Voom streaming internet: In your stateroom-Will a Travel Router on a Symphony of the seas cruise have connectivity?

[Happytime22]

I have always used a wireless travel Router at Hotels (TP-Link AC750 Travel Router) as I do not like being ‘open’ on wireless connections.

I read somewhere that many ships, even with Starlink, had very poor connectivity in your stateroom? 

I’m will be more aft on the 12^th floor on Symphony and want to make sure that I actually would get connectivity without a problem… as I do most of my on-line work in my cabin and if the connection is bad… would not buy the daily package.

 

Anyone have experiences?

[twangster]

Under the previous satellite provider their platform looked for travel routers and disconnected them.  

 

Unknown how a travel router will function now that Starlink is the provider.  

[steveru621]

Yes, you will have WiFi connectivity in your stateroom.  No one can guarantee the WiFi connection. speed.

 

BTW it has to do with your proximity to the WiFi router and it really has nothing to do with Starlink.

 

There is also no guarantee RCI will not block your travel router.

[Happytime22]

2 minutes ago, twangster said:

Under the previous satellite provider their platform looked for travel routers and disconnected them.  

 

Unknown how a travel router will function now that Starlink is the provider.  

Really????

[twangster]

On 11/12/2023 at 4:24 PM, Happytime22 said:

Really????

 

Yes, really.

[GW248]

@twangster  A bit off topic, but does anyone know the current D+ discount if purchasing a package on board?  This would be a 7 day Wonder at the end of the month.

[twangster]

4 minutes ago, GW248 said:

@twangster  A bit off topic, but does anyone know the current D+ discount if purchasing a package on board?  This would be a 7 day Wonder at the end of the month.

 

The D and D+ Voom discount is based on the amount of a 24 hour pass.

 

On Radiance right now here is the Voom price sheet.

 

 

The 24 hour pass rate is $27.99 per day.

 

Since a D+ gets two free days or equivalent off a full voyage plan that puts the discount at $27.99 x 2 = $55.98. 

[GW248]

Thank you!

[sandensea]

Internet download speeds are hit or miss so not sure I would rely on the internet for work unless you had the ability to do much of the work off line and simply upload/download with a bit of patience.

 

I have brought travel router on last 2 cruises with no issue to enable both my spouse and I to access internet when in cabin. Obviously, when on top deck, we just log in as necessary to the RCL wifi but when back in cabin, we just log in router back in to RCL and our devices pick up the travel router SSID. For reference, I have a mango router that is great for travel.

 

On our next cruise, we will be going on Oasis class so anxious to see speed with access points in cabin. Wondering if kids can access from cabin across the hall or if too much interference.

[amindu]

11 minutes ago, sandensea said:

Internet download speeds are hit or miss so not sure I would rely on the internet for work unless you had the ability to do much of the work off line and simply upload/download with a bit of patience.

 

I have brought travel router on last 2 cruises with no issue to enable both my spouse and I to access internet when in cabin. Obviously, when on top deck, we just log in as necessary to the RCL wifi but when back in cabin, we just log in router back in to RCL and our devices pick up the travel router SSID. For reference, I have a mango router that is great for travel.

 

On our next cruise, we will be going on Oasis class so anxious to see speed with access points in cabin. Wondering if kids can access from cabin across the hall or if too much interference.

Is this what you have?  Sorry not familiar with mango router. Would this be better than TP Link or the same?

 

https://www.amazon.com/GL-iNET-GL-MT300N-V2-Repeater-300Mbps-Performance/dp/B073TSK26W

 

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by amindu

[fizzywm]

14 minutes ago, sandensea said:

Internet download speeds are hit or miss so not sure I would rely on the internet for work unless you had the ability to do much of the work off line and simply upload/download with a bit of patience.

 

I have brought travel router on last 2 cruises with no issue to enable both my spouse and I to access internet when in cabin. Obviously, when on top deck, we just log in as necessary to the RCL wifi but when back in cabin, we just log in router back in to RCL and our devices pick up the travel router SSID. For reference, I have a mango router that is great for travel.

 

On our next cruise, we will be going on Oasis class so anxious to see speed with access points in cabin. Wondering if kids can access from cabin across the hall or if too much interference.

Great to hear the Mango works. I just snagged a refurb on sale for $17 and have only tested it at a McDonald's so far. I think it will be replacing my ancient but trusty HooToo TM-02.

 

Edit to add I bet it may be hard to pick up in the cabin across the hall due to the signal passing through two rounds of steel. But I have had mine work in the hallway near the room. I'd be interested to hear your experience after the next cruise.

