Internet at Sea - Survey

[YoungMariner]

Prompted by a recent post. Another survey which might interest people. Just a poll within the forum relating to your last ship.

If you want to provide further details, such as ship type and the internet allowances you were given, please post.

[YoungMariner]

On all of the yachts I've sailed on we have had unrestricted internet except for when owners have been onboard and some limitations have been applied. On the last offshore standby vessel I sailed on and on the cruise ships I sailed you had to purchase internet vouchers but had free access to e-mail. On the last general cargo ship I sailed in 2006, there wasn't any internet but you had free e-mail access.
It would be interesting to see how things might have changed.

[bobofinga]

All offshore ships I sailed on (Standby , Supply , AHTS) had Internet but you couldn't go on certain sites ... club football sites were banned for some reason.

[Lewis]

On ship now internet is pretty good. Only problem is because of where the antenna is positioned we get no signal on headings between NE and E. Other than that you can't look at you tube, porn or play poker. It's a bit slower than broadband at home but faster than the days when I was a teenager and we had dial up.

From that thread you mentioned before. Isn't internet a requirement under MLC 2006? So once comes into force for UK next August do we expect a big change?

[Clanky]

I think most companies are starting to realise that internet is considered essential by seafarers now and that they will be unable to keep people without it. The cost of employing a new officer varies from around $2000 to around $10000 for most companies so keeping people makes good business sense.

As for MLC I think e-mail access covers the requirement, but maybe someone more in the know can confirm?

[Bulman]

Be nice to see if the paid internet is restricted and unrestricted ?

[Clanky]

Can't see any reason why paid internet would be restricted, if you want to use Youtube you only have to pay more for the data that you download.

The provider that we use has a "weighted word" filter, not sure if it is meant to preserve our innocence or protect against sites that may contain malware, but it can be really annoying, it even blocked the front page of "El Pais" (Spanish newspaper) the other day for some reason.

[alistairuk]

Be nice to see if the paid internet is restricted and unrestricted ?

The 5 ships I have been on with "paid for internet" has generally had no restrictions - although the speed of the connection is generally fairly restrictive. I used to use it a lot as a cadet and on the first ship I sailed on as an officer - but for past 2 years I haven't used it onboard - cheaper and faster to buy a 3G dongle for the country your in and use that (we call regularly in Turkey or Greece) or join the rest of the ship in invading the nearest bar / cafe that has "wifi"

[EH75]

How much is the internet for crew on your boats Alasdair? Soon to join a different cruise company who also have paid for internet and just wondering a rough idea of cost. Having said that I also plan to go down the dongle route (well actually just buying a loyal SIM and using my phone as a wireless hotspot but basically the same thing).

[alistairuk]

How much is the internet for crew on your boats Alasdair? Soon to join a different cruise company who also have paid for internet and just wondering a rough idea of cost. Having said that I also plan to go down the dongle route (well actually just buying a loyal SIM and using my phone as a wireless hotspot but basically the same thing).

I'm not entirely sure what present ship is (since I have never used it) - but previous company was ?10 for 4 hours - cost not really being an issue, but the painful slowness and constant loss of satellite signal was

[EH75]

Yeah I would imagine it would be pretty slow, cheers for that.

[CharlieDelta]

?10 for 160 mins on P&O. $20 for 180-ish mins and $40 for 400-odd mins on Cunard. I think. I may remember wrong but it's in that "ballpark".

Not lightning quick but enough to get by. You can even Skype (voice only) on *some* ships.

[Martyboy]

Maersk have Crewnet, each vessel has 25GB per month which runs the wifi and then ships official e-mail. Usually the old man will set aside 2-5gb a month for ships business(depending on the ship), and the rest goes to the crew. I personally find it unfair when a AHTS with 13-15 people onboard has the same allowance as a box boat with 21 on board, but meh. Sites like youtube etc are blocked for obvious reasons, Bet365 is blocked, but william hill is all good....... monopoly :P sometimes towards the end of the month it gets switched off, or some captains switch it off at the weekend/on a Sunday to save it. Skype video is banned, but voice is all good.

[Chiefy]

Supply side are on VSat I think, only the box boats got FBB (crew net is the internal name for the wifi :-) ) however later this year boxes will move to VSat unlimited, but speed won't change, nor will the list of banned sites, just won't have to bugger about with data budgets etc...which will be a blessed relief

[Martyboy]

Did anything come of installing these Eriksson things for the reefers and possible a back door into the system for crew Chiefy? Their was talk of it when I was last on a box boat and the ginger beers were fitting the equipment in dry dock, but I paid off soon after.