Zoom Meeting while at Sea

[Inspirazione]

Hello!  Has anyone successfully joined a Zoom (or Teams) meeting using the upgraded streaming wi-fi while at sea?  We will be on the Reflection in September (in the Mediterranean)and our friend may need to join a meeting.  It will be our last night, sailing from Naples to Civitavecchia so while we will be at sea, I imagine we may be close enough to the coast that it could help? Could the iLounge possibly provide a better connection?  Thank you. 

[Arizona Wildcat]

7 minutes ago, Inspirazione said:

Hello!  Has anyone successfully joined a Zoom (or Teams) meeting using the upgraded streaming wi-fi while at sea?  We will be on the Reflection in September (in the Mediterranean)and our friend may need to join a meeting.  It will be our last night, sailing from Naples to Civitavecchia so while we will be at sea, I imagine we may be close enough to the coast that it could help? Could the iLounge possibly provide a better connection?  Thank you. 

Since Celebrity uses satellite connection being near land won't help as usually 20+ miles out to sea.  Your connection will mostly depend on the number of people on board using the connections- X amount of bandwidth divided by Y number of users.  Dinnertime on board has fewer users from both passengers and crew.

Satellite coverage there is excellent.  Wondering if your friend could not do the call while still in port?  Good WiFi at Naples terminal and a 5G signal.

And to actually answer your question - Yes most of the time it works.  "MOST".

Edited July 11, 2022 by Arizona Wildcat

[Z'Loth]

In the interest of full disclosure... I have been providing technical support for one of the major online meeting providers for well over a decade, and Internet support for almost twenty-five years (back when online connectivity mean a dial-up connection... tortoise slow compared to the broadband connections such as cable and fiber). 

 

One of the measures of Internet connectivity is the latency between the server and your computer including the time between when you click on something on the page and the time the server responds. For your home internet connection, the latency is probably less than 100ms (1 second is 1000ms) depending on which web site you are using. Shipboard internet uses satellite Internet, which has latency between 594 ms to 624 ms, although the Starlink satellites has less latency due to using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Therefore, it feels like web browsing is so slow on-board ship.

 

The other issue is bandwidth. Since Internet is a shared resource on board ship, there are bandwidth constraints and traffic speed limitations (traffic shaping). Computer audio (VoIP) is very bandwidth hungry, and webcam video consumes even more traffic. It is well known that video streaming sites sites are blocked on-board ship for this reason alone unless you want to pay a premium. 

 

Will on-line meetings work? Provided that the IP ranges for the meeting servers aren't blocked, maybe. Will they work well? No, and you can expected delays in the audio, video, and screen sharing, if not dropped UDP packets resulting in audio or video loss. 

[canderson]

1 hour ago, Inspirazione said:

Hello!  Has anyone successfully joined a Zoom (or Teams) meeting using the upgraded streaming wi-fi while at sea?

If the participants are willing to forego video, which is the real bandwidth hog with these apps, and if you don't mind identifying the moment when you've completed a thought if necessary (ever notice how network news folks in the field end each communication with the other's name?), it's just doable.

 

Be sure you're near a router for good signal (the iJoint can advise best locations, or you can stay near their space).  

 

Haven't seen any port blocking on Teams, but that data point only applies to Constellation.  There have been reports of variations in how shipboard IT is managed.

[Jim_Iain]

I've been on a number of Zoom calls and 90% of the time no issues.   The only time I had some  problems was in the middle of the Atlantic and the ship was having a hard time holding a signal and all internet was intermittent for about a day. 

 

As other mentioned,  if you friend could attend by audio only he could use his  phone over internet and would have the highest level of success.   

[Purplsmurf]

We were on the Reflection in the Med in May. My husband had the upgraded internet. He could hardly get his emails much less access any meetings via Teams or Zoom. He was very frustrated 

[Inspirazione]

Thank you all for your feedback.  This is very helpful in helping to manage expectations for my friend.  

 

[Fly and Sail]

I did this successfully on the Millennium last July (2021) during our Alaska sailing.for 3 nights in a row. Then in December on the EDGE it was a complete disaster. Unusable. And I'm purchasing the "Premium" Wifi every time I sail.

[the_dylaness]

On the Reflection in the Mediterranean in June I could barely utilize the premium wi-fi to even do basic work tasks (email and web-browser based stuff, nothing fancy.)  I did not try Zoom or Google Meet but based on how the overall functionality was I can't IMAGINE them working well for me at that time.

[dlexp]

One more experience won't hurt! We were on the Equinox in April, in the ABC islands off the coast of Venezuela. Remote. The internet on the ship was borderline unusable most of the time - emails were rough, and good luck sending a picture or loading a webpage. My husband needed to take a few meetings on a sea day and he started to panic. To his surprise zoom worked perfectly. Great video quality and not a single problem over the course of multiple hours. Maybe due to the necessity of zoom meetings in today's workplaces (and the ship is a workplace, after all) Celebrity throttled other uses to enable teleconferencing? That's the best explanation I can come up with.

