Wifi Travel Router TP-Link AC750 or Similar on NCL Joy

[jgoodm]

Hi All,

 

Has anyone successfully used a wifi travel router on NCL Joy to share internet on your devices?  I want to bring my AppleTV and use it at night (even if I wanted to log it in to the network legitimately) the AppleTV does not have a browser so you can not log in to authenticated networks, you have to connect to your own network that does not require a webpage to log in.  

 

To solve this, on other cruise lines and at hotels, I am able to use a travel router (I use the TP Link AC750) which connects to the ship/hotel wifi, logs in, clones the MAC ID of my phone and then creates my own wifi network.  Typically this would be something complicated for the hotel/cruise line to detect but its not impossible.

 

So, I am wondering if anyone has direct (not speculatory) experience getting a similar set up to work?

 

Thanks!

[Love my butler]

Good luck.  We were on Joy a couple different times and the internet was horrible.  When  I complained at the end, the internet manager gave us a $50 credit.  Said that was the best they could do, even after admitting the internet didn't even work for many, many days.

[mking8288]

Not to dump another bucket of cold water on OP and anyone else ... with an average download speed of 2Mbps, barely enough to attempt SD streaming (360p) - forget 480p/youtubing at 4 Mbps or better and 6 MBps/higher consistently to get 720p over satellite at sea.  

 

At one of our favorite hotel groups, WiFi speed has gone up in the past year but I could no longer stream our SlingTV contents over Roku streaming stick (it has a built-in workaround to get thru/around the log-in screen each time) - it's back to a direct box hookup w. the browser interface.  For our next multi-days stay, going to see if the travel laptop's built-in hotspot/SSiD can overcome their safeguards.   

 

Those TP-Link matchbox aren't going to do the trick and even if it does, duplexing result on the data traffic flow will cut the sluggish speed in half & render the connection useless for video contents.  

 

Upload speed on the Dawn last month was better, between 3 to 4 Mbps but download never got past 3 Mbps, bouncing all over from 1.5 to 2.8 or 2.9 Mbps - not worth the trouble nor money spent.  

[jgoodm]

15 minutes ago, mking8288 said:

 

Those TP-Link matchbox aren't going to do the trick and even if it does, duplexing result on the data traffic flow will cut the sluggish speed in half & render the connection useless for video contents.  

 

Is there a better travel router that won’t cut the speed as much?   
 

Will NCL notice the router or will the router with the cloned MAC ID get around their security?

 

Thanks

[mking8288]

I would not waste money or time to try to disguise and trick their Cisco hardware & servers. Secondly, the resulting speed is reduced, by definition, to 50% or half of 2 to 3 Mbps ... 600ms latency and packet losses, etc. 

 

Hospitality vendors behind the IT scene are doing more than just sniffing for cloned MAC addresses ... "cookies" and other unique cached items are used, not so simple.  

 

Next to the DD-WRT customized TP-Link WR7 series is a discontinued Edimax nano router, it worked best over Ethernet but also wirelessly ... never bothered onboard, I use them on land trips, sometimes. 

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by mking8288

[jgoodm]

Ever tried a hootoo even for outside the ship?  Does it work any better. 

[WestfieldTraveler]

I'm wondering if any of the posters saying the speed will be half of what you would get otherwise based that on actual experience on a ship? I could imagine if multiple people use it the throughput may go down but even just one device? And any experience paying the extra money for the better service? 

[mking8288]

Hootoo wifi routers/hotspots generally get good reviews & ratings by users, you are certainly free to go out to buy and try them all ... to try to squeeze ALL it could, out of the satellite's data feed.  The bottleneck is, however ... way, way, way upstream - high above the sky with the orbiting satellites used to "feed" NCL. 

 

No matter what these top-rated wireless routers can do, it isn't going to make any difference - think of the router as your 4 speed, 5 speed, 6 speed or 8 speed automatic transmission with OD in your vehicle ... or CVT - the problem here is the engine output - it's capped or restricted in output, no matter how hard you push the gas pedal to run it at higher rpms' - it just isn't engaging and putting more power thru, not relaying it to the transmission.  Hence, the tires are not getting anything extra to roll along the road surface.  You can use all season tires, low profile tires, run-flat tires, racing tires, etc. - it isn't going anywhere faster - there are more limiting factors, beyond what you can control.  Make sense, huh.

