Wi-Fi quality splendor

[Pcardad]

Gaming uses very little bandwidth compared to the other uses you described and most games cannot be played with the astronomically high latency you will see onboard. 

 

The Apple phones will be scanning your pics using an algorithm to search for illegal images. Hope you don't have pics of of your grandkids in the tub....not illegal but the algorithm will flag it.

[Nilel]

am currently on the ship off coast of turkey

will confirm that the wifi speed is good enough for browsing and for google remote desk top

will minimal lag.  no streaming however.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

2 hours ago, Nilel said:

am currently on the ship off coast of turkey

will confirm that the wifi speed is good enough for browsing and for google remote desk top

will minimal lag.  no streaming however.

Of course, you're at what, half capacity?

[flossie009]

At the risk of jinxing things, we can report that Wi-Fi connectivity and internet speeds have been good enough for our use thus far on this cruise; from all locations on the ship. 😀 🤞
 

 

Certainly not fast but good enough for emails, banking apps, google searches & social media

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by flossie009

[wishIweretravelling]

Has anyone tried to use the wifi to zoom?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

4 hours ago, flossie009 said:

At the risk of jinxing things, we can report that Wi-Fi connectivity and internet speeds have been good enough for our use thus far on this cruise; from all locations on the ship. 😀 🤞
 

 

Certainly not fast but good enough for emails, banking apps, google searches & social media

 

As for banking apps, I assume it's a secure connection?

[Pcardad]

3 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

As for banking apps, I assume it's a secure connection?

I would NOT assume that...use a VPN.

[rallydave]

5 hours ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

As for banking apps, I assume it's a secure connection?

While you will likely see the lock on your task bar, the internet itself is open to all on board who log in so possible for hackers on board to get into your accounts.  Be very careful like any Wi-Fi system that you don't control.

[JMARINER]

Just off Splendor on Tuesday.  As Flossie 9999 above posted, the speeds are horrid. Her test results were even a little better than I got. 

 

Understand that the problem is not only with band-width, but also long "ping" times and "jitter." Because the signal has to travel so far, up to a satellite and back down, twice a lot of data can be lost and need to be resent.

 

J

[BNguy]

OK people, let's chill out a moment on speed of the internet.  Yes it's not going to be blazing fast like at home, yes it's not going to be as fast as at a hotel.  It's satellite and it won't be fast.  I worked in television for a long time, on the back side of things in other words the engineering side.  When we switched to network distribution via satellite many things needed to be taken into consideration.  Mainly the bandwidth necessary for what you consider "normal" speeds is quite high.  Sending an HD signal through the air via satellite required all sorts of gizmos to make it work correctly.  The fact the company who provides internet to the ships is slow is because they are attempting to send MANY transmissions through the air at the same time.  It does work, I have used it every day, no it's not fast, but it does work.  Instead of asking if zoom or facetime will work understand it probably won't, if it does, fine but the technology is not there yet.  So remember you are on vacation, you are supposed to be "off line".

 

Sorry I couldn't help myself, but remember on Regent you aren't paying for the delay like on my cruise lines.

 

[wishIweretravelling]

8 hours ago, BNguy said:

.  Instead of asking if zoom or facetime will work understand it probably won't, if it does, fine but the technology is not there yet.  So remember you are on vacation, you are supposed to be "off line".

 

 

Unfortunately, not everyone can be offline, particularly on longer cruises. For example, although I'm retired, I am involved in some activities that meet periodically via zoom. I can probably use my included phone time from my SSS status to call in to meetings, but would like to know if zoom participation is even a possibility.

 

Please don't try to cut off reasonable lines of inquiry.