[LMaxwell]

If the zoom call is taking place over a VPN you may have issues.  Some cruiselines, unsure if true on Celebrity, do not play well with VPN's.  

[De Colores]

Would a zoom with out video work better? Could I do zoom with. out video on the basic package?

 

Thank you

[canderson]

27 minutes ago, De Colores said:

Would a zoom with out video work better? Could I do zoom with. out video on the basic package?

 

Thank you

Audio-only could potentially avoid choppiness due to bandwidth issues with either package.  But if shipboard IT is blocking a necessary port for Zoom calls on the surf package (443 as I recall), neither bribery nor palanca will be of any help in getting them to open that port needed for making the connection.

 

It's worth a try with 'surf', but I'd be ready to upgrade to 'stream' once aboard if it doesn't work.

 

Would be interesting to hear from anyone who has been successful with an audio-only on 'surf'.

 

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by canderson

[De Colores]

2 minutes ago, canderson said:

Audio-only could potentially avoid choppiness due to bandwidth issues with either package.  But if shipboard IT is blocking a necessary port for Zoom calls on the surf package (443 as I recall), neither bribery nor palanca will be of any help in making the connection.

 

It's worth a try with 'surf', but I'd be ready to upgrade to 'stream' once aboard if it doesn't work.

 

Would be interesting to hear from anyone who has been successful with an audio-only on 'surf'.

You used the word Palanca…DeColores??

 

[canderson]

Just now, De Colores said:

You used the word Palanca…DeColores??

 

But of course!  I don't normally speak Spanish!  DeColores!

[De Colores]

Just now, canderson said:

But of course!  I don't normally speak Spanish!  DeColores!

DeColores…as you can see that is our log in…I accidentally spelled it wrong in 2002 after our weekend but kept it!

[canderson]

 

3 minutes ago, De Colores said:

DeColores…as you can see that is our log in…I accidentally spelled it wrong in 2002 after our weekend but kept it!

Wow .. it's been almost 50 years now.  

Edited September 2, 2022 by canderson

[De Colores]

Sadly it is very dysfunctional here in SW Florida so we had to step away…Not authentic.

[canderson]

3 minutes ago, De Colores said:

Sadly it is very dysfunctional here in SW Florida so we had to step away…Not authentic.

Sorry to hear that.  A great deal has changed over 50 years, I'm afraid.  We had to move on entirely.

[Z'Loth]

On 9/2/2022 at 7:29 AM, De Colores said:

Would a zoom with out video work better? Could I do zoom with. out video on the basic package?

 

I support a competing online meeting product, but the basic underlying principles of online meetings are the same. 

 

The biggest bandwidth consumers are computer audio (VoIP) followed by webcam video, and someplace along the line is desktop sharing depending on the resolution shared. Remember that bandwidth on a cruise ship is very limited and shared among multiple passengers, and has high latency. The IT probably has it set up so that only key websites (including the cruise lines and airline websites) and the associated IP ranges and ports are allowed. Ports 80 (http) and port 443 (https) are certainly allowed, but not if the domain name (and associated subdomains) and/or IP ranges are blocked. 

[Jim_Iain]

On 7/17/2022 at 11:33 PM, LMaxwell said:

If the zoom call is taking place over a VPN you may have issues.  Some cruiselines, unsure if true on Celebrity, do not play well with VPN's.  

I have no problem with VPN on Celebrity.    You do need to purchase and download the app prior to sailing.   They do block the word VPN  and most of the services websites are blocked.  

[canderson]

5 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I have no problem with VPN on Celebrity.    You do need to purchase and download the app prior to sailing.   They do block the word VPN  and most of the services websites are blocked.  

I've been fine with Nord (so far) but another Zenith recommended Tunnelbear as a backup.

[kywildcatfanone]

I've done teams calls (Audio only) at SEA before on Princess with no issues, but from everything I have read on here, the internet on Celebrity is significantly worse.

 

I am on the Infinity next month and hope to check in with my office, but it might be only teams chat and not calls.

[Jim_Iain]

8 hours ago, canderson said:

I've been fine with Nord (so far) but another Zenith recommended Tunnelbear as a backup.

I've mostly used Nord but have also used ExpressVPN.   I previously used Tunnelbear in order to download Nord but just tried and Tunnelbear, Nord and ExpressVPN websites are all blocked.  

[canderson]

8 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I've mostly used Nord but have also used ExpressVPN.   I previously used Tunnelbear in order to download Nord but just tried and Tunnelbear, Nord and ExpressVPN websites are all blocked.  

Ugh.  That's not good. I assume you mean that just the websites are a no go, not the services themselves, right?