QE2 - Internet Connection Questions

[greatam]

We are a global logistics provider, with contracts in some pretty remote places. Our company has had essentially the same problems as jackatsea.

 

We solved them by purchasing two satellite phones. NO, the phones are not cheap to either rent or purchase. And the service is defintely NOT cheap. But when it is ESSENTIAL to get contracts or information to and from parties, the cost becomes much less.

 

Everything is done offline, then uploaded via sat phone.

 

Skype works, IF you have connectivity. Ebay made a huge investment in Skype-in fact, they bought the company. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4237338.stm

 

We found that we were playing telephone tag, using Skype voicemail, and it was running up our cost of doing business.

 

Going on a long vacation, to remote places, and trying to run a business is a hassle. Good luck!!!

[wotec]

Just returned QE2. There is no way to use your laptop to connect to the internet with wireless card or other. I asked at the Bus. Ctr. and in the Computer Center on 2 Deck. They said they are afraid of a virus getting in their computer system. You cannot use a CD etc on any of these computers. If you do not buy a package, the most expensive rate is $.50/minute . The cheapest rate is $.25/minute for the largest bundle they sell. About $450.00 to get the $.25 rate.

[jackatsea]

Thanks to all who replied to my original post. Without the comments and advice sent by so many kind people, I may have made the biggest mistake ever.

 

I have decided to cancel the QE2 cruise Southampton to Sydney and opt for the more modern ship QM2 and the around Americas cruise leaving New York 15 Jan.

 

Guest239 recent information about the QM2's toned down connection is really useful. I'll probably forget about using Skype and just connect to my office using VNC or gotomypc.com type applications. These are web based and I can see no problems running them from my laptop. My business email can be setup to run as webmail, so SMTP shouldn't be an issue. I've checked with my bank and their online account system should be allowed to run on any connection, providing the IP isn't blocked. Not ideal, but just about workable.

 

I've been so depressed and stressed over the last few weeks trying to deal with this problem (and others). At least I can now look forward to some great destinations and still be in contact with my business "should" the need arise.

 

Once again... thanks

 

Best regards

 

Jack

[greatam]

Thanks to all who replied to my original post. Without the comments and advice sent by so many kind people, I may have made the biggest mistake ever.

 

I have decided to cancel the QE2 cruise Southampton to Sydney and opt for the more modern ship QM2 and the around Americas cruise leaving New York 15 Jan.

 

Guest239 recent information about the QM2's toned down connection is really useful. I'll probably forget about using Skype and just connect to my office using VNC or gotomypc.com type applications. These are web based and I can see no problems running them from my laptop. My business email can be setup to run as webmail, so SMTP shouldn't be an issue. I've checked with my bank and their online account system should be allowed to run on any connection, providing the IP isn't blocked. Not ideal, but just about workable.

 

I've been so depressed and stressed over the last few weeks trying to deal with this problem (and others). At least I can now look forward to some great destinations and still be in contact with my business "should" the need arise.

 

Once again... thanks

 

Best regards

 

Jack

 

Jack,

 

Please be aware that when you use GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, etc., etc. that webmail will not allow you access to old email on your primary office computer. We were trying to use webmail from our laptop, in conjunction with LogMeIn and GoToMyPC from Vietnam and could not access our old email. We needed phone numbers, manifests, etc. which was in the old email.

 

The only way we could access old email was to use the laptop as a networked computer and log into the company email. And then, when we went to look for new email from webmail (from internet cafes), since the main office computer was running (to allow LogMeIn, etc. to operate), we only got what had NOT downloaded to the main computer. It was a nightmare. Make sure you do a few trial runs before you go off for your cruise. We didn't do the trials and had to make numerous phone calls when we should not have had to. Next time, I will put all emails I may need to access in a separate folder, like Word, and not try to access old email from a remote computer.

[jackatsea]

greatam

 

Thanks for the heads-up.

 

I plan to set a rule to forward all email to a separate domain name webmail account. This will give me a carbon copy of my business email, in the event of a malicious network engineer blocking VNC access to my work PC.

 

My expectations of any cooperation or goodwill from the computer staff/crew are very low right now.

