Laptop Use

[Joko Joan]

I'll be cruising on Carnival's Glory in a few weeks and I would like to find out what I would have to do to use my laptop, i.e., can I only use it in the computer room; do I need to have any other equipment to use it; can the laptop be used anywhere else; what might the cost be; would I be able to run the laptop off my battery and them just recharge it in the cabin? I have to confess to being computer-illiterate. Any help that you can give me would be very appreciated.

[Dave]

Welcome to cruise-chat.

Look here for the details. Glory has limited wi-fi, and as noted in the link they will have a map of hotspots in the internet cafe. No special equipment is needed but you do have to establish an internet account before you can use your laptop. The cabins have 110 volt outlets for recharging.

Shipboard internet is neither cheap nor especially fast. It can also quit suddenly.

[Joko Joan]

Thanks for such a rapid reply.

[Dwayne]

Does anyone know how it works about setting up the connection on your laptop? I mean is it difficult? I was thinking about taking mine this time to check email.

Dwayne

[Dave]

It is fairly easy. You go to the internet cafe and establish an account on one of their desktop computers. After that you can access the internet on your laptop - although you need to pay attention to the screens you get. They explain it in the folder you can get in the internet cafe.

[Dwayne]

Thanks! I'll probably get the 30 minute plan and try to be quick about reading emails. Not to be an "Archivist" , but I remember you posting about using notepad to compose emails offline. That will be my strategy.

Dwayne

[Zydecocruiser]

You don't even need to go to the Internet cafe, except to sign up for the free minutes drawing. :-)

Boot your laptop, open a browser, and it will walk you through.

One thing to remember is http://1.1.1.1 - that is the magic log out command when all else fails.

One gotcha - whatever package you buy, if you run out of minutes, it will automatically switch by the minute - $0.75 per minute - ouch!

[Dave]

I get these confused sometimes. RCI and Celebrity require you to establish an account before the laptop works.

Yes, the magic log out. On more than one occasion I've closed a browser (I use Mac computers) and realized I was still logged in with the meter running.

[Dwayne]

Ok, now I am confused!

I don't want to leave the meter running. Can't you just turn the wi-fi button off to end the session, or do you have to manually log out?

Thanks,

Dwayne

[gdjoslin]

Originally posted by IslandCruz:
Ok, now I am confused!

I don't want to leave the meter running. Can't you just turn the wi-fi button off to end the session, or do you have to manually log out?

Thanks,

Dwayne

We have been told on both Carnival and HAL, you MUST log off. I just turned my laptop off and figued that was enough, it wasn't. Canrival Spirit did look at our usage and credit us time back.
We usually write down how many minutes we have at the biginning and end of session. Minutes cost too much to lose.