8 minutes ago, amindu said:

Is this what you have?  Sorry not familiar with mango router. Would this be better than TP Link or the same?

 

https://www.amazon.com/GL-iNET-GL-MT300N-V2-Repeater-300Mbps-Performance/dp/B073TSK26W

 

 

Heads up you can buy it directly from the manufacturer for $21 right now with free US shipping. https://store-us.gl-inet.com/products/usa-only-mango-gl-mt300n-v2

Edited November 14, 2023 by fizzywm

[amindu]

10 minutes ago, fizzywm said:

Great to hear the Mango works. I just snagged a refurb on sale for $17 and have only tested it at a McDonald's so far. I think it will be replacing my ancient but trusty HooToo TM-02.

 

Edit to add I bet it may be hard to pick up in the cabin across the hall due to the signal passing through two rounds of steel. But I have had mine work in the hallway near the room. I'd be interested to hear your experience after the next cruise.

Heads up you can buy it directly from the manufacturer for $21 right now with free US shipping. https://store-us.gl-inet.com/products/usa-only-mango-gl-mt300n-v2

 

Thanks can you link to a place that walks you through how you can connect the router since you have to go to a login place to input your username info to get on royals wifi.  I imagine you would use the app on your phone to connect the mango to the SSID of the ship, and then somehow get to the icafe page to login via the router?

[smokeybandit]

So the mango router works with the RC captive portal login?

[fizzywm]

Just now, amindu said:

 

Thanks can you link to a place that walks you through how you can connect the router since you have to go to a login place to input your username info to get on royals wifi.  I imagine you would use the app on your phone to connect the mango to the SSID of the ship, and then somehow get to the icafe page to login via the router?

This might help, watch from the beginning but the relevant part starts a few minutes in when he uses it as a wifi repeater:

[sandensea]

Yes. The mini router. Pretty small footprint. There are videos on how to configure. I agree the steel could/would be a problem. I'm hopeful that as a result of access point in the room, perhaps a little better.

 

As far as set up, it is a bit of trial and error. I use my ipad. Log in to RCL page to connect. Type in the 192.168.8.1 home page, have router scan for RCL guest, select join, have my SSID set up as the sub network. Then wait about 30 seconds and switch wifi on ipad to select my SSID. Typically, the iCafe reprompts and I say switch devices and off and running. I'll be on 7 day over the holidays and can update wtih exact details. 

 

When we have gone to MDR for breakfast and "switched" devices to access while at breakfast, I have had to switch devices back to ipad once in room, then select my SSID again, log in to icafe and switch devices...so a touch cumbersome but worth it avoid competing for the device. If you are already paying for internet (multiple devices), not necessary but since I get 4 free 24 hr sessions it makes sense to have the convenience of travel router (dimensions are like 2"x2"x1")

[sandensea]

15 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

So the mango router works with the RC captive portal login?

Yes. You have to configure set up. I originally had to get that right as we are always on Marriott Bonvoy and that issue arose but after pushing a few radio buttons in the config. Smooth now but some trial and error originally but haven't had any issues in RCL after knocking out set up snags while in Marriott

 

Good tutorial on set up

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAucRePaQu8

 

Edited November 14, 2023 by sandensea
typo

[sandensea]

8 minutes ago, fizzywm said:

This might help, watch from the beginning but the relevant part starts a few minutes in when he uses it as a wifi repeater:

Beat me to it. Same vid I had watched originally. Thx

[twangster]

I will say that back in the day when I first used an AC750 and also a Hootoo device Voom speeds were limited to 4 Mbps down and 2Mbps up.  With those kind of speeds the performance of the travel router didn't matter so much.

 

With the faster speeds that are available on some ships the Starlink speeds are now exceeding the performance of these compact travel routers.  So while they may work, they may have lower throughput or will become a bottleneck compared to joining the ship WLAN directly.

 

I've been playing with my AC750 and have discovered you can't set the 5Ghz channel, it mirrors the 5Ghz channel that you set it to join.  This means that the radios are doing double duty transmitting and receiving on the same frequencies so it uses the RF spectrum twice for the same data flow, effectively competing with itself, at least for the hardware version I have.  

 

If you set the AC750 to join on the 2.4Ghz band then you are inherently limited by the nature of the 20 or 40 Mhz channels in use which may result in lower throughput compared to what Starlink is making available on the ship when connected directly to the ship's 5Ghz radios.