 

It's astonishing that such a poor service commands such a high price.

 

Cheers

 

Jack

[ronsex]

Peter

At this stage all I know is that I will be allowed to hook my laptop up using an Internet connection point located in the Business Centre. Cunard have given no guarantees of service levels or restrictions of access.

 

Therefore I'm going to try and use software that can operate through most firewall settings using standard HTTP.

 

Networking Back to My UK Office

 

Accessing my business computer located in the UK is essential to enable me to send invoices and pay wages using my online business account. Without being able to do this, I can not go!

 

www.realvnc.com

 

This is free software that I've setup to allow me to login and work directly on my UK computer from anywhere in the world.

 

Voice Contact - Inbound and Outbound

 

I'm going to invest in some SKYPE handsets and open an inbound and outbound account.

 

www.skype.com

 

By supplying my (top) clients and employees with a handset, they will be able to phone me wherever I am in the world for free when using an Internet connection. If I'm not online, they can leave voice messages.

 

Directly dialling IN TO a SKYPE number costs the same as normal calls to a standard telephone number in the UK, so this should cost a lot less for non connected clients and relatives rather than calling me on the ship's phone directly.

 

Using SKYPE to dial OUT to a normal number only costs around 1p per minute and there's loads of countries included. It's a pay-as-you-go service, so there's no contract. Again, this should workout to be a lot cheaper than the ship's phone system and maybe recover some of the Internet connection fees they're bound to charge.

 

The best SKYPE feature is conference calling, using this I can call an online meeting between clients and developers.

 

WebMail

 

My ultimate fallback plan is to use my business web mail, which again can be accessed from any connected PC.

 

With any kind of luck, all three systems will work and the Cunard technical people will be able to maintain a fairly good and reliable Internet connection.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Best regards

Jack

 

 

Jack,

 

My experience on the QE2 was horrific... in so many ways that I could not begin to point them all out.

 

I have been on over 22 cruises in the past few years and the QE2 rates the single worst experience. Like you I need to connect to the Internet on a daily basis to respond to important business emails and to connect to our servers in Los Angeles.

 

The QE2 would not allow me to connect to their network under any conditions. They may have changed that policy but I can almost guarantee you that your connection will be limited and you will not be able to get past their firewall. And if they do allow you to connect you can expect to pay at least $30 per hour. Their connection was down most of the time but they would still charge you for attempting to connect.

 

As for the SKYPE service... I was recently on the RSSC Mariner which had new wireless upgraded service. While the ship offered excellent wireless connection for $0.25 per minute VoIP did not work 95% of the time while using satellite connection. The head of IP services at their corporate office explained the reasons to me which seemed to make sense. I'm interested to know if anyone else here has experienced positive results using VoIP on a ship. I would locate an Internet Cafe at each port and use VoIP there... which always worked well and usually for $0.10 per minute.

 

I hope your experience on the QE2 will be better than mine. Personally I would not sail that ship again... even if they paid me.

 

Please let us know about your experience.

 

Ron

[Glaciers]

The QE2 would not allow me to connect to their network under any conditions. They may have changed that policy but I can almost guarantee you that your connection will be limited and you will not be able to get past their firewall. And if they do allow you to connect you can expect to pay at least $30 per hour. Their connection was down most of the time but they would still charge you for attempting to connect.

Ron

 

Just for some balance. My experience using the internet service was very good. I was able to connect at any of 4 locations using WiFi from my laptop. There were some using laptops that could not connect even with assistance from Rick in Cyber Center.

 

Rates to surf the internet as of the NYC to LA leg of the 2006 World Cruise.

By the minute, $.50. There are also packages available for purchase. Of course, these fees could change at any time.

Hours Package

½ $.45 $13.50

1 $.42 $24.95

2 $.40 $47.95

And so forth up to a package with 32 hours equaling $.25/minute for $479.95. Printing is $.50/page regardless of how it turns out.

[ronsex]

Just for some balance. My experience using the internet service was very good. I was able to connect at any of 4 locations using WiFi from my laptop. There were some using laptops that could not connect even with assistance from Rick in Cyber Center.

 

Rates to surf the internet as of the NYC to LA leg of the 2006 World Cruise.

