or IP phone calls will work poorly if at all, and may be blocked because of the limited bandwidth or for profit reasons (see the next item).

- Remember 20 years ago when hotels blocked the 800 access numbers to MCI, Sprint, etc. forcing you to use their overpriced phone service? The new version is many hotels block Skype and other IP phone services. I haven't experienced this personally since I don't use Skype but don't assume availability on all hotel and shipboard WiFi systems.

- Google "free wifi" for websites that list free WiFi hot spots. Of course this is rather ironic if you need to get online to find out where to get access!

HTH :)

[jtl513]

- Shipboard WiFi is usually very slow due to the satellite link. It reminded me of the old dial-up days!I've run many speed tests on HAL ships from different locations on board and have never gotten a download speed that exceeded 55 Kbps ... like dial up. (You will get a 54 Mbps wifi connection to the ship's router in many places, but that is essentially meaningless.) I was told by one of MTN's Internet Managers once that the passengers are allocated roughly half the bandwidth of the satellite link.