Internet on board. Anyone ever use a repeater?

[MuttMutt]

So just wondering if anyone has used a repeater of some sort for in the room and internet. I'm a geek and honestly could sign in on multiple devices as I choose but figure that they probably look at the MAC address if the device signed in and then just serve data to it. But figured I would see if anyone else has tried this. First trip on Liberty I didn't even bother with it (my wife had passed away 6 months before going and honestly I didn't care about being connected) but this time there are a few things I would like to do.  

 

If nobody has tried I will however be sure to report back in February. 

[JLMoran]

I know @twangster has brought a travel router / wifi repeater with him a couple of times, as he needed VPN access for his work and I think some other specific needs. He can probably answer your question in as much detail as you might want. 

[twangster]

I used to use a repeater in cases when the signal from the access points in the hallway doesn't provide great coverage in the cabin.  Over the past year or so Royal was starting to use different techniques to profile devices and detect devices that share internet but it varies by ship.  It's outsourced to a 3rd party who manages the platform and security.  They have an onboard "Voom specialist" who can help with lost passwords and simple tech issues but the 3rd party back on land does the heavy lifting.  It goes beyond simply looking at the MAC address that logged in.

I'm hesitant to advise people on the idea because sharing Voom is a violation of the terms and conditions.  

I've resorted to bringing an external USB wifi adapter that features large antennas so that no matter how weak the wifi signal might be I can always get enough signal to work on my laptop reliably.   My cell phone provider (TMobile) has an app that allows my laptop to do wifi calling so with my laptop connected it accomplishes every I need in the cabin.  Leaving my cabin I logout my laptop and login my phone.  

The latest Voom platform used across the fleet now lets you kick off another device to login a new device so even if I forget to logout on my laptop I don't have to trek back to the cabin to logout my laptop before I can login my phone like I used to need to do on some ships.  

People have reported some success with certain Android phones that allow wifi hotspot sharing (not to be confused with cellular hotspot sharing that most devices can do).  You need to ask yourself how much time you want to invest fiddling to try to work around the mechanisms in place that are trying to stop Voom sharing.  While on vacation it may be easier just to plan to work within the guidelines of the platform rather than spending a lot of time fiddling with it.

[MuttMutt]

Right, and I understand about not wasting a lot of time but also figured it would be much like any other lodging where wifi at the room could just suck and a repeater of some sort could boost it to a fairly usable level with the added benefit of having a tablet and phone on at the same time so I could make a call over wifi while surfing a little bit on my tablet.  Once of the things I have and use works much like CPE on a wifi based network and shows up as a laptop since it uses a laptop wifi card.  But in some ways it's just one of those wonder what will work things, for a while I actually worked with long range wireless links, like in the 10 mile range on 2.4Ghz so to me it's honestly fun as well.  I have a pair of 10 dbi gain omni's I have and was looking at as well but not sure about the looks when they xray something that looks like a cross between a billy club and a stick of dynamite with the blasting cap inserted.  Could toss it all in my the bag with my dive equipment but not sure if it's worth the effort.

And I understand the deal with TOS and all... Honestly I need a shirt that says "I void warranties and TOS" for when I walk in to the electronics stores, LOL.  I bought a new phone with my wife one year and while they were doing paperwork I had already effectively voided the warranty by rooting it before we had even left the store.  But I do my best to not need to void stuff nor cause issues.

If you are using a computer with a USB WiFi adapter and have a the internal you should also be able to do something similar to the phone app while in the room.  Can't remember the exact thing/terminology but it's a bridging or something (rarely use it to be honest) built into the windows OS.  Which gives me something else to think about... Have an old board I have been meaning to build a custom FreeBSD image to use as a repeater or whatever.

But thanks for the info, gives me a few things to look at and think about.