Ship WiFi VPN ???

[audcc77]

13 hours ago, rockwall_cruiser said:

I use Cisco VPN.  It has worked fine on the Legend, Miracle, Vista and several other ships

I use Cisco VPN when I work from home.  
 

While cruising, I just send  things over email but I am curious about how “secure” it is to actually hook up to our server at work.   It’s one thing to have an email be viewed by someone who’s not supposed to see it, but to have our server exposed because I’m working from a cruise is absolutely not an option.  

 

Our IT company has said that he doesn’t believe it is secure.  He thinks I’d need to buy something extra.  
 

Thoughts?  Did you do/buy anything special to be sure you’re secure?

 

[kdr69]

But is that really a vacation?  

[audcc77]

49 minutes ago, kdr69 said:

But is that really a vacation?  

Yes.  I went on 7 cruises in 2022, some of which were alone.
 

I can’t recall how many in 2023 but in 2024, now that I’m back to living in the Midwest, I have 4.  
 

My boss accommodates my cruise addiction so long as I get the work done. I leave on a whim, sometimes inconveniencing other people.  Nobody tells me when to go on vacation and I do what I wish.  In my mind, it’s a small price to pay if the cruise is to the Bahamas or Caribbean.  
 

Now, if it was to Hawaii or somewhere else, that’s a different animal.  

[mz-s]

I don't think many people who work an office job work an honest, busy, 40 hours a week.

 

If I could, I'd love to work from a cruise. Sit in the cabin for about half a day doing my work, and enjoy the ship and ports the rest of the day. It's simply not an option with my job at present however. 

[smarterman64]

14 hours ago, audcc77 said:

I use Cisco VPN when I work from home.  
 

While cruising, I just send  things over email but I am curious about how “secure” it is to actually hook up to our server at work.   It’s one thing to have an email be viewed by someone who’s not supposed to see it, but to have our server exposed because I’m working from a cruise is absolutely not an option.  

 

Our IT company has said that he doesn’t believe it is secure.  He thinks I’d need to buy something extra.  
 

Thoughts?  Did you do/buy anything special to be sure you’re secure?

 

is it work email or personal email?

 

regardless, the email server *should* be using a secure connection. that is, if you look at the URL here on cruise critic, it's https, not http. the s implies there is a secure connection between your device and the server, so no one can see the contents of the email from your device to your email server.

 

THere is nothing "extra" to buy for extra security except perhaps a VPN, but all a VPN gets you is an extra layer from you to the first email server. 

 

So note i say first email server, becuase... emails need to be sent server to server and that is not necessarily guaranteed to be secure (and you have no control over that, but for exampe in Gmail you can see if an email was sent end to end secrely or not). 

 

So with https without vpn, what can you see? well, just what url you're hitting (e.g. boards.cruisecritic.com), not the contents of what was sent. 

 

That being said, https is secure. And theoretically so is the email (if configured properly)

[mz-s]

On 3/26/2024 at 5:41 AM, audcc77 said:

I use Cisco VPN when I work from home.  
 

While cruising, I just send  things over email but I am curious about how “secure” it is to actually hook up to our server at work.   It’s one thing to have an email be viewed by someone who’s not supposed to see it, but to have our server exposed because I’m working from a cruise is absolutely not an option.  

 

Our IT company has said that he doesn’t believe it is secure.  He thinks I’d need to buy something extra.  
 

Thoughts?  Did you do/buy anything special to be sure you’re secure?

 

 

Using a VPN is a good idea, but in reality nearly everything on the internet today is encrypted so it should be safe without.

[audcc77]

1 minute ago, mz-s said:

 

Using a VPN is a good idea, but in reality nearly everything on the internet today is encrypted so it should be safe without.

I already use a VPN when I work from home.   I have to “ approve” the connection when it sends something to my cell phone.  
 

So, are you saying that that itself is secure enough?

[mz-s]

4 minutes ago, audcc77 said:

I already use a VPN when I work from home.   I have to “ approve” the connection when it sends something to my cell phone.  
 

So, are you saying that that itself is secure enough?

 

I don't want to derail the thread too much we can talk for hours about this but the long and the short of it is yes. You still need to follow good internet hygeine. Don't open attachments or click links from unexpected emails. Etc. A VPN won't prevent viruses or scams.

 

Some people hear "VPN" and think it's a silver bullet.

Edited March 27 by mz-s

[smarterman64]

5 hours ago, audcc77 said:

I already use a VPN when I work from home.   I have to “ approve” the connection when it sends something to my cell phone.  
 

So, are you saying that that itself is secure enough?

something to note: if there is a notification like this, the 2nd device will also need to be on the internet to approve the 1st device. 

[Frank12]

5 hours ago, smarterman64 said:

something to note: if there is a notification like this, the 2nd device will also need to be on the internet to approve the 1st device. 

Pardon my ignorance but on Carnival if you purchase the internet package it says its only good for one device at a time.  How do you work around this to get your VPN running on your laptop?

[smarterman64]

Just now, Frank12 said:

Pardon my ignorance but on Carnival if you purchase the internet package it says its only good for one device at a time.  How do you work around this to get your VPN running on your laptop?

i can think of a couple options:

1. switch the device that is online to the phone device, then you should be able to open the app to confirm there. then switch back to computer. 

2. sometimes you can do an offline code (more often known as google authenticator) and type in a code instead of doing the approval via a push notification.