Internet Communications While At Sea? 504
ubergamer1337 writes "Next semester I will be participating in a college study abroad program known as Semester at Sea. The gist of it is that over four months 600ish students sail around the world on a converted cruise ship, visiting diverse port cities while taking classes when we are between ports. Debates about its educational merit aside, my internet options while I will be at sea will be severely limited. We get just 100 minutes of internet access for the entire voyage, and once thats gone the only internet access we have is a university email address, which is limited to messages under a megabyte with no attachments. I have been pondering different ways to staying in contact with friends and family back at home without running to an internet cafe in every port, and I have already decided that I want to set up a blog that can be updated by email, but I wanted to ask the collective wisdom of Slashdot if anyone knows of any other ways to transmit more then just your standard message through email. Some things I would be particularity interested in being able to figure out would be a way to send photos (encode them as text?), and a way to get Wikipedia pages etc. emailed to me."
Sounds like fun (Score:5, Informative)
My wife and I love cruising, but she runs her own business and can't be away from email for that amount of time. Thankfully there are options now :)
Most ships these days have cell towers on the ship connected by satellite that usually provide GPRS data (and it looks like the SAS one does as well). The problem is they're considered international roaming, which costs tons of money. However, T-Mobile has an unlimited international 'email' option for blackberry for $20/mo that we've discovered includes BIS traffic through the web browser and even tethering (though we've heard conflicting reports about tethering, we've never been charged for it while at sea). There's always Mobi-shark for routing laptop traffic through the BIS, if tethering is a problem.
So we either tether to her laptop, or just use blackberry and a wireless keyboard and end up with a reasonable means of staying connected (granted, at dial-up speeds). Of course there's also the expense of the blackberry and monthtly plan, but that's only going to add ~2% to the cost of the semester.
There's also the option of paying for the wifi access on a per-minute basis. The latency sucks, but if you're using a fat email client (thunderbird, etc) it only takes us 1-3 minutes to sign in, send and receive messages, and sign out. On commercial cruises they charge somewhere around $.50/min, so when there's cabin based wifi we generally opt for that route, since it's way less hassle than the cell option, we don't have to worry about T-Mobile changing their policies on what's included, and $1.50 a day is not a huge price to pay relative to the cruise.
If they're limiting your email to text based only with no attachments, it's probably at their computers (since I'm not sure how they'd restrict you to that on theirs), which means your options for doing funky encoding stuff to get around it will likely be limited. If not, and you can use your own computer, there are tons of ways to convert anything to text (after all, that's what your email client has to do to send attachments, too). The downside is the receiving end would have to be smart enough to know what you're sending.
For wikipedia, I'd say take a copy with you [ece.ntua.gr].
RMS (Score:5, Informative)
Surf the RMS way: set up some kind of server at home that you can email a link to and it will wget it and return the content back to you via email. Since you have seemingly unlimited email access, this might be the most efficient way to surf.
You can also encode images into base64, don't know how big an image it would take before you hit the 1MB limit, but it's possible.
Build a email to HTTP to email gateway. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:In port... (Score:5, Informative)
Speaking from experience, we hated going this route. You end up spending all of your time in ports searching for internet, which is really the last thing you want to be doing in some exotic foreign city :)
Plus, we've discovered that it's nearly impossible to research ahead of time, the language barriers alone make googling for it really hard.
Message queuing (Score:5, Informative)
That's a ridiculously good point. Applications like Gallery 2 [menalto.com] have remote applications that I'm sure can be tuned to your disconnected-mode needs. Simply get everything ready to upload before you login, then when you're online all the human slowness will be taken out of the equation.
55.5 seconds per day doesn't seem like a lot, but if their internet connection is worth their (sea) salt even a 1mbit satellite link is almost 7 megabytes of data per day... assuming everyone else isn't doing the same thing at the same time of course.
If you're really interested in the process, check out Message [wikipedia.org] Queuing [wikipedia.org]. The idea is asynchronous communication between client/server so that you can do stuff when disconnected from the network, and saving your precious "almost" minute per day :)
-Matt
Mail2Web and Wordpress (Score:5, Informative)
That is all.