By the minute, $.50. There are also packages available for purchase. Of course, these fees could change at any time.

Hours Package

½ $.45 $13.50

1 $.42 $24.95

2 $.40 $47.95

And so forth up to a package with 32 hours equaling $.25/minute for $479.95. Printing is $.50/page regardless of how it turns out.

 

 

Really... that sounds promising.

 

And that was on the QE2? I didn't realise they upgraded to wireless on the QE2. I was on the QM2 which had great connectivity from several locations. The QE2 was a disaster.

 

Ron

[Glaciers]

And that was on the QE2?

Ron

 

Yes, the QE2. It sounds as though they just upgraded prior to the crossing. They're certainly not up to par with the newer ships although it wasn't expected. It's still a much better bet for cost and connectivity to do most of the internet stuff in port. Panama was $1/20 minutes. Acapulco was $1/15 minutes. In time, the cruise ships will provide this for a much more reasonable rate. Not too long ago the going rate was $1/1 minute.

[Rok4u2]

I just got off the QE2 and internet service was NOT good. Rick in the Computer center was, to say the least, useless at best. There many days were we could NOT get on-line at all. I purchased 4 hours for $89.95 and I maybe was "on-line" 2 hours, the rest was waiting time. There were two areas with wifi.

[garycarla]

WARNING WARNING

 

For those tmepted to use programs that allow you to log into your "back home" pc, think again. After using the internet on three cruiselines (not Cunard) over the past two years, expect very slow service. They might call it broadband, but be warned, these "pipes" are clogged up. Even normal Yahoo type webmail is painful. I would use POP3 mail to upload and download my mail for offline use and it was okay, but still slow. And if somebody sends you an attachement of any size, you are in trouble. I tried using Yahoo instant messenger and it sort of worked. Voice over IP - yea, right.

 

The connection is more like dial up. Try it before you leave home. You will be very surprised.

[jackatsea]

WARNING WARNING

 

For those tmepted to use programs that allow you to log into your "back home" pc, think again. .... . Voice over IP - yea, right.

 

The connection is more like dial up. Try it before you leave home. You will be very surprised.

*************************

 

I just received an email regarding the use and availability of VOP on Cunard ships.

 

My answer was this thread.

 

Thanks to all...

 

Best regards

 

Jack

 

http://www.jackatsea.com

[pnhmrk]

I was interested to read this thread. We've just come back from the QE2 and were able to access the Internet with no problem (although only withing GSM range). We connected a mobile phone to our laptop - that gave quite a reasonable dial-up connection (although expensive) for most of the time.

[garycarla]

I was interested to read this thread. We've just come back from the QE2 and were able to access the Internet with no problem (although only withing GSM range). We connected a mobile phone to our laptop - that gave quite a reasonable dial-up connection (although expensive) for most of the time.

 

Of course, this is entirely different than the type of connections discussed above which are via the Wireless connection via the ship. Some ships have cell phone towers onboard, but that would be REALLY expensive to use, making the $US .50 per minute look like a steal.

[travel-to-go]

Of course, this is entirely different than the type of connections discussed above which are via the Wireless connection via the ship. Some ships have cell phone towers onboard, but that would be REALLY expensive to use, making the $US .50 per minute look like a steal.

 

Actually, the .50 a minute would be if you are using something that counts airtime.

 

GPRS/Edge/UMTS (Which is the 2.0/2.5/3G standard in Europe and some of America can be measured in download (Mb) depending on your price plan. This is fairly cheap by comparison to long, slow, airtime. I used my Edge card (Sierra Wireless 775 Aircard) when near enough to shore on our 3 Jan cruise. With UMTS HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access, I think) you can get incredible bandwidth speed, depending on how many you are sharing the bandwidth with. It is rolling out in larger cities first. Boston has it. Of course one has to be near shore, and the closer the better. The farther one is from the cell sites, the slower, as it has to retransmit more for accuracy when it has a poorer signal. Of course if one is in port, usually there should be an internet cafe nearby, as the crews usually use them.

 

The ships which have cell sites on board, I believe are certain RCCL ships.

 

Karie,

who likes to stay connected!