Internet Speeds

[islandhalls]

15 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Can you use your cell phone when in port in order to obtain the code?

 

Yes, but of course this happened just after we left Hawaii for four sea day on our way to the west coast. Good old Murphy's law! 🤣

[rallydave]

2 minutes ago, islandhalls said:

 

Yes, but of course this happened just after we left Hawaii for four sea day on our way to the west coast. Good old Murphy's law! 🤣

The other problem is that generally the codes are only valid for 10 minutes or so which might mean having to request the code get to where you have a cell signal and then get back to the computer where you requested the code all within 10 minutes.

[UUNetBill]

3 hours ago, islandhalls said:

You know what just tripped me up, one of my financial institutions deciding to do an authentication and wanting to send me a text with a code to input. But since I am at sea (no cellular) I cannot get the code. No way to ask for an email instead. Ugh. I’m working through it by email, but frustrating. 

No iPhone?  I think you can get iMessages on WiFi.  Not 100% sure but I think so...

[islandhalls]

1 hour ago, UUNetBill said:

No iPhone?  I think you can get iMessages on WiFi.  Not 100% sure but I think so...

I have an iPhone and I really thought it should work too. No such luck, tried it again today and iMessages is working for other texts. 

[JMARINER]

Speed Test Jan 11, 2019  (3:30 pm) at sea Mariner off South Australia near Kangaroo Island.

I am using a newer Laptop, Microsoft 10. Deck 7 near aft elevator.

Ookla speed test at suggested default settings.

 

I can do my banking and emails, but it takes forever. (forget getting any video)

J

[Ep010835]

13 hours ago, JMARINER said:

Speed Test Jan 11, 2019  (3:30 pm) at sea Mariner off South Australia near Kangaroo Island.

I am using a newer Laptop, Microsoft 10. Deck 7 near aft elevator.

Ookla speed test at suggested default settings.

 

I can do my banking and emails, but it takes forever. (forget getting any video)

J

 

😳 dialup anyone??

 

this is what I got on a Princess Cruise in the Caribbean last month. 

 

[Jonoro7]

As flossie009 has already said there were some measurements of speed a while ago - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2520275-new-wifi-system-on-oceania/

For me the revelation that Ep010835 has just made are very significant: There it appears that on a recent Princess Cruise it appears (the screen shout cropped of the word) that the ping was 256ms.  This is fundamental as for a start it rules out the use of geostationary satellites for the link.  Low orbit would be better that this but Medium orbit would fir the bill.

It is almost but impossible to get down/upload speeds of >10Mb/s with the ping times shown in earlier posts of 700ms plus. If the connection is clean and error free and the nodes along the routes don't generate any errors then it can be done, but as I say most unlikely.

Now Princess at 256ms stands a much much better chance of achieving >10Mb/s speeds.

 

Also as I mentioned in the earlier thread the contention ratio that Regent have come up with is absolutely key to  the speeds being so variable. (The contention ratio is the number of users sharing the fixed size data pipe at any one time)  If one individual is the only one online at a particular moment he/she enjoys the full speed.  But let 600 or so other passengers loose and he/she will only see a speed of a six hundredth of what was enjoyed before.  Slightly simplistic as Regent's own data comms needs will likely also be using the same data pipe.

 

It would be helpful to better understand the constraints in place to get time of each of the hops.  A tool like Tracert or even Fing on a tablet would provide further insight.

[DaveFr]

[DaveFr]

Speedtest upon arrival in Adelaide, Australia.

 

Dave

[Ep010835]

Yes, Ping is the word that I inadvertently cropped out. I don't understand enough about this stuff to offer a comment other than to say I've heard others, like Jonoro7 who clearly do understand the technology, it's an important component/number. 

 

There is a fellow on the Princess board who also appears to be very knowledgeable on this subject. He has even offered maps describing how the signal from what he called "steerable dishes" or "steerable satellites" is strongest and most useable from, as he noted, roughly the Southampton UK to the Falkland Islands. 

 

To the tech challenged user like me, I only know that the internet Princess offers on its Medallion Class ships is screaming fast!! Thus far only their Caribbean Princess has fully rolled out this technology. The Regal Princess is supposed to be fully operational next month. 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

This is very disheartening.  Thinking about doing banking on a WC.  Yes I know, autopay!  But that doesn't work for everything, and I still want to be able to monitor my accounts.  Guess I'll have to plan this carefully.