Sadly you have next to no options (Score:5, Informative)
There is pretty much next to nothing you can do. Since you are at sea you won't be able to use your cell phone to connect to the web.
A satellite phone with a very very slow dial up connection is your best bet, but too cost prohibitive. Here's a company that does its job fairly well http://www.globalstar.com/ [globalstar.com]
The only way you'll have affordable and uninhibited internet access is to wait until you get to port.
However, for wikipedia you can actually download an offline version of the entire database. For a wikipedia like experiance follow the instructions on this website
http://www.blindedbytech.com/2006/08/31/how-to-install-wikipedia-for-offline-access/
Also the raw dump for the english articles is here:
http://download.wikimedia.org/
Oh you can also download a DVD version of Wikipedia from that link above. Definitely worth looking at!
Good luck! And definitely have an awesome time. That program sounds interesting and I will look into it as well since I'm a 2nd semester college freshmen.
Re:Cut the cord (Score:3, Informative)
Research every place you'll be beforehand and print out anything you think you might need.
When I'm travelling the only thing I ever want from the 'net is info on the locales. When I'm well prepared I don't even want that.
Be wary (Score:1, Informative)
When I was on Semester At Sea, in the late 80s, we were totally cut off except for the one phone line that cost something like $25 a minute (If it was available) which few people used and then there was the ability to send a one page fax for something like $5, but you could find a way to write a whole heck of a lot on one page. We were totally cut off in ways I doubt you will be cut off now. We had one movie night a week, but other than than we had nothing. This led as another poster said to us playing a lot of board games, poker and backgammon. It was like rolling back to the 1940s before the age of television. We interacted with one another in ways that, due to the colossal time suck that television is and the internet has become, just do not happen any these days. It was refreshing and that seldom seen level of interaction and involvement with the other students has stayed with me to this day. You might find a way to keep in constant internet communication, but be wary that burying your head in your lap top tethered to your cell phone will likely deprive you of one of the best parts of the experience. Enjoy!
Still the way. (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, this is still the way email works. It's just that, with the connection always up, you never see stuff waiting around in your outbox anymore as it gets sent right away.
Re:RMS (Score:3, Informative)
For those who aren't familiar with how to encode to base64:
# cat /bin/echo | openssl enc -base64 > encoded_echo ./decoded_echo Test
# tail -n 1 encoded_echo
AAAAAJhHAAAZAQAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAA==
# cat encoded_echo | openssl enc -base64 -d > decoded_echo
# chmod +x decoded_echo
#
Test
That would be an interesting concept, though -- "email tunnel" -- where you set up a local proxy and it communicates with your backend via email. Http tunnel software could be a good starting point for implementation.
sailmail over HF (Score:5, Informative)
There is a free email option. It requires a HAM license (note: morse code is not required anymore) and a SSB transmiter and a hundred foot antenna. A good SSB unit is around a thousand bucks.
It is only for text based non-commercial emails but functions anywhere (under most weather conditions).
Doesn't sound like a solution for a students desire to surf the web for free anywhere/anytime but email is available and pervasive just about anywhere.
E-mail/Connectivity at sea (Score:1, Informative)
Well.....
I'm probably going to get laughed at, but so what. This is /. ....
If you are using a GUI-based system, you have no chance in Hell of trying to stay within the time constraints. Pictures are large, no matter what compression scheme you are going to use. T-mobile is expensive. Satellite is even more expensive (last I checked, it was about USD 10.00/Min).
Get a text-based e-mail (mail in *NIX). That sends EVERYTHING in ascii. Nice and small, but picture attachments are still HUGE, especially if you have a high-res camera. If you have the skilz, go with a *NIX OS and cron the e-mail to send after you update your blog file locally (grab the copy and send it every other day or so. For the big stuff, run into the Internet Cafe at what ever port you are in and send the pics off of a thumb drive. ...my $0.02...
Maintaining a blog (Score:1, Informative)
I can't help with the majority of your question but as far as maintaining a blog, look into Posterous, really easy to set up an account and you can update it through email as well as have it automatically forward your updates to other various services.
