TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Wi-fi Help

We're at Flamingo since Saturday and wi-fi is horrible. I've vever seen it so slow with so many outages. It's free but I guess you get what you pay for.
I'm going to need a good wi-fi connection Wed afternoon for a important 1hr business conference.
Anyone knows a place with good wi-fi connection? We'll be at Orient Beach Club in the morning and I'll leave my SO there for my call so I can drive anywhere, French side or Dutch side and if I need to pay a fee for a good connection, no problem either.
Thanks for your help.

Nice weather since Saturday and I didn't find Orient Beach particularly crowded yesterday. We'll see how it is today.
Oh, we had dinner at Pineapple Pete for our 2nd night, after visiting our friends at Little Jerusalem saturday night, and enjoy 2 shwarma combos.
PP remains one of our favorite places.
Carol, their Lobster Thermidor was, as usual, delicious. <wink>

Stop at the Greenhouse on your way back for Happy Hour

The Mailbox center (across from Palm's restaurant) has computers that they rent, you don't take them with you, you use them there. I always have my ipad for emails and such, asking at places that have free wifi what the password is to download emails. But when I have serious work to do, I will head to the Mailbox center and rent a computer for a few hours so that work isn't piling up so much at home. It's not a private place for phone calls, if that is what you are thinking, more like little workstations right next to each other. You can print documents there, it costs like .50 cents a page or something like that. I have been in there and been the only one, or it is full with 6 people and that's about the number of computers they have. One caveat, I did fax something there once, it said it went through, but later found out the fax was not received by recipient in U.S.

Sorry to hear the WiFi is slow. Was so very good and fast our last trip in May. Have you thought about renting a phone from Sharon for the day? Not sure what the daily rate is but an hour of talk time runs around 20.00.
On a side note. Any new interior improvements to the Villas?

Scubaman--several people have reported that the internet is slow when there are a lot of people at the resort. The same with Royal Palm. You get what you pay for!!

There are several restaurants on Orient that have good wifi speeds if you are eating / drinking there. I know the speeds at Palm Beach are good and they have a protected area where you could call or skype a conference. If you drive into Phillipsburg you have the Greenhouse, Holland House and 12 Metre Bar, all with good connections. On Oyster Pond you could hang out at the Dingy Dock and make a call as they usually are quiet prior to Happy Hour and have a decent connection.

Just some thoughts.

I understand that. We do pay for it indirectly through our MF but guests get the benefit too but don't pay a MF or wifi charge. There have been talks of having guests pay for wifi and still keeping the wifi free for owners. Maybe that would curtail some of the heavy usage during peak season.

What exactly is a "guest"? Someone renting by the day or week as a hotel room? If so, you can almost bet there is a built in charge in the rate or service charge to cover wi-fi in lieu of the MF.

I wouldn't bet my money on that. Hotel rates have to stay competitive with the other like resorts. "Guests" would be direct renters from the resort or RCI/II trade guests. That is what management told me last May. It was in the talking stage at that time. Who knows what the outcome if and when will be. Just repeating what I was told.

Actually, I would be surprised if they do that. Diamond isn't all that known for being that protective of 'owners'... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" />

I wouldn't bet my money on something stated by management at Flamingo or Royal Palm as being the gospel.

While I am not an "owner" I have dealt with Royal Palm enough over the years to not fall into the trap of believing everything management might say. It actually cost them a free stay of a week several years ago and they still managed to screw that up!

We love the Greenhouse in Phillipsburg. When using wi-fi sit inside toward the back for a bit better reception.

Not trying to get in a ++++ing match. I was just posting what I was told and I'm not taking it as Gospel. I could care less if they do it or not. Not really going to effect me or my next stay. Even if they start to charge owners which I doubt they will, big deal.

Candy an will help you out. He is in a fairly quiet spot and will let you use the wifi if you buy a 5 cent candy!

Candy man, not candy an. By the way, first time I went there I bought my son a 25 cent lollipop and he gave me a beer as a way to say hi. Needless to say I go hang with him regularly now!

Maybe it is just me. But if I was in business and had a security code for my WIFI for my customers. I sure wouldn't want the code public knowledge. Kinda defeats the security code purpose.

SXM??? Wendell

That's why candy man makes you ask. He usually changes it every week or two

Top Carrot has good wifi and the Business Center over there also has good wifi and booths for more private conversations.
Owner is Hyacinth.
irina

Agreed. I edited that post.

There is another password posted for the Greenhouse on the second post reply.

Actually, the password I was talking about was for Yellow Sub.

And it is gone now also.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I'll go to Orient Village tomorrow morning and check what's available there.
@ Wendell, no problem with security with customers.
I only need good wi-fi performance for 1hr for a GoToMeeting conference call, during which I will share my desktop to show a couple of Powerpoint slides and discuss what they describe, that's all. No possible access to sensitive data from outside, my firewall blocks unauthorized access.

Perhaps I am mistaken but I believe Wendell was referring to the fact a couple people posted the passwords for free wifi at restaurants.

The point is that, if you're going to use the free wifi at any establishment, you should patronize that establishment. For anyone to post the password here is completely inappropriate. Good grief people, buy a beer! (Which, by the way, is the name (not the password) of the wifi at SMYC. Gotta love it!

Correct.

I wonder if people would be as willing to post any of their personal passwords or security codes?

I am usually enjoying myself at a place with some coffee or cocktail in hand, and if I see someone typing away on their phone, computer, or ipad, that's when I nicely ask if they can share the password. I assume businesses change passwords all the time and consider that smart business.

Cappuccino has good wifi if I remember correctly. It's worth a cup of coffee to try it out.

This should work at the Flamingo.

http://www.scarlet-sxm.com/en/sone_travelers.php

Last I checked Scarlet doesn't work at the Flamingo.

Absolutely, I was referring to people sharing passwords on a public forum.

Oh I see. I didn't get it because all the posts containing wi-fi passwords had been editied. Thanks for the heads-up.

Scarlet USED to not work at Flamingo, probably 4 years ago or so. I understand since then that they have installed additional towers and it's supposed to work there now.

Interesting! I wonder if it would also work at LaVista Beach now?

I don't know about Scarlet at La Vista which, by the way, I'm just looking at from my terrasse. <wink>
I checked the price and it's $60/week. A little steep if you ask me and I won't need it except in very rare situations. Plus, I'd have to go pick a modem and return it when I leave. That's too complicated for me. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

That is high. They used to have a monthly rate which was much lower, and would have been cheaper at the time than the weekly internet rate at La Vista. However, now that I think about it, that was when La Vista's weekly rate was $50. Now that it's down to $20, I'm probably better off sticking with that. Like you, who wants to mess with picking up and dropping off equipment?!

It must have gone up a lot, as it used to be $45 a week, I think.

Picture toward La Vista from my terrasse 10mn ago. Enjoy!

[img][image]http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af241/frenchbiker/IMG_20150210_103522_3402.jpg[/img][/image]

Thanks for the picture! Lovely view!

Kinda makes you wanna put your snow shovel up for the winter.

SXM??? Wendell