[Pcardad]

10 hours ago, BNguy said:

OK people, let's chill out a moment on speed of the internet.  Yes it's not going to be blazing fast like at home, yes it's not going to be as fast as at a hotel.  It's satellite and it won't be fast.  I worked in television for a long time, on the back side of things in other words the engineering side.  When we switched to network distribution via satellite many things needed to be taken into consideration.  Mainly the bandwidth necessary for what you consider "normal" speeds is quite high.  Sending an HD signal through the air via satellite required all sorts of gizmos to make it work correctly.  The fact the company who provides internet to the ships is slow is because they are attempting to send MANY transmissions through the air at the same time.  It does work, I have used it every day, no it's not fast, but it does work.  Instead of asking if zoom or facetime will work understand it probably won't, if it does, fine but the technology is not there yet.  So remember you are on vacation, you are supposed to be "off line".

 

Sorry I couldn't help myself, but remember on Regent you aren't paying for the delay like on my cruise lines.

 

This is not quite the entire story. You CAN have EXTREMELY fast internet on a ship - the IT guy has his own connection and his DL speeds approach 1gig. That means he can download a complete movie in 2 minutes. It takes me over 10 AT HOME. The hardware exists to quadruple the speed on the ships right now - it would only require Regent to pay for the increased bandwidth. The internal IT staff has a fast connect as does Navigation for the ships to download now digital maps for ports.

 

The technology exists.

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, wishIweretravelling said:

Unfortunately, not everyone can be offline, particularly on longer cruises. For example, although I'm retired, I am involved in some activities that meet periodically via zoom. I can probably use my included phone time from my SSS status to call in to meetings, but would like to know if zoom participation is even a possibility.

 

Please don't try to cut off reasonable lines of inquiry.

I doubt you can Zoom but you probably can using an communication app that uses a lot less bandwidth than Zoom does. There are a few that Regent isn't blocking that I can facetime with people at home. Remember to always use a VPN as your connection is NOT as secure as you think it is.

[Ladys Mom]

2 hours ago, Pcardad said:

I doubt you can Zoom but you probably can using an communication app that uses a lot less bandwidth than Zoom does. There are a few that Regent isn't blocking that I can facetime with people at home. Remember to always use a VPN as your connection is NOT as secure as you think it is.

We got off Splendor on Tuesday.  At the beginning, the Wifi was terrible.  Over the course of the cruise it did get better.  I was able to FaceTime my children four different times successfully, but other times, not so much.  My Apple newsfeed was unusable , but it was a small price to pay to have internet that basically allowed for communications home.

[Pcardad]

5 minutes ago, Ladys Mom said:

We got off Splendor on Tuesday.  At the beginning, the Wifi was terrible.  Over the course of the cruise it did get better.  I was able to FaceTime my children four different times successfully, but other times, not so much.  My Apple newsfeed was unusable , but it was a small price to pay to have internet that basically allowed for communications home.

That's probably a reflection of all the people who were using bandwidth when they first got on board. I set up a lot of my stuff to run from 2AM to 5AM when most people are asleep.

 

Regent ought to offer true-high speed for $100 a day for those of us who need it.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

3 hours ago, Pcardad said:

I doubt you can Zoom but you probably can using an communication app that uses a lot less bandwidth than Zoom does. There are a few that Regent isn't blocking that I can facetime with people at home. Remember to always use a VPN as your connection is NOT as secure as you think it is.

Two things--what communications apps in particular?  And not everyone wants to bother with a VPN, especially if you're using a tablet or phone, and VPN's tend to slow you down, don't they?

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

Two things--what communications apps in particular?  And not everyone wants to bother with a VPN, especially if you're using a tablet or phone, and VPN's tend to slow you down, don't they?

Better to lose 5% of your speed than it is to have someone steal your data or monitor what you are TX and RX...yes?

[SusieQft]

@Pcardad, what VPN are you using?  I assume from your comments that you have used it successfully on Regent ships?  

[Jonoro7]

My main VPN is NordVPN which I use on-board ship.  I have also used the free VPN Tunnel Bear. Both work well, the free one was limited to 500Mb per day.

 

Back in April 2018 I analysed the internet offerings on-board and why the connectivity is so limited. It is still valid today however as Starlink's offerings may soon offer much lower latency, as for cost??

 

The 2018 analysis:

What should we expect in terms of internet connectivity andwhat would that cost Regent?

Very approximate order of magnitude calculations only.

