Questions about internet and using a hotspot

[fluffybunny22]

We have the browse package for 2 devices. We will most likely upgrade to the browse and stream package but we will have at least 4 maybe 5 devices total. My husband;s phone has the ability to hotspot. Would our best option be to upgrade the 2 devices to browse and stream and use the phone to hotspot for the remaining devices? Is this possible. We've never done this before on a cruise. We recently used his phone to hotspot when we were in France but that was only for a couple of days. Our cruise is 11 nights. My husband thinks his hotspot is limited to 40 gigs.

[JamieLogical]

I have done this without issue on Celebrity in the past. I am on the Meraviglia right now and my two devices are my phone and laptop. I will try it right now with my kindle and get back to you.

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

I have done this without issue on Celebrity in the past. I am on the Meraviglia right now and my two devices are my phone and laptop. I will try it right now with my kindle and get back to you.

 

Yep. I just connected my kindle to my phone as a hotspot and I am able to browse the Kindle store.

[fluffybunny22]

13 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Yep. I just connected my kindle to my phone as a hotspot and I am able to browse the Kindle store.

Thank you for checking. Normally we wouldn't need to do this but with MSC's weird once you connect you can't swap rule it's either hotspot or pay a fortune for internet access.

[RBrowny]

Would this work in the same way, where if I purchased a package and hot spotted to another device, they could use everything on there too? Thanks, as it's technically a wi-fi hot spot?

[JamieLogical]

5 minutes ago, RBrowny said:

Would this work in the same way, where if I purchased a package and hot spotted to another device, they could use everything on there too? Thanks, as it's technically a wi-fi hot spot?

 

Yes. The challenge you have with hot-spotting is the short range, so you have to have the device that is acting as the hotspot within close proximity to the other devices. You couldn't make your phone a hotspot and be up on the pool deck and then have your kid's phone work in the kid's club. This strategy really only works if you hotspot say, your phone that you always have on you, and then want to connect your laptop and kindle to that.

Edited April 24, 2023 by JamieLogical

[RBrowny]

4 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Yes. The challenge you have with hot-spotting is the short range, so you have to have the device that is acting as the hotspot within close proximity to the other devices. You couldn't make your phone a hotspot and be up on the pool deck and then have your kid's phone work in the kid's club. This strategy really only works if you hotspot say, your phone that you always have on you, and then want to connect your laptop and kindle to that.

Oh that means that instead of us paying for a device each, I can purchase it and hot spot to my partner. Essentially saving the price, if that is how I'm reading it.

[JamieLogical]

2 minutes ago, RBrowny said:

Oh that means that instead of us paying for a device each, I can purchase it and hot spot to my partner. Essentially saving the price, if that is how I'm reading it.

 

As long as you have a device capable of hot-spotting (many android phones) you can do it. iPhones don't support hot-spotting.

 

Edit: I should clarify that iPhones don't support wifi hot-spotting. They can hot-spot if they have cell signal, but not if they only have wifi signal.

Edited April 24, 2023 by JamieLogical

[RBrowny]

4 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

As long as you have a device capable of hot-spotting (many android phones) you can do it. iPhones don't support hot-spotting.

 

Edit: I should clarify that iPhones don't support wifi hot-spotting. They can hot-spot if they have cell signal, but not if they only have wifi signal.

Ah that is a shame, we both have iPhones, so this ultimately wouldn't work would it 😞 

[JamieLogical]

4 minutes ago, RBrowny said:

Ah that is a shame, we both have iPhones, so this ultimately wouldn't work would it 😞 

 

Right. Only android phones will hotspot when only connected to wifi.

[TheBigBean]

How are you creating the hot spot? I thought you could only use the wifi once i.e. either receive or broadcast on the wifi, but not both. Has this changed or are you broadcasting by bluetooth or similar?

 

As an aside we bought multi country Caribbean data which worked well as we were usually near an island.

[JamieLogical]

22 minutes ago, TheBigBean said:

How are you creating the hot spot? I thought you could only use the wifi once i.e. either receive or broadcast on the wifi, but not both. Has this changed or are you broadcasting by bluetooth or similar?

 

As an aside we bought multi country Caribbean data which worked well as we were usually near an island.

 

I have a Google Pixel 5. When connected to wifi, my phone gives me the option to create a hotspot. I gave the "network" created by my phone a name and a password. I connect to that "network" with my Kindle or other secondary device using the password, instead of MSC's network. I have to have the hotspot turned on on my phone, which does drain the battery faster, but allows me to then browse the web and such via the "network."

 

Like I said before, this doesn't work for iPhones. Those will only allow you to create a hotspot when connected to a cell signal.

[ray98]

53 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Right. Only android phones will hotspot when only connected to wifi.

To add to this, this feature is unfortunately being disabled on many Android phones, especially those on the Verizon network.  As of now the Samsung Galaxy S10/20/21/22 only support hotspot using the cellular data.  If you try to start hotspot while connected to wifi it tells you it must be disabled to proceed.

Edited April 24, 2023 by ray98

[RBrowny]

I just can't justify over 120 Euros for two phones for a weeks worth of Wifi.

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, ray98 said:

To add to this, this feature has been disabled on many Android phones, especially those on the Verizon network.  As of now the Samsung Galaxy S10/20/21/22 only support hotspot using the cellular data.  If you try to start hotspot while connected to wifi it tells you it must be disabled to proceed.

 

I definitely suggest testing it with you home wifi and the device you intend to hotspot before relying on being able to do it onboard. Turn off your phone's cell service connection and then try to hotspot it via just the wifi.

[TheBigBean]

I played around on my Android phone and it looks like I can receive on 5GHz and broadcast on 2.4GHz, but that would mean I would need a 5GHz signal onboard which sounds unlikely.

 

I'd recommend anyone planning to do this plays around at home first making sure that they are redistributing their wifi signal and not their data.

 

 

[ray98]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I definitely suggest testing it with you home wifi and the device you intend to hotspot before relying on being able to do it onboard. Turn off your phone's cell service connection and then try to hotspot it via just the wifi.

Most certainly.  That is not something you want to find out on board.  I always recommend going to airplane mode, connecting to wifi and then starting a hotspot to see what happens with your individual phone.