 

You'd think a high-priced luxury line could aspire to be "the best of the best" in all aspects, including communications.

Edited January 12, 2019 by Wendy The Wanderer

[Ep010835]

6 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

This is very disheartening.  Thinking about doing banking on a WC.  Yes I know, autopay!  But that doesn't work for everything, and I still want to be able to monitor my accounts.  Guess I'll have to plan this carefully.

 

Would wi-fi through a VPN on port stops work for your needs? Might be able to find a Starbucks, McD or other location with reasonably fast wi-fi. Couldn't do it every day but if port stops are frequent enough you wouldn't be completely out of touch. 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

2 minutes ago, Ep010835 said:

 

Would wi-fi through a VPN on port stops work for your needs? Might be able to find a Starbucks, McD or other location with reasonably fast wi-fi. Couldn't do it every day but if port stops are frequent enough you wouldn't be completely out of touch. 

 

Sure.  Will definitely do a VPN, but schlubbing around in port trying to find good wifi is not what I want to spend my time doing.  I've had decent internet onboard ship in the past, but have not gone across the Pacific.

[Jonoro7]

I see that all Princess ships now equipped and can get 1,500Mb/s per ship.They are using SES's o3b satellites which are low to medium orbit.

Even with a few hundred simultaneous users still respectable  speeds and much lower ping times.

[DaveFr]

10 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

This is very disheartening.  Thinking about doing banking on a WC.  Yes I know, autopay!  But that doesn't work for everything, and I still want to be able to monitor my accounts.  Guess I'll have to plan this carefully.

 

You'd think a high-priced luxury line could aspire to be "the best of the best" in all aspects, including communications.

Wendy,

 

I’m on the Mariner now doing the circumnavigation of Australia.  I havn’t had any problems doing online banking and monitoring my financial and investment accounts from the ship during the cruise.  IMHO, the internet is slower than at home but is perfectly adequate for monitoring accounts efficiently.  

 

Dave

[Wendy The Wanderer]

9 hours ago, DaveFr said:

Wendy,

 

I’m on the Mariner now doing the circumnavigation of Australia.  I havn’t had any problems doing online banking and monitoring my financial and investment accounts from the ship during the cruise.  IMHO, the internet is slower than at home but is perfectly adequate for monitoring accounts efficiently.  

 

Dave

 

Thanks Dave, that's reassuring!

[JMARINER]

On 1/13/2019 at 7:16 AM, DaveFr said:

Speedtest upon arrival in Adelaide, Australia.

 

Dave

Dave. Are you paying for the upgraded speed? I

 

I see your results are far superior to mine, at least as to up/down speed.  I wonder why the large discrepancies. Your posted latency is similar though, at 700's, not very good.

 

J

[Jonoro7]

I thought that the payment you can make does not offer any increased speed but only unnlocks certain (computer) ports used fir streaming services.

[Travelcat2]

15 minutes ago, Jonoro7 said:

I thought that the payment you can make does not offer any increased speed but only unnlocks certain (computer) ports used fir streaming services.

 

My understanding is the same (heard this from the computer guru on our last Regent cruise).  To be honest, I'm 100% in favor of charging for the things that Regent now charges for.  

[CruisetheCs]

26 minutes ago, Jonoro7 said:

I thought that the payment you can make does not offer any increased speed but only unnlocks certain (computer) ports used fir streaming services.

 

I was told by Regent staff on my November cruise that the paid package does not offer increased speed, but it does "prioritize" data from a device in some manner (whatever that means).

[DaveFr]

3 hours ago, JMARINER said:

Dave. Are you paying for the upgraded speed? I

 

I see your results are far superior to mine, at least as to up/down speed.  I wonder why the large discrepancies. Your posted latency is similar though, at 700's, not very good.

 

J,  I am not paying for extra speed. Perhaps higher Seven Seas Society tier members get better Internet. 😃

 

 The differences could be due to any number of things, such as different VPN servers and different test servers used by Ookla.  Maybe we should get together and do simultaneous Ookla Speedtests.

 

Dave

[Wendy The Wanderer]

It would be nice if they made this higher priority available to certain Seven Seas levels.  After all, we've had "free internet" for years, before they started offering it to everybody.  I know, we can use more devices, but really, better service would help.