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Voom surf or voom stream?

screamin400

By screamin400,
in Royal Caribbean International

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screamin400

screamin400

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I do not see me streaming anything but I am under the impression that there must be a speed difference. I do have to do some work on the ship and would hate to have the lower package be slow but my work is mostly email related. I will surf but no stream. Does anyone know the speed differences or is it a use throttle that makes the diff?

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sg1phileshipper

sg1phileshipper

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I had stream on Adventure. While it is not the real VOOM, I was able to watch netflix.

On the other hand, retrieving my email on my computer mailbox didn't work at all, got all my mails over and over again. I had to access my email through the webmail. I think they use a throttle to limit your speed if you buy surf. I was never able to use skype in the past, but it worked like a charm on Adventure, even on sea days. Very clear image.

 

 

Verzonden vanaf mijn iPad met Tapatalk

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polymedia

polymedia

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I switched to Stream from Surf after the first day last week on Vision. It just wasn't snappy enough for what I needed to do online, which required accessing multiple websites quickly (I didn't stream anything).

 

Even then, it was a lot slower than I would have liked, and got slower the further we got from Venice.

 

That said, I've found that Voom on the newer ships is very speedy, and it's not in the same class when retrofitted onto older ships.

 

The captain did say that RCL is in the process of changing providers on the older ships, so it should be better in the future.

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screamin400

screamin400

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I switched to Stream from Surf after the first day last week on Vision. It just wasn't snappy enough for what I needed to do online, which required accessing multiple websites quickly (I didn't stream anything).

 

Even then, it was a lot slower than I would have liked, and got slower the further we got from Venice.

 

That said, I've found that Voom on the newer ships is very speedy, and it's not in the same class when retrofitted onto older ships.

 

The captain did say that RCL is in the process of changing providers on the older ships, so it should be better in the future.

 

That is interesting. I do not need to use it heavily but do want it to move right along when I do.

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Biker19

Biker19

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For voom surf, it will only allow email and web traffic, all other high bandwidth consumption like YouTube will be blocked.

Welcome to CC. Youtube and other streaming service work on the Surf only package. They may not work as well as on Stream, but they are not blocked.

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Biker19

Biker19

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I switched to Stream from Surf after the first day last week on Vision. It just wasn't snappy enough for what I needed to do online, which required accessing multiple websites quickly (I didn't stream anything).

 

Even then, it was a lot slower than I would have liked, and got slower the further we got from Venice.

 

That said, I've found that Voom on the newer ships is very speedy, and it's not in the same class when retrofitted onto older ships.

 

The captain did say that RCL is in the process of changing providers on the older ships, so it should be better in the future.

 

First, it is very likely the captain made that up.

 

The reason that performance didn't improve when you switched to Stream is that you still had a very latent connection (600+ ms ping rate). The ships with the newer O3B internet have much better latency (200ms ping, lower is better, most folks at home have well under 100ms ping).

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Biker19

Biker19

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Does anyone know the speed differences or is it a use throttle that makes the diff?

 

On most ships, Surf is limited to about .5Mbps down (some O3B ships may have a higher limit). On non O3B ships, Stream is limited to about 4 Mbps, while on O3B ships they are limited to about 25 Mbps (however, Freedom reported much lower limits for Stream).

Edited by Biker19
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screamin400

screamin400

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On most ships, Surf is limited to about .5Mbps down (some O3B ships may have a higher limit). On non O3B ships, Stream is limited to about 4 Mbps, while on O3B ships they are limited to about 25 Mbps (however, Freedom reported much lower limits for Stream).

 

.5 mbps would stop me right up. 25 mbps would be plenty fast. Is there anyplace where I can find this info from RC short of a phone call that they will not be able to provide me with the info either?

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Biker19

Biker19

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.5 mbps would stop me right up. 25 mbps would be plenty fast. Is there anyplace where I can find this info from RC short of a phone call that they will not be able to provide me with the info either?

 

No way would RCI advertise these numbers - what you'll get from RCI is "fastest internet at sea" :rolleyes:. All of the numbers come from on board reports from real users.

 

Don't discount the .5Mbps speed. For most functions, it's enough. Even low res Youtube videos will work at that rate.

Edited by Biker19
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screamin400

screamin400

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Sitting here at our campground and had to tether to my phone as the wifi is moving so slow the computer could not move. Have to run a test to see what it is at but don't want to sit and wait for it. I agree that RC is not going to disclose as some folks could run a test and not get the same results. Could open issues for them.

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Biker19

Biker19

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As I mentioned in a previous post, download speed on a ship is somewhat less important due to the high latency. Even with Stream at say 5 Mbps, to the average web surfer, the overall performance on a ship with a 600ms ping will be worse than a 2 Mbps DSL connection at home.

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Clarea

Clarea

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Which one would you pick with 3 online stores, one business facebook page and 5 email addys along with odds and ends? The lower one should do it but hate to cheap out and wish I got the higher one.

The difference is around $5 per day, or less than one alcoholic drink. Why not just opt for the higher speed and forget about the analysis.

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SPacificbound

SPacificbound

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We were on Navigator over the summer and I just bought surf. We will be on Navigator again in November and I bought surf and stream. I don't know if it will make a differance, but like Bob said it isn't that much $.

 

We will be riding Navigator back to Florida after a trip to Africa and I imagine I will still have pictures to put on my blog. I'm hoping it won't be quite as bad as it was over summer. We'll see. :)

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