Golden Princess Re-Fit WiFi, Cell Questions

[ccrain]

I knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

 

21+ days away from work may be a bit much so now that I have my new fancy, dancy, IT approved encrypted laptop to prevent people, and me on occasion, from accessing precious company secrets, I now have been approved to take it with me outside the country.

 

Oh joy...

 

On the Golden since the refit, a couple of questions:

 

Has anyone used the wireless for Cisco VPN access? I know speed will always be a issue, but will it accept VPN access to begin with?

 

Is the wireless available in the cabins or still just in the main atrium area? (Caribe deck aft?)

 

Has anyone used a 3G card on the ship? (AT&T EDGE or HSPDA connectivity?)

 

Is the cell phone network on the ship currently active? Have any Verizon people used it lately?

 

I know there is a major cost issue involved, but I'm NOT footing this bill. (Of course from Judy's POV, the correct answers are no, no, no and no.)

 

So let's see, if I work 4 hours every other day, how much of the cruise fare can I charge back to the company....

[spongerob]

My manager once suggested I take my laptop with me to, "Stay in touch if he needed me." My wife informed me that it would be the first thing over the side if I brought along. That was just a few years ago.

 

We're going to try a NetBook that I purchased for my wife on this cruise. She is looking forward to having wireless access, and thinks it will be great in case I have to contact the office. My how times have changed!

 

But she won't let me take a BGAN (Broadband Global Access Network) satellite receiver even though it fits comfortably into a backpack. She thinks airport security will freak out.

 

Anyway, I figure that if I have to spend time working, it's not a vacation day so they better not charge my vacation balance. And, the costs will be on my expense report. 3G should work fine in port, but I'm willing to bet that with the prevalence of WiFi hotspots you could connect from just about anywhere on shore.

 

Encryption...did you use Credant? Yep, I was told to put it on my machine, and now I have folders that are obviously Top Secret, because I can't get to them at all. TGFBU.

[Colo Cruiser]

Our laptop worked perfectly in our D-403 mini.

 

Our cell phone (AT&T) worked fine when there was service from the shipboard MCP or from the normal shore signal.

[ccrain]

My manager once suggested I take my laptop with me to, "Stay in touch if he needed me." My wife informed me that it would be the first thing over the side if I brought along. That was just a few years ago.

 

Anyway, I figure that if I have to spend time working, it's not a vacation day so they better not charge my vacation balance. And, the costs will be on my expense report. 3G should work fine in port, but I'm willing to bet that with the prevalence of WiFi hotspots you could connect from just about anywhere on shore.

 

Encryption...did you use Credant? Yep, I was told to put it on my machine, and now I have folders that are obviously Top Secret, because I can't get to them at all. TGFBU.

 

Our vaunted IT people require the use of a dongle and PGP for encryption because "its two factor authentication"! LOL! Where do they think I store the dongle? (Hint: NOT on my keychain.)

 

So far I've been able to avoid taking the laptop because it wasn't encypted, now no more. I gotta look into your BGAN. We do a lot of work in remote locations with only dialup and maybe 3G.

 

But the biggest problem of all is not that management wants me to take the laptop, they all say don't bother, but I have 40+ people working for me that depend on me to bring in the contracts. 21 consecutive days is enough to completely miss an important RFP or RFQ.

 

While an uninterrupted vacation is one thing, you gotta admit, emailing from your balcony is far, far better than sitting behind your desk or emailing from an airport between connections!

[VibeGuy]

BGAN is still hideously overpriced though - $5-7.50/mb for data, at ISDN-esque speeds. It's actually not a problem at all with airport security. Latency is approximately 200X (not 200%, 200X) higher than terrestrial broadband networks, so it's somewhat painful for remote access over VPN. It's not too awful for syncing email/calendar/etc and using offline.

 

People report varied success with Cisco VPN access onboard; it's certainly not supported, but it *may* work; don't count on it. Latency from satellite kills VPN connections.

 

Cell phone data = even worse. No UMTS/HSPDA onboard; No EDGE onboard. It's all GPRS (9600 bps) for the glorious metered price of $19.50/MB (not a typo) unless you have an international data roamer. It is every bit as delightful as it sounds.

 

Enjoy your trip; the one thing that keeps me and my DH from being afloat 180 days a year is reliable, cost-effective broadband. I feel your pain. ;0)

[spongerob]

Your right, BGAN is pricey, and the equipment isn't cheap either. We use it as a backup for VSAT from remote locations. I remember when 9600 baud rates were FAST, so the bandwidth issue isn't a big deal.

 

But, you also have to be realistic and accept the fact that you aren't going to get terrestrial service in a marine environment. If you can keep the volume of data to a minimum and use a less data-hogging transmission protocol than HTML, one could hopefully manage.

[VibeGuy]

If I were to ever get really serious about this, I would set up a proxy that would run the awesome Readability script against the pages. Google Gears provides surprisingly excellent sync for gmail and reader and hAndles low bandwidth/high latency pipes quite elegantly.

 

Pity that Comdesic never took off.

[ccrain]

 

People report varied success with Cisco VPN access onboard; it's certainly not supported, but it *may* work; don't count on it. Latency from satellite kills VPN connections.

 

Enjoy your trip; the one thing that keeps me and my DH from being afloat 180 days a year is reliable, cost-effective broadband. I feel your pain. ;0)

 

Without VPN, I might as well not take the laptop...hmmmm...now that sounds like a good excuse!

 

Actually, that pretty much convinces me to leave it unless something is really hot or pending. I can always use the 3G card in port or find a wireless signal somewhere that gives me a better connection.

 

Thanks for the info!