Using a hotspot with internet package

[TriumphGuy]

Does anyone know if using a phone as a hotspot will allow other devices to use internet on board? For example, if my wife buys a plan for our 14 day cruise and enables the hotspot function, would she be able to share that connection with my phone or laptop? 

Thanks.

[wyobean]

We do it all the time. Hotspot on our phone and I use my iPad and laptop. Don’t know about how much data you will have, tho. 

[IPB4IGO]

Are you talking about connecting your phone to the ship's Wi-Fi, then turning on your phone's Wi-Fi hotspot to connect other devices to your phone?  

 

That's sounds like an excellent idea, if your phone supports sharing a Wi-Fi connection. My Pixel 3 allows that, but my last phone did not. It's hotspot capability would share only a cellular connection, not a Wi-Fi connection. 

 

If your phone has the option, you could even use Bluetooth tethering to share the phone's Wi-Fi connection.

[VMax1700]

There was a long thread some time ago by @POA1 about using a travel router.  

As far as I remember the problem with using a phone as a hot spot is that the phone must have two radios: one to receive the wifi signal from the ship and the other one to broadcast is to the second phone.  

[IPB4IGO]

54 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

As far as I remember the problem with using a phone as a hot spot is that the phone must have two radios: one to receive the wifi signal from the ship and the other one to broadcast is to the second phone.  

Exactly. My Pixel 3 is "dual-homed", but phones I had before this one were not.

 

The OP could easily test whether his is. Turn off mobile data, connect with his home router, and try to turn on the hotspot. If it will turn on and he can connect other devices using the phone's hotspot, it ought to work shipboard.

[DivotMaker]

I don't believe this is possible with iPhones (unless it's jailbroken).  You should get the following error message:

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by DivotMaker

[TriumphGuy]

OP here, it will not work with my wife's iPhone for the above reason. I think it will work with my Samsung Galaxy 7. Will test and report back. Thanks!

[TriumphGuy]

I tried this, turned off mobile data, connected phone to my home network, works fine EXCEPT.... phone says "checking subscription status", which indicates to me that the phone checks with Verizon to verify. Once verified it works fine.

That's not something I want my phone to do at sea. 

I will look into the travel router. 

[POA1]

On 1/24/2020 at 2:29 PM, IPB4IGO said:

Exactly. My Pixel 3 is "dual-homed", but phones I had before this one were not.

 

The OP could easily test whether his is. Turn off mobile data, connect with his home router, and try to turn on the hotspot. If it will turn on and he can connect other devices using the phone's hotspot, it ought to work shipboard.

I have a Pixel 3 and it doesn't want to hotspot when connected to wifi. Mine is an unlocked version straight from Google with developer mode unlocked. For the cost and the ease of use, the little travel router was great. We connected our phones, my laptop and my wife's tablet with no problems.

[IPB4IGO]

14 minutes ago, POA1 said:

I have a Pixel 3 and it doesn't want to hotspot when connected to wifi. Mine is an unlocked version straight from Google with developer mode unlocked.

That's odd. Mine is straight from Google as well. I have never turned on the developer option. Here's a screenshot from a few minutes ago showing the phone connected to Wi-Fi, mobile data off, and hotspot on.

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by IPB4IGO

[fatcat04]

12 minutes ago, POA1 said:

I have a Pixel 3 and it doesn't want to hotspot when connected to wifi. Mine is an unlocked version straight from Google with developer mode unlocked. For the cost and the ease of use, the little travel router was great. We connected our phones, my laptop and my wife's tablet with no problems.

And thanks to your instructions, it has helped quite a few of us do the same. Handy dandy little piece of technology.

[cruisingxpert]

17 minutes ago, POA1 said:

I have a Pixel 3 and it doesn't want to hotspot when connected to wifi. Mine is an unlocked version straight from Google with developer mode unlocked. For the cost and the ease of use, the little travel router was great. We connected our phones, my laptop and my wife's tablet with no problems.

I remember you discussing this.  Can you post the link to where you told us how to do it with a travel router. I'm not a techie but I think I will be able to follow directions😂

[0bnxshs]

1 hour ago, cruisingxpert said:

I remember you discussing this.  Can you post the link to where you told us how to do it with a travel router. I'm not a techie but I think I will be able to follow directions😂

I think you'll find what you're looking for here....

Scroll down on page 5 and you'll find Brian's instructions.

Edited January 27, 2020 by 0bnxshs

[cruisingxpert]

30 minutes ago, 0bnxshs said:

I think you'll find what you're looking for here....

Scroll down on page 5 and you'll find Brian's instructions.

Thank you.  That is exactly what I was looking for.

[POA1]

On 1/26/2020 at 5:46 PM, IPB4IGO said:

That's odd. Mine is straight from Google as well. I have never turned on the developer option. Here's a screenshot from a few minutes ago showing the phone connected to Wi-Fi, mobile data off, and hotspot on.

 

I can set it up, but the second wifi connection does not want to stay up. FWIW, the little travel router runs for days on a "lipstick" battery. I have no doubt that you can bridge two wifi networks, but it does not seem to work for me.

[gadgetlady]

On 1/24/2020 at 8:07 AM, TriumphGuy said:

Does anyone know if using a phone as a hotspot will allow other devices to use internet on board? For example, if my wife buys a plan for our 14 day cruise and enables the hotspot function, would she be able to share that connection with my phone or laptop? 

Thanks.

 

I had the exact same question.  Sad to see it won't work with iPhones, which all of us traveling have (except one who has a Samsung).

[sail7seas]

On 1/26/2020 at 5:33 PM, POA1 said:

I have a Pixel 3 and it doesn't want to hotspot when connected to wifi. Mine is an unlocked version straight from Google with developer mode unlocked. For the cost and the ease of use, the little travel router was great. We connected our phones, my laptop and my wife's tablet with no problems.

 

 

 

Hey,  Hey,   Hey ,,,,,

 

 

It's POA.    You have been missed.       So good to see your post.

 

Hope all is well with you, DW  and

'the bear'.

 

 

 

sail.noordam@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by sail7seas

[Ken the cruiser]

On 1/24/2020 at 3:16 PM, TriumphGuy said:

I tried this, turned off mobile data, connected phone to my home network, works fine EXCEPT.... phone says "checking subscription status", which indicates to me that the phone checks with Verizon to verify. Once verified it works fine.

That's not something I want my phone to do at sea. 

I will look into the travel router. 

We have taken our RavPower travel router on 2 extended cruises now over the past 6 months, once on Princess and once on HAL, and it works great!! We can connect up to 5 devices to the router at any one time up to 50' away and it's very easy to configure.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[madera1]

11 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We have taken our RavPower travel router on 2 extended cruises now over the past 6 months, once on Princess and once on HAL, and it works great!! We can connect up to 5 devices to the router at any one time up to 50' away and it's very easy to configure.

I looked on Amazon and they list several different RAV travel routers so not sure which one you use.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, madera1 said:

I looked on Amazon and they list several different RAV travel routers so not sure which one you use.

We use the RavPower FileHub Plus Dual Band Travel Router, USB Port, SD Card Slot, 6700mAh External Battery Pack, RP-WD03. The black one we use is $41.99 on Amazon.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[oceanmom]

4 hours ago, madera1 said:

I looked on Amazon and they list several different RAV travel routers so not sure which one you use.

 

This is the one we have used--https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TQEX8BO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1