What is acceptable?? Very subjective but in UK 10Mb/s is deemed by government to be virtually a “right”. (Expected to increase to 20Mb/s in 2 years and then some time beforefurther increase as limit on non-fibre reached)

Contention ratio is fundamental (number of subscribers sharing this same “supply pipe). Generally,for domestic consumers the ratio is 40:1 and for small/medium commercial 20:1with large users having no contention at all. The rationale behind this that domestic users are disparate with non-aligned usage whereas commercial users are far more aligned, thus concentrating their usage patterns. Large commercial manage their own contention. At higher speeds, the contention ratio can be increased as uploads/downloads take up less time. Latency (delay) also has an effect and at long latency times (i.e. satellite) the contention ratio should be decreased to give the same service integrity. Taking all this into account, I suggest that contention ratios should be say 30:1 for an “average” service on board and 20:1for a “good” service.

So taking the above two aspects together I put forward the suggestion that:

10Mb/s and 30:1 wouldbe average

20Mb/s and 20:1 wouldbe good.

Next to calculate what capacity of link would support that:

Number of users – (Navigator) – 500 pax of whom say 2/3 gold or above so get log in each and 1 log in per cabin for the rest - 400 in total – Figures for other 3 ships willbe 50% greater.

Average Service- 400 users, 10Mb/s and 30:1 results in 130Mb/sservice being required (again 50% more for non-Navigator)

Good service – 400 users, 20Mb/s and 20:1 results in 400Mb/s(+50% for non Navigator)

 

Cost

Costs of purchasing satellite time vary significantly depending on frequency band, contract length, delivery point etc, but are generally in the range of 600 USD to 2,500 USD per month per Mb/s. Using a figure of 1,500 USD this would incur costs to regent of:

200,000 USD per month for an “average” service for the Navigator. Plus 50% for each other ship

600,000 USD per month for a “good” service for the Navigator, plus 50% for each other ship

 

What Regent appear to have done is open up the service to all and as a result the integrity of the service has suffered. I do not believe that the service is acceptable, due to its integrity (unreliability) for anything more than casual use. If you need to rely on internet connectivity during your cruise then Regent do not provide it at present.

 

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[Wendy The Wanderer]

I have never taken a laptop on a cruise.  I was going to, on our WC that got cancelled.  I try to make sure that I don't have to do any banking or things like that, and I certainly don't need to do business of any kind.  But I hadn't really thought about a VPN for a phone or tablet--any recommendations there?

[Gpilon]

9 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

I have never taken a laptop on a cruise.  I was going to, on our WC that got cancelled.  I try to make sure that I don't have to do any banking or things like that, and I certainly don't need to do business of any kind.  But I hadn't really thought about a VPN for a phone or tablet--any recommendations there?

I have BitDefender security and their VPN. All work exceptionally well.

[Pcardad]

Nord works great - and I like to day trade so I run it on my phones and my laptop. Nothing wrong with business while on board...whatever floats your boat.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

13 minutes ago, Gpilon said:

I have BitDefender security and their VPN. All work exceptionally well.

I use Bit Defender as well, on all our family's PC's and really like their product, but I've never added their Android product.  Thanks.

[Pcardad]

For security? Malwarebytes Premium is awesome.

[JMARINER]

Why I don't use a vpn on the ship for banking/finaicials.

 

First. Since all internet traffic form the ship is under the control of Regent and their Satellite data provider, this is not really a public network that just anyone could hack into and steal your data. They keep a log on every person that is online on their system. (I have seen it.) So any hacker would have to be someone on the ship and their activity would be monitored.

 

Second. Any activity with a bank through an app is already going to have "end-to-end" encryption. So there is almost a zero chance of ant risk here.

 

Third. All VPN's will dramatically slow down your internet experience just by the nature of how a VPN works. All your traffic, both incoming and out going,  is diverted to a 3rd party site. At home a VPN will, by most estimates; the encryption process adds about 10-15% more data usage. That isn't in a problem when you 50-100 Mgb download speeds. But on a ship, a VPN can often exceed the networks individual users data speed capacity.

 

J