EK: OnAir WiFi connectivity issues

[lospilotos]

When going on the 777 I connect and stay connected pretty much the duration of the flight. The occasional outage happens of course, but generally a stable connection. When on the 380 it drops out all the time. Surely others must have experienced this as well?

Are there different implementations on the 777 compared to 380? And when it comes to the 777 why are the new aircraft not delivered with WiFi out of the factory?

Edit: It´s not about the WiFi connection between my device and the on-board access point itself, which remains connected, but the connection to internet.

[checcker10]

Ummmm......it's Airbus. :rolleyes:

Seriously though, it's same technology on both so no idea why. Maybe it's all those pesky people downstairs that a hogging the MBs!

[Schnowzer]

Bandwidth constraints I suspect!

[Desert Camel]

Do you know that the purser can tell when a crew member is connected.....

[White Knight]

How's that Desert Camel? Pursers have lists of every crewmembers email?

Sounds like someone has been telling you porkies...

[GoreTex]

Whitey,
nobody uses a real email address, its usually gibberish like [email protected]

[White Knight]

Therefore Gortex I rest my case! Mine also is gibberish... So back to D Camel; how would a purser know if a crew member is online? And who really gives a stuff anyway?

[JAARule]

Whitey it says on the purser's little control screen something like:


Number of passengers connected: X
Number of crew connected: Y

[White Knight]

I know that... I was referring to DC's comment regarding CREW members being connected!

[Desert Camel]

Refer to JAA's post, that is exactly what I meant....

[lospilotos]

Do you know that the purser can tell when a crew member is connected.....

Anyone with the slightest knowledge to how Wi-Fi/IP works would know that this is not true. Yes, there is a field on the purser's screen called "Connected crew" or something like that. This is probably used when there are special crew signons for company use in-flight, let's say as a second stage of connected flight deck implementation.

Done properly this could be a valuable tool in the future. Rather than using LIDO/SITA for wx, why not just pull it off the internet. Check Flightradar for runway in use at airports without D-ATIS, check how many are in the hold at BUBIN, get updated satellite imagery, radar etc etc etc...

[lospilotos]

Bandwidth constraints I suspect!

Well a full 777 still gives me better connectivity than a half empty 380. Guess it's just one of those things...

[Trader]

Have not seen it, but my understanding is they can see the device NAME on their screen.

[givemewings]

You can put the tinfoil hats away boys...

It simply tells you how many 'users' are connected. Nothing about device names or such. The engineering/debug mode might be able to do that if you dig enough, but haven't seen it do so yet.

I'm guessing the 'crew connected' is for the likes of QF whose crew use wifi enabled tablets to take pax orders in J & F. Probably just a feature of the system that we don't use (yet)

[irish777]

The 777 appears to have a much larger satellite antenna on the roof than I've seen on the A380. It seems to be quite incredible at holding on to the signal even when switching from one satellite to the next. The 380 is a much more disappointing experience as far as speed and downtime. I've got 6Mbps download speed on the 777.

The crew connected feature is for future technology such as pilot and purser tablets. Theoretically your netbios name may be visable in the logs 'Joe blogs iPhone' for example. Also if they really wanted to be clever they could see the time stamps when you connected to company email or other company apps. But then we're really into the tinfoil hat territory..

[fatbus]

Who cares? Outside the cockpit I do what I want.


Ps: I agree put away the tinfoil hats !!! Grow some!

[The Outlaw]

Actually it's quite simple how they distinguish crew from passengers.

When you download all those great programs like FABS, the rostering app, platinum card etc, you realize that these are only available to active crew or employees...there is a reason for this. Part of the terms of acceptance for these apps which you agree to when you download them is that you have allowed in return the right for the company to track you. That's how they know who is crew and who isn't. There is more technical details on how they can even identify the individual but I didn't really focus on it because I have never and will never allow any company software on my personal devices. I even use a dedicated laptop which is used for nothing other than access the FOIP.

Next time you arrive at a station, watch the purser's tablet while the cabin crew exit the aircraft and each break the connection with ON AIR. Interesting to watch as the crew connections drop one by one.

I asked a buddy of mine who is a software wiz about it and he told me he could write such applications in minutes...easy to do and done everywhere.

[777AV8R]

Yes, dynamic track and route planning will be the 'norm' soon. With the implementation of NextGen (FAA) and SESAR (EASA), you will be able to use your EFB system to input a multitude of requests and see information in real time.
The system is currently in implementation and the information displayed is pretty awesome. The information will be available on connected iPAD or tablet mounted devices.

Route requests can be made while having a look at real-time 'downtrack' weather.

The future is really exciting. We'll soon have better weather/flight information in the flight deck than the guy in business class.

[lospilotos]

Last couple of flights I haven't been able to update the Facebook feed. Everything else is running fine, web, email, Whatsapp, Instagram, Tinder... Anyone else having the same issue?