 

Ethernet or directly wired data transmission (or, fiberoptics for that matter) is by definition - full speed, bi-directional traffic; whereas, wireless data transfer is - by definition - cut in half, as in half-duplex mode.  Further upstream at the server level & beyond, let's say it is putting out 7 to 8 Mbps on a wired connection - by the time it is broadcasted wirelessly over WiFi, it is cut in half - 3.5 to 4 Mbps.  If you are successful in bridging and re-broadcasting that signal back out again - it would get split again in half, now at 1.75 to 2 Mbps instead, down to 1/4 of the speed further upstream ... making the connected signal even worst, slow & sluggish - far below what is necessary for even a SD video signal at 360p.  

 

Here's an article to better describe this - https://wififorbeginners.com/2016/12/05/wi-fi-secrets-part-1 - wired-is-faster-than-wireless-networking/

 

 

[phillyguy31]

The easiest thing to do is just bring an IPad, since you have Apple TV the odds are you also have an IPad. Just stream off that, no you can't have another device running but that didn't seem why you wanted to use a router anyway.

 

[perditax]

I've successfully used hootoo and other travel routers on the GA,  Escape, Bliss and BA. The last time I was on Escape (July 2019), I had to walk around a bit before the travel router could find a wifi AP that it could scan and connect to, but I was good after that. Have not been on Joy or Encore. 

I've successfully used them to stream to a FireTV stick in the room, but more often that not the internet connectivity on the ship is not good enough to stream anything to anything, travel router or not. I can't remember the last time I didn't get a partial refund on a sailing due to the internet not working some days.

 

The WiFi on RCL was ridiculously better. It sounds like NCL hasn't managed to buy any more bandwidth.

Edited January 10, 2020 by perditax

[jgoodm]

2 minutes ago, perditax said:

I've successfully used hootoo and other travel routers on the GA,  Escape, Bliss and BA. The last time I was on Escape (July 2019), I had to walk around a bit before the travel router could find a wifi AP that it could scan and connect to, but I was good after that. Have not been on Joy or Encore. 

I've successfully used them to stream to a FireTV stick in the room, but more often that not the internet connectivity on the ship is not good enough to stream anything to anything, travel router or not. I can't remember the last time I didn't get a partial refund on a sailing due to the internet not working some days.

 

The WiFi on RCL was ridiculously better. It sounds like NCL hasn't managed to buy any more bandwidth.

 

Thanks for that info.  I am going to be pretty bummed if I get no connectivity.  Still have to be able to do some work...  I am used to RCL and internet is just a non-issue IME and significantly cheaper too.

 

For the Firestick, the built in browser for log in's doesn't work or were you just trying to share connection to more than one device?

 

Thanks.

[perditax]

2 minutes ago, jgoodm said:

 

Thanks for that info.  I am going to be pretty bummed if I get no connectivity.  Still have to be able to do some work...  I am used to RCL and internet is just a non-issue IME and significantly cheaper too.

 

For the Firestick, the built in browser for log in's doesn't work or were you just trying to share connection to more than one device?

 

Thanks.

 

I think I got the login to work that way at least once, I know what you mean (the browser pops up). But I also keep a bunch of downloaded content stored on a microSD on the travel router, and Kodi installed on the fireTV to stream it. (This way I can watch stuff even when the internet isn't working.) But I usually try to get the travel router working anyway because I'm stubborn.

[zqvol]

On 1/8/2020 at 10:12 PM, jgoodm said:

 

Is there a better travel router that won’t cut the speed as much?   
 

Will NCL notice the router or will the router with the cloned MAC ID get around their security?

 

Thanks

 

You aren't going to get around their security. You are going to have to log into their network. The cloned MAC isn't going to matter. Every connection has to log in and you can connect as many different devices as you want as long as only one is logged in at a time.

 

You are not going to get enough speed fromt he network to do what you want, heck you barely get enough speed to downloadd email, forget about streaming anything.

 

If you want to watch something download it at home and bring it on a HD.