Norwegian Internet and iPhone Hotspot

[duchesslt]

Hi! I can't imagine paying $600 to connect 2 iphones and a laptop to the Internet on Escape - especially since I'm hearing service is slow. Has anyone tried while cruising to pay for 1 iphone to be connected and then using that iPhone hotspot feature to connect other devices? If the internet speed is horrible that can be challenging but I figure worth a try.

 

Thanks for helping a neurotic planner/budgeter.:rolleyes:

[Loonbeam]

Not sure why you would pay $600 unless you need to have all 3 devices active at one time? Are you thinking about buying the UCP on the phone and trying to use it as a hotspot? I don't think that will work as the tethering function shares cell data, not wifi, which is what the ship provides.

 

You might be able to do it with an ad hoc network from the laptop I suppose. A mini router wouldn't work because of dynamic login.

 

Hi! I can't imagine paying $600 to connect 2 iphones and a laptop to the Internet on Escape - especially since I'm hearing service is slow. Has anyone tried while cruising to pay for 1 iphone to be connected and then using that iPhone hotspot feature to connect other devices? If the internet speed is horrible that can be challenging but I figure worth a try.

 

Thanks for helping a neurotic planner/budgeter.:rolleyes:

[Demonyte]

You can't share WiFi connection from iPhone via WiFi.

[duchesslt]

Not sure why you would pay $600 unless you need to have all 3 devices active at one time? Are you thinking about buying the UCP on the phone and trying to use it as a hotspot? I don't think that will work as the tethering function shares cell data, not wifi, which is what the ship provides.

 

You might be able to do it with an ad hoc network from the laptop I suppose. A mini router wouldn't work because of dynamic login.

 

I never knew you could only tether cellular data - this explains a lot of frustration I experience at airport restaurant/lounges - lol. (Shhhh - I'm in the IT industry).

 

I need my laptop for email, my cellphone for whats app/skype work calls, and I don't think my son would know what to do without a phone/headset to stream episodes of Gravity Falls and old spongebob seasons....

 

This is not happening so I am going to have to pay for the laptop and deal with my company's restrictions on websites I can visit- I figured out how to bypass that on Firefox at least.

Edited November 28, 2015 by duchesslt

[Kamloops50]

I never knew you could only tether cellular data - this explains a lot of frustration I experience at airport restaurant/lounges - lol. (Shhhh - I'm in the IT industry).

 

I need my laptop for email, my cellphone for whats app/skype work calls, and I don't think my son would know what to do without a phone/headset to stream episodes of Gravity Falls and old spongebob seasons....

 

This is not happening so I am going to have to pay for the laptop and deal with my company's restrictions on websites I can visit- I figured out how to bypass that on Firefox at least.

 

You'll have trouble getting streaming video via the ship internet. Many of these types of services are network bandwidth hogs .

Being in IT you should know the streaming services are bandwidth hogs. You'll be lucky to get 80KB for a data stream on their WIFI.

Edited November 28, 2015 by Kamloops50

[txagfan]

Internet is awful on even the new ships. I get it for work and it's barely functional. Streaming? Remote Desktop? Presentations? Forget about it unless in port and even then it's a a maybe.

[Sauer-kraut]

I never knew you could only tether cellular data - this explains a lot of frustration I experience at airport restaurant/lounges - lol. (Shhhh - I'm in the IT industry).

 

I need my laptop for email, my cellphone for whats app/skype work calls, and I don't think my son would know what to do without a phone/headset to stream episodes of Gravity Falls and old spongebob seasons....

 

This is not happening so I am going to have to pay for the laptop and deal with my company's restrictions on websites I can visit- I figured out how to bypass that on Firefox at least.

 

Just leave his phone in the safe and don't let him know the code. Sheesh about time people learned how to get along without holding a phone 23 hours a day.

[Loonbeam]

As someone else has noted, do not assume streaming will work. More and more ships are blocking it outright (as well as Skype video), and if it does work, picture streaming over an old dialup modem...

 

I never knew you could only tether cellular data - this explains a lot of frustration I experience at airport restaurant/lounges - lol. (Shhhh - I'm in the IT industry).

 

I need my laptop for email, my cellphone for whats app/skype work calls, and I don't think my son would know what to do without a phone/headset to stream episodes of Gravity Falls and old spongebob seasons....

 

This is not happening so I am going to have to pay for the laptop and deal with my company's restrictions on websites I can visit- I figured out how to bypass that on Firefox at least.

[Linda the Book Lover]

Wi-Fi is soooo slow onboard the ships! We had to use once on the Star (DSD thought she lost her phone but it was in the cabin---it was lost with some of her things) My DD and I got Wifi for one day on Carnival and it took longer than forever and we called to close it down. You may become more neurotic waiting for s page to load!

[JustAllie]

The best bet is to download some movies/TV shoes/books/etc. to devices before embarking. Streaming will be a huge disappointment, so why bother.

 

Best of luck!

[thinfool]

Hi! I can't imagine paying $600 to connect 2 iphones and a laptop to the Internet on Escape - especially since I'm hearing service is slow. Has anyone tried while cruising to pay for 1 iphone to be connected and then using that iPhone hotspot feature to connect other devices? If the internet speed is horrible that can be challenging but I figure worth a try.

 

Thanks for helping a neurotic planner/budgeter.:rolleyes:

 

Your Iphone hotspot is designed to use a cellular connection to provide a wifi connection to local devices.

 

This means that you will be paying the per minute data rate for the cellular connection of your iphone onboard the ship. This rate is often as high as $2.49/minute.

 

Your hotspot does not connect to the ships wifi and then act as a router for connected devices. It does (or will) connect to the ships cellular system and will then allow up to 5 or 6 devices to use the hotspot wifi provided from the iphone.

 

I have no idea what kind of speed a hotspot would provide thru a shipboard cell system.

[BirdTravels]

I never knew you could only tether cellular data - this explains a lot of frustration I experience at airport restaurant/lounges - lol. (Shhhh - I'm in the IT industry).

 

I need my laptop for email, my cellphone for whats app/skype work calls, and I don't think my son would know what to do without a phone/headset to stream episodes of Gravity Falls and old spongebob seasons....

 

This is not happening so I am going to have to pay for the laptop and deal with my company's restrictions on websites I can visit- I figured out how to bypass that on Firefox at least.

 

No streaming over shipboard satellite internet. A lot has to do with the latency over the satellite and the total bandwidth off the ship.

 

Email works o.k., but don't expect to get a lot of large files. And definitely no downloads of video files (download a week's worth of spongebob before you leave). Streaming when you are in port (using an international package), will likely cost hundreds of dollars.

 

Internet is sold by the minute or a flat rate for the entire cruise. You can buy one subscription and share it between devices. If you try to leave it up, it is likely to drop out periodically.