Internet speed/ wireless ??

[familytrippers]

I'm a bit confused...going on the Star Princess to Antarctica in January...does anyone know how the internet speed/access is on that ship/itinerary? Also, is there wireless in the cabins or just in the public spaces...I seem to keep finding conflicting answers to that! Thanks!!

[Pam in CA]

I'm a bit confused...going on the Star Princess to Antarctica in January...does anyone know how the internet speed/access is on that ship/itinerary? Also, is there wireless in the cabins or just in the public spaces...I seem to keep finding conflicting answers to that! Thanks!!

I wasn't on the Star but I was on HAL's Amsterdam in Antarctica this past January and there was no Internet access. Remember, it's dependent on satellite coverage and satellites are placed in space and cover areas of the globe with population. Err... there isn't any population to speak of in Antactica, thus no commercial Internet satellite. (The research stations have their own satellites and means of communication.) We lost it about a day's sail south of the Falklands and reacquired a satellite signal (Internet) about a day's sail south of Ushuaia on our way there. When there is a satellite signal, speed is dependent on the number of people using the bandwidth and what they are doing, i.e., if someone is uploading a lot of graphics or going to graphic-intensive websites, they will hog the bandwidth, making the Internet excrutiatingly slow.

 

Yes, there is WiFi in the cabins but obviously, it works only when there is Internet access/signal.

[DeltaOne]

I'm a bit confused...going on the Star Princess to Antarctica in January...does anyone know how the internet speed/access is on that ship/itinerary? Also, is there wireless in the cabins or just in the public spaces...I seem to keep finding conflicting answers to that! Thanks!!

Any ship, any itinerary, -- the Internet access is going to be much slower than the broadband we enjoy at home. Faster than old dialup service but much slower than broadband. And might not be available at all due to bad weather conditions.

 

It's not the WiFi that slows things down, since the speed of the ship's WiFi network is many times faster than the speed of their Internet connection through the satellite.

 

It's easy to make a few minutes of connect time go a long way if you use your own laptop instead of a computer in the ship's Internet cafe. Using your own computer you can log on, download emails and log off. Then take your time reading and composing replies. Then log on, upload replies and log off. At most one session of downloading and uploading will take around 3 or 4 minutes. It would take you much longer to accomplish the same on the ship's computer since the clock is running the entire time.

[chubbypiggy]

Any ship, any itinerary, -- the Internet access is going to be much slower than the broadband we enjoy at home. Faster than old dialup service but much slower than broadband. And might not be available at all due to bad weather conditions.

 

It's not the WiFi that slows things down, since the speed of the ship's WiFi network is many times faster than the speed of their Internet connection through the satellite.

 

It's easy to make a few minutes of connect time go a long way if you use your own laptop instead of a computer in the ship's Internet cafe. Using your own computer you can log on, download emails and log off. Then take your time reading and composing replies. Then log on, upload replies and log off. At most one session of downloading and uploading will take around 3 or 4 minutes. It would take you much longer to accomplish the same on the ship's computer since the clock is running the entire time.

 

Can you please tell me how you download e-mails? Also, how you upload replies? Thank you.

[chipmaster]

Can you please tell me how you download e-mails? Also, how you upload replies? Thank you.

 

you need to configure a email program like ccmail or outlook as your primary email interface. Then it will sync with your provider download everything ( it will still be slow). You can then disconnect, read, reply and save all the outgoing in the outgoing box. When you reconnect they will all be snet ( again will still be slow, but faster then if you were reading and typing in realtime ).

[billet]

a lot of people mention the slow connection. On average when I was using outlook and downloading email, disconnecting, writing the replies and then uploading on the Diamond to Hawaii over 12 weeks I used 5 minutes a day. I was normally getting around 30 emails. There were days when there was no connection at all.

[joand452]

What's the going rate for Princess internet these days? It's been a couple of years since we sailed on Princess. We'll probably bring our netbook and use it in the cabin. Is there an extra charge for wireless?

 

Thanks,

[paul929207]

Can you please tell me how you download e-mails? Also, how you upload replies? Thank you.

Each internet system is different. You woould need to check with your provider. Fo instance, with AOL, I just type messages on my laptop while I am off line. I click send later when I am done with each one When I connect to the internet and open AOL, it asks if I want to send now. I say yes and it goes.

[chubbypiggy]

Thank you Chipmaster and Paul929207. I am a PC "dummy"; I will print out your answers and ask my non-dummy PC friends at work to see if they know what I need to do. :p

[paul929207]

Thank you Chipmaster and Paul929207. I am a PC "dummy"; I will print out your answers and ask my non-dummy PC friends at work to see if they know what I need to do. :p

For most techie problems, I follow Warren Buffet's advice - Ask a 12 Year Old.