Re:In port... (Score:5, Informative)
jiwire.com
HAM Radio is the way to go. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.winlink.org/
http://hamradio.arc.nasa.gov/meetings/HFradioatsea.html
You can run winlink over HF using any HF radio ($200+) and a decent wire antenna on the ship.
Its very popular for sea and also use in remote locations by Missionaries in Africa etc..
You can also use APRS to do automatic position reporting for your ship over HF Radio as well and your family would be able to track your location on a map. http://www.findu.com/
There are also various 'nets' where people all get together on a particular frequency and exchange messages etc. HAM's sill provide national message traffic passing services (Aka TELEGRAMS) for health and welfare messages for people. This is one of the main function that HAM's provide for RedCross, disaster locations etc.
You can come to the net and pick up and messages, and send a telegram to any family friends via HF voice.
http://www.cruiser.co.za/radionet.asp
Amateur(HAM) Radio is a very very valuable addition to worldwide boating activities.
Absolutely - BGAN (Score:2, Informative)
Check out this link here: Airtime pricing [gmpcs-us.com] and this link: Equipment Rental [gmpcs-us.com]. That's not the exact unit I've worked with (I have a Hughes 9250 tracking BGAN antenna sitting right to my left at the moment) but it should do ya.
Let me break the cost down for you approximately:
Total:$2820 for four months of basic internet anywhere in the world.
In conclusion: what you want is not cheap at all. I suggest you man up and keep a journal - you know, paper?
Re:Sounds like fun (Score:5, Informative)
Not to mention IP over DNS. They may block him on wifi after his 100 minutes, but he can get a slow connection this way.
http://thomer.com/howtos/nstx.html [thomer.com]
Re:RMS (Score:2, Informative)
How Long at Sea? (Score:2, Informative)
IIRC, you will be at sea for 1 day and in port for 7. There are plenty of internet cafe's in Europe and you could adjust to having to study for 1 entire day without an internet connection.
Re:Use the opportunity properly (Score:3, Informative)
This is because Italian pizza is CRAZY.
When I was stationed in Italy (in the north, about mid-way between Milan and Venice) our first night off post we stopped to get a "real" Italian pizza. Imagine our surprise when, after it came out of the over, the server proceeded to pour about 1/2 cup of olive oil over the whole thing. As if pizza weren't greasy enough!
On the other hand, every bite of pasta I ate during my three years in Italy was divine.
Re:Unplug, get away (Score:5, Informative)
Re:sailmail over HF (Score:5, Informative)
And by law you must get the ship master's permission to use ham radio on a ship. Close reading of Part 97 will show that this is ever true for ferry boats in Puget Sound and your 2m HT.
Re:sailmail over HF (Score:4, Informative)
Whose law? The ship may be under a flag of convenience - Panama, say.
He gets more than that (Score:5, Informative)
NO ATTACHMENTS! UUE/base 64 are out! (Score:3, Informative)
You can also encode images into base64, don't know how big an image it would take before you hit the 1MB limit, but it's possible.
No attachments. An attachment is just a UUE or base64 text block inside an e-mail; if attachments aren't allowed, those won't get through the mail server. Some other encoding method, as non-standard as possible, must be devised so that you can fly under the radar and TX/RX binaries as text.
I have not-so-fond memories of being on the 'Net back in the late 1980s, and having to MANUALLY encode/decode UUE or base64 files. It was an absolute joy when the first e-mail clients with automatic UUE/base64 ("attachment") handling appeared.
ROT13 a base64 and create a header which calls it "random text good luck charm 72" or something else? I dunno. Get creative. Hell, probably any filters on the mail server aren't all that sophisticated - they can't really look for anything more than fixed string lengths or UUE/base64 headers, as the actual data is pseudorandom. It might be as simple as deleting the header on send and recreating it on receive.
Re:Message queuing (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Message queuing (Score:3, Informative)
Having seen it myself, and seen it change over the years, I'll actually go with net connectivity as being responsible for a diminishing ability to think reflectively and introspectively.