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Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

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181–190 of 210 posts

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> imagine one of the ships officers will be tipped off by the IT team If it’s any of the major cruise lines there almost certainly isn’t anyone in IT paying that much attention.

Yea, I'd think something like onboard Internet is something set up once for the ship, and then basically forgotten about as long as the overall revenue is above some "reasonable" threshold given the number of passengers. Ain't no security team sitting there monitoring user registration metrics in real-time looking for fraud. At best, they might pull logs every quarter to look for vulnerabilities like this to close.

I haven't been on a cruise in a long time, does anyone know if there are on-board IT people? Might be an interesting job if I ever get bored again.

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#182

I imagine one of the ships officers will be tipped off by the IT team about the unusual number of free-internet activation attached to your booking id, and either give your room a visit to knock it off, or just bill some multiple of the $170 anyway. It sounds like it should only be used only a few times per booking, and this is going to hit at least 4/hour for multiple hours a day, so it will stick out like a sore th…

> imagine one of the ships officers will be tipped off by the IT team If it’s any of the major cruise lines there almost certainly isn’t anyone in IT paying that much attention.

> If it’s any of the major cruise lines there almost certainly isn’t anyone in IT paying that much attention.

Until everyone is doing it and their revenue stream falls off.

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#183
post #101

I’m not going to cry hard about stealing from one of the scummiest industries on the planet, and a good hack is a good hack, but man, what a wasted opportunity to disconnect! I guess OP is a kid and gets the FOMO itch from being offline. I feel we as a society are not good at helping people grow out of that.

Finally, a reasonable comment on this thread.

Hacking around things is fun, yes. Another thing that is also enjoyable is resting your brain from the Internet for a bit.

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get through a portal on a travel router?

The steps are as follows 1. Turn on travel router 2. Connect to its network 3. Go to travel router's admin page (192.168.8.1 or similar) 4. Click buttons and join the Hotel/Cruise/Flight WiFi 5. Go to neverssl.com (or google.com or whatever) 6. See the captive portal of Hotel/Cruise/Flight and follow instructions. In other words, for the portal, it is no different than using your phone. The extra step is logging into…

Ok, so once connected any client can authenticate at the portal page.

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often forbidden on cruise ships as it would be on flights for the same reasons (possible interference). In an airplane it's also impossible to make it work though those tiny windows of course. But on a cruise ship balcony it would probably be fine.

The rea$on that it i$ forbidden on crui$e $hip$ i$ not due to interference, whatever the company may claim.

Interferes with the business model. ;)

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#186
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's quite boring to be honest. I think it can be good if you have small kids.

Hmm, seeing someone fall/jump overboard and then subsequently getting interrogated by the fbi upon docking was anything but boring,

Do you honestly think that happens in most cruises?

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#187
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5190 continued well into the 2000s.

5190 was the default port, but if it wasn't open, any other port would work. You could have the client do a scan to try ports until one worked.

It'd be fascinating to get an at-scale timeline of ports blocked from common client connection points.

I assume it's drifted over time, but couldn't guess which ways / why. (Other than converging on blocking all non-443)

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#188
post #17

I used a travel router on my recent trip to Argentina and found it quite useful. It will be a permanent part of my travel kit. Some cooler uses: - streaming HDR video from closed MacBook running Amphetamine to Vision Pro via Moonlink - Having a working HomePod mini in the hotel room. The hotel internet did not like multiple devices off the router. It didn’t reject it outright but it throttled or nerfed it. Individual…

> travel router What's the difference between that and tethering off your phone?

Phone-based tethering is not nearly as configurable as a router.

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Often forbidden on cruise ships as it would be on flights for the same reasons (possible interference). In an airplane it's also impossible to make it work though those tiny windows of course. But on a cruise ship balcony it would probably be fine.

It's also increasingly forbidden on cruise ships because their internet is today Starlink powered as well and additional Starlink receivers in the area are direct competition for bandwidth from the same satellites at the same time, and a cruise ship full of wifi-using passengers wants all the bandwidth it can get, in theory competition makes things worse for everyone, even the person with a personal Starlink receiver…

Semi-related, does anyone know what Starlink uses for de-congestion negotiation?

Re: Getting free internet on a cruise, saving $170

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sir, this is Hacker News.

Right, but even HN peeps need a vacay

Well, I don't hack wifi networks as part of my day job.

I'm an older dude, and no longer find talking to strangers all that fun.

I like nature and the outdoors, but that can be admired only from a great distance until you make port. Going fishing off a moving cruise ship will end your vacation rather quickly (aside from not being feasible - you're going too fast for anything which is catchable on light tackle).

I love the swimming pools and such, but my wife can't swim.

There's all kinds of gambling and stuff, but I don't gamble.

I spent much of the cruise wishing for better internet... Or that I'd brought more books.

We spent a good amount of time playing FF7 in the evenings on our hotel TV wired up to a PSP.

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