How is Internet provided on ships?

A vacation on a ship or cruise line is ideally a time you obviously want to spend away from the madness of life that is always on a close tab through technology.

You want to leave behind the phone, fax, email and everything else that connects you to the outside world and just enjoy some quality time with yourself and your loved ones. But this is almost like a fantasy world because in the real world, it is difficult to sever all ties with such a world, even for a short time and set off on a trip.

There is work to be done, deadlines to be met and let’s be practical, the vacation is going to end someday and you will be back to work and a pile of unfinished work is not the best welcome. And sometimes it’s not even a vacation. Long story short, over time people realized that ships are not a place that can survive without access to the internet and the rest of the world.

Providing internet on ships is not like internet on land, because you are not on land. You are out on the water, surrounded by nothing but the expanse of ocean or sea. There are no towers or cables that could make marine internet an easy reality. But it still happened.

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Satellite connections

The most common way to provide internet on ships is through satellite. Providing a direct connection with satellite services through some hardware installations on the ship can provide easy access to the internet for all on boarders. Hardware installation is a must so that the internet signal can be tapped from anywhere. The installation charges for the whole ship internet can be around $600 and additional charges for hardware can range from $50 to $100. The choice of hardware depends on several factors such as:

• Ship size
• Internet usage
• Speed desired
• Cost component

A lot of companies offer a wide range of tools that can help you find exactly what you need. But it is more like a one-time investment that allows easy internet access on it. Even on cruise ships, there are specific areas that provide internet connection for their passengers, allowing them to access their emails from any part of the world. Some ships have also marked WiFi zones that offer wireless internet usage for everyone.

However, cruise ship internet is not close to the connection you use via DSL. Some companies claim to provide a connection of the same speed but it is not the same. The speed may be satisfactory but other problems like latency of the connection arise in most of the cases. Moreover, cruise ship internet is not a cheap option. Charging anything from $.75 to $10 per minute for internet usage, it is advisable to use it wisely.

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Wireless devices

Some people prefer to get their own wireless devices for internet accessibility but this does not work very well. As these devices can access the internet only when they are near certain ports where the network is readily available. Many internet service providers provide data cards that can be directly connected to the system.

However, these can be used only when the device is close to a port where the signal can be received.

Dial uPS

Another source of providing internet on cruise ships is through a simple dial up connection of cell phones. This is also not a reliable source as it is highly dependent on the reception of the signal of the phone being used. The phone, in this case, acts as a modem to access the internet connection directly from the satellite. But the loss of signal can hamper its efficiency.

While an internet ship is now a necessity for most, finding a reliable connection of the internet on cruise ships is not so common. Firstly, not all cruise ships offer it yet. And secondly, even if they do, there is still no guarantee of its reliability. So for a suitable internet ship connection, a satellite device would be the best bet.