 

I am seeing my AC750 top out at around 35 Mbps up and down where as I sometimes get three to four times that download speed when connected directly.

 

It stands to reason given the age of the AC750 family of products and their compact size that performance may not have been a huge design goal.

 

Being limited to 35 Mbps may work for some but if you are moving large amounts of data it's a pretty big hit to take.  

 

I'm going to play with it some more at home on my gigabit fiber service but at the moment I'm not overly impressed with the performance of the AC750 now that internet speeds are becoming larger.

 

[twangster]

Performance hit using an AC750

 

Through the AC750:

 

 

Moments later direct without using the AC750

 

[amindu]

14 hours ago, twangster said:

I will say that back in the day when I first used an AC750 and also a Hootoo device Voom speeds were limited to 4 Mbps down and 2Mbps up.  With those kind of speeds the performance of the travel router didn't matter so much.

 

With the faster speeds that are available on some ships the Starlink speeds are now exceeding the performance of these compact travel routers.  So while they may work, they may have lower throughput or will become a bottleneck compared to joining the ship WLAN directly.

 

I've been playing with my AC750 and have discovered you can't set the 5Ghz channel, it mirrors the 5Ghz channel that you set it to join.  This means that the radios are doing double duty transmitting and receiving on the same frequencies so it uses the RF spectrum twice for the same data flow, effectively competing with itself, at least for the hardware version I have.  

 

If you set the AC750 to join on the 2.4Ghz band then you are inherently limited by the nature of the 20 or 40 Mhz channels in use which may result in lower throughput compared to what Starlink is making available on the ship when connected directly to the ship's 5Ghz radios.

 

I am seeing my AC750 top out at around 35 Mbps up and down where as I sometimes get three to four times that download speed when connected directly.

 

It stands to reason given the age of the AC750 family of products and their compact size that performance may not have been a huge design goal.

 

Being limited to 35 Mbps may work for some but if you are moving large amounts of data it's a pretty big hit to take.  

 

I'm going to play with it some more at home on my gigabit fiber service but at the moment I'm not overly impressed with the performance of the AC750 now that internet speeds are becoming larger.

 

 

But on a ship isn't this a mute point?  Unless the new Starlink exceeds 35mbps up and down, even if it does for most i imagine streaming, internet etc would be plenty?  

 

Nvm i think i see the point you are making that with the use we would be getting 10% of actual output so the device would be useless.

Edited November 15, 2023 by amindu

[buffet24]

Just tested my AC750 while at home:

 

Without AC750 (direct from home router)

250M down and 100M up

 

With AC750

100M down and 100M up

 

So at my home...  I get a 60% hit on downloads but no apparent hit at all on upload speeds...

Obviously, your mileage will vary... 🤷‍♂️ 

[steveru621]

HD streaming requires a minimum of 6 Mps.

 

Most websites don't transmit more than 10 Mps anyway.  It's the latency that gets you.

 

[Happytime22]

Based on the info above about the AC750...is there a better travel modem to use that does NOT slow it down?

[fizzywm]

8 minutes ago, Happytime22 said:

Based on the info above about the AC750...is there a better travel modem to use that does NOT slow it down?

I've seen a lot of good comments about the GL.iNet Beryl and some of its siblings. They are bigger and draw more power (so maybe can't be used as easily with a battery pack) but still a reasonable enough size to pack. I can't share any real life experience though.

Edited November 15, 2023 by fizzywm

[Pinballs83]

Here is what I am doing currently on Symphony...

 

I bought 2 device package.  I have my Windows 11 laptop set to mobile hotspot.  I have my amazon fire stick plugged into the HDMI port of the tv and the USB port on the TV for power.  There is a button under the TV that you can use to pick the source as HDMI.  I am watching TV streaming service and youtube just fine.  Speed test shows 10/3 which is enough to stream with.  I am on day four and they haven't disconnected me once for using mobile hotspot.  The stateroom TV has very limited channel selection and the picture quality is bad.  My firestick gives me more options at night to watch some TV while I midnight snack in bed.

Without a travel router or a mobile hotspot there is no way to get some devices online like a nintendo as you can't get to the web login page.

A windows 11 mobile hotspot is easy.  Just type mobile hotspot in the search bar and it will come up.  Good tip is to set the mobile hotspot name and password to be the same as your home network.  That way my devices just automatically work.  I've got a tablet, nintendo, firestick, and my laptop all sharing a single "device" in the stateroom.  

Then I use the 2nd device for my phone that way I don't have to switch it back and forth, but that is is an option.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Pinballs83
add pic