Harborside wifi options

[wtrjock]

We are going to Harborside next week for the first time. We are used to the Westin resorts having great wifi. I have read that Harborside wifi isnt so good. Does anyone have suggestions for connecting? We have AT&T phones so I figure our data won't work or is too expensive. I tried to get a hotspot from islandwifi, but they are wait listed and I am 174th in line...Haha. What is everyone using in the Bahamas?

 

[SMHarman]

$10 a day for data passport on your att phone.

 

[Theiggy]

Oh gosh we have AT&T and we had such problems. We got the $10 a day from AT&T but then it wasn’t applied to all phones and mine and my sons data was shut off. My husband spent precious vacation time arguing with them on the phone and then again when the bill came in wrong. Make sure you take care of it before you go! We called when we were already there which may have caused the confusion, it shouldn’t have, but we spoke to many incompetent customer service ppl at AT&T so good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CPNY]

We are going to Harborside next week for the first time. We are used to the Westin resorts having great wifi. I have read that Harborside wifi isnt so good. Does anyone have suggestions for connecting? We have AT&T phones so I figure our data won't work or is too expensive. I tried to get a hotspot from islandwifi, but they are wait listed and I am 174th in line...Haha. What is everyone using in the Bahamas?

25 bucks a day for horrific WiFi or 10 per day per phone. I have att and I use my phone. Pay the 10 per day and it’s worth it. You roam on BTC. The service is fine. It’s better than using the WiFi.

 

[Sea Six]

A friend of mine was just there and said the Harborside wifi was terrible, even at $25 a day. He said he went to the Coral Tower lobby, where they have free wifi, just to check his e-mail and Facebook activity. That is the lobby check-in area for Coral, not the library, which is also free but you have to sign up for it and wait your turn. In the library you sit at a desk-top, it's not wireless.

 

[blondietink]

Wifi is free at the pool areas at Atlantis from something like 8am to 5 pm and it worked great. I am not sure about the pool area at Harborside.

 

[Sea Six]

Yes, there are several ways to get e-mail and such, but if you want to stream video in your room - good luck!

 

[emeryjre]

Harborside and Atlantis are not Westin properties. The Atlantis Complex is owned by an investment firm and they have retained the original management.

Harborside is managed by Vistana Signature Experiences which manages Sheraton and Westin Timeshares. But Harborside is not a Westin managed property nor is the Atlantis complex managed by Westin.

Just returned last week from Harborside. WiFi is not worth paying $25.00 a day for 4 devices. The WiFi system is outdated and in need of an update at Harborside. The WiFi is provided the Atlantis IT Department and is not part of the high Maintenance fees paid by Harborside Owners.

I made sure I had an International Plan on my ATT phone so I would not have to purchase the WiFi from the Atlantis IT Department.

My ATT plan costs $10 a day and I then use my existing data from my ATT plan and can text and call to the same areas of my original plan. Just because I am on an international plan, it does not mean I can make local calls to Bahamanian telephone numbers. Make sure you understand the fine print of any international plan you might use in the Bahamas.

I could not use my phone as a hotspot since the Bahamanian telephone carriers (BTC and aLiv) have not signed an agreement that would allow it if your original plan had unlimited data.

I am not sure what type of WiFi service people staying at other areas of Atlantis (Beach, Coral, Royal Towers, The Cove, The Reef), but they pay a resort fee of $49 a day that includes the WiFi.

Despite all of the above, my last trip was my ninth in nine years. Look forward to the multiple activities, great staff, beautiful weather, and feeling of safety I have at Harborside.

 

[Sea Six]

Well, apparently you don't have to be paying the $49 fee to get free wifi in the Coral lobby

 

[CPNY]

Well, apparently you don't have to be paying the $49 fee to get free wifi in the Coral lobby

No you don’t, also down by the kids club crush.

 

[Sea Six]

Do us a favor and walk around the entire Atlantis resort and tell us where you get free wifi!

 

[CPNY]

Do us a favor and walk around the entire Atlantis resort and tell us where you get free wifi!

Don’t plan on free WiFi. Use cellular data, buy a sim or at an extremely last resort pay for WiFi. Although I don’t recommend the last one.

 

[emeryjre]

Not familiar with the free WiFi. Can you get access to the WiFi without using room number and last name to log in?

 

[Sea Six]

Not familiar with the free WiFi. Can you get access to the WiFi without using room number and last name to log in?

See my post #5. I asked my buddy if he had to log in with name and room number to get free wifi in the Coral lobby. He said no login, you just have to agree to their terms and conditions and you're in for free. I also asked him about free access at pool areas, as someone else mentioned, but haven't heard back about that yet. Also free wifi by the kid's club (see post #10). So, obviously you can get wifi at many places, just not in your room! It didn't really bother me to not be able to stream videos because the TV listings are normal channel lineup straight out of Miami. It's places like Lagunamar where the TV channels are terrible and I want to stream. Unfortunately, you can't stream much anyway because of the license agreement when out of country.

 

[emeryjre]

Thanks for the response, so the free WiFi is in certain public areas. So if you want it in your room, still requires logging in with room number and last name.
Have you tried a VPN when out of country to stream.

 

[Sea Six]

Thanks for the response, so the free WiFi is in certain public areas. So if you want it in your room, still requires logging in with room number and last name.
Have you tried a VPN when out of country to stream.

You're missing the part where it's $25 a day in your room, and doesn't work! We were talking about FREE areas.

