I took a 9-day cruise with NCL over the holidays. The ship offers unlimited internet for $30 /day, single-device connection at a time. So I thought the wifi-sharing (unique to S7/S7 edge) would work perfectly. So I did just that, and here is my report.
In a short summary, it worked as intended. I connected to the ship's wifi first, and shared it with as many as 5 devices that my family have at times (a few iPhones, iPads, a MacBook, and a Chromecast). A few remarks to take note:
- the speed is slow in general, don't expect to stream anything, even when only one device is connected (no sharing).
- airplane mode must NOT be on for Wifi Sharing to work, be careful with your regular carrier's phone/data plan running off roaming.
- when I setup the hotspot, I made sure "hide my device" option is used for security
- the ship blocked excess to certain sites, Google store for example. So I couldn't download or update any apps. A workaround is VPN apps. Make sure you have that setup in advance.
- iCloud backup on iPhones did not work due to very slow connection, Google photos backup did work, although slowly.
- battery life takes a hit with the signal broadcast, bring an external battery pack.
- the ship's stayed-sign-in connection is not too stable when I moved around different locations of the ship. It requires logging out and in to fix it. Sometimes I have to do it a few times a day.
- Chromecast worked to connect to the shared network. In theory I could stream saved movies to it. But the TVs on the ship do not allow you to switch to the HDMI input. No luck.
In a short summary, it worked as intended. I connected to the ship's wifi first, and shared it with as many as 5 devices that my family have at times (a few iPhones, iPads, a MacBook, and a Chromecast). A few remarks to take note:
- the speed is slow in general, don't expect to stream anything, even when only one device is connected (no sharing).
- airplane mode must NOT be on for Wifi Sharing to work, be careful with your regular carrier's phone/data plan running off roaming.
- when I setup the hotspot, I made sure "hide my device" option is used for security
- the ship blocked excess to certain sites, Google store for example. So I couldn't download or update any apps. A workaround is VPN apps. Make sure you have that setup in advance.
- iCloud backup on iPhones did not work due to very slow connection, Google photos backup did work, although slowly.
- battery life takes a hit with the signal broadcast, bring an external battery pack.
- the ship's stayed-sign-in connection is not too stable when I moved around different locations of the ship. It requires logging out and in to fix it. Sometimes I have to do it a few times a day.
- Chromecast worked to connect to the shared network. In theory I could stream saved movies to it. But the TVs on the ship do not allow you to switch to the HDMI input. No luck.
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