 

[CPNY]

See my post #5. I asked my buddy if he had to log in with name and room number to get free wifi in the Coral lobby. He said no login, you just have to agree to their terms and conditions and you're in for free. I also asked him about free access at pool areas, as someone else mentioned, but haven't heard back about that yet. Also free wifi by the kid's club (see post #10). So, obviously you can get wifi at many places, just not in your room! It didn't really bother me to not be able to stream videos because the TV listings are normal channel lineup straight out of Miami. It's places like Lagunamar where the TV channels are terrible and I want to stream. Unfortunately, you can't stream much anyway because of the license agreement when out of country.

So, the kids club is below the coral lobby and you access it by going down the stairs, that could be why the WiFi is free in the coral lobby. There also may be free WiFi in the fitness center by the Atlantis as well, I’m not on that. But I thought it was. Either way...... I still say spend the money on cellular.

 

[blondietink]

Again, we had free wifi at the pools and lobby areas around Atlantis. We just had to agree to their terms with no other login needed. The free pool access ends around 5 pm if I read correctly.

 

[Sea Six]

This subject comes up quite a bit. Do a search and keep reading. I seem to remember someone said they took a wireless router with them and plugged it into an ethernet jack, and ended up with decent wifi, but I'm not sure.

 

[SMHarman]

Tje technology is Ruckus which is good kit, even if it may not be the most recent.

The problem is the back haul from the mainswitch to the Internet being to small for the connected world of 2020. That's where the upgrade is needed but it is probably on a long list of Atlantis deferred maintainance.

That list is so long they can't sell the place. Have you seen the fish tanks leaking into the main lobby? I fear that tank will Posidon Adventure the lobby on day!

 

[emeryjre]

Was there two weeks ago for a week. There was no leaking at the Dig. There are issues of deferred maintenance, but none of the the issues in the "slam" article from several weeks back were apparent.

I bitch about the wifi at Harborside as much as anybody, but I was at a Sheraton in the Orlando area last week and the wifi was just as bad as at Harborside, Talked to the front desk, got the number for the IT people that serviced the hotel. Same old song and dance. Outmoded routers that can not sort out the number of connected devices, to many people streaming, and no major institutions want to upgrade until the 5G revolution sorts itself out.

 

[dioxide45]

Was there two weeks ago for a week. There was no leaking at the Dig. There are issues of deferred maintenance, but none of the the issues in the "slam" article from several weeks back were apparent.

I bitch about the wifi at Harborside as much as anybody, but I was at a Sheraton in the Orlando area last week and the wifi was just as bad as at Harborside, Talked to the front desk, got the number for the IT people that serviced the hotel. Same old song and dance. Outmoded routers that can not sort out the number of connected devices, to many people streaming, and no major institutions want to upgrade until the 5G revolution sorts itself out.

This must have been at Vistana Resort in Orlando? We have stayed at Vistana Villages many times and the internet has been great. Often 100Mbpm up and down.

 

[SMHarman]

Was there two weeks ago for a week. There was no leaking at the Dig. There are issues of deferred maintenance, but none of the the issues in the "slam" article from several weeks back were apparent.

I know the leaks were there when I was there 12 months ago. Towels on the edge of the aquarium glass in many places and water pooling on the floor of the dig.

I bitch about the wifi at Harborside as much as anybody, but I was at a Sheraton in the Orlando area last week and the wifi was just as bad as at Harborside, Talked to the front desk, got the number for the IT people that serviced the hotel. Same old song and dance. Outmoded routers that can not sort out the number of connected devices, to many people streaming, and no major institutions want to upgrade until the 5G revolution sorts itself out.

This makes no sense. 100 Mbps ports are perfectly adequate for devices etc.
Not sure how the 5G revolution impacts this. Hoping the problem goes away and guests stop using hotel WiFi and use their phones as hotspots instead?

 

[emeryjre]

I was staying at the Sheraton North Orlando for 2 nights. Was coming back from Harborside and stayed in Orlando on Saturday and Sunday night. Had never stayed at this particular hotel before, but the location was good for my needs. Also reasonable nightly rates because it caters to the Monday thru Friday business crowd. Was looking forward to some good High Speed Internet as I normally find at Marriott or Sheraton Hotels. This hotel had not upgraded the Wifi yet for whatever reason. Very disappointed. I was making this post just to point out that not every brand name hotel/resort has upgraded the Wifi service at their facility yet.

The biggest reason I hear when I discuss Wifi spending with companies, is the lack of a clear path for future Wifi deployment as regards technology. Will 5G deployment outside the front door solve their problem for them or will they still need to bring in fiber optic cable and upgrade their entire interior Wifi system with a mesh router deployment at a significant cost.

Has anyone not gone to Harborside or Atlantis because of poor Wifi. I complain, but I make adjustments to the situation and I live with it, just as I did at the Sheraton.

 

[SMHarman]

The biggest reason I hear when I discuss Wifi spending with companies, is the lack of a clear path for future Wifi deployment as regards technology. Will 5G deployment outside the front door solve their problem for them or will they still need to bring in fiber optic cable and upgrade their entire interior Wifi system with a mesh router deployment at a significant cost.

Mesh does not improve wifi, in general it makes it worse. It is quicker to deploy in a home due to less network cable.
In a corporate environment with suspended ceilings etc home run wifi access points will always outperform a mesh.
Configuration issues. Dropping dhcp reservations, persisting connections and leases too long and too few access points in critic locations are a challenge but look to Atlantis Harborside and you see an access point in every unit. Each of those can comfortabley accommodate 20 devices.