The new firmware does absolutely nothing on MSC cruises, works perfectly fine on Royal Caribbean Ships. MSC also has the NordVPN website blocked on board (maybe other vpns as well I didn't check as I pay for NordVPN). I successfully connected my router after many different configurations. Here is what finally worked for me on board MSC World America. Before getting on the ship, setup a vpn config file so that the router once connected on board will allow all devices to access the internet. If you do not do this, the only way to access NordVPN from my phone to download the config files in my case was to use the TOR browser on my iPhone to download the config files from NordVPN.
- Once getting on board you will need to activate the internet package on one of your devices through their MSC for Me App.
- Go to settings on your iPhone change private wifi address to fixed and make note of the MAC Address (Wi-Fi Address), IP, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway (Router on iPhone) that the cruise ship network assigned your device.
- Now disconnect the device from the MSC Wi-Fi from the settings on your iPhone (not the MSC for Me App) and connect it to your personal router.
- Now setup your personal router as a repeater manually and input the settings you noted to spoof your router with your device settings. In the advance settings of repeater switch the band selection to 2.4GHz (makes the repeater use only the 2.4GHz for repeating the signal) and always connect your devices to the 5GHz band.
- Make sure your VPN is also enabled at this point. Otherwise you will not be able to access the internet from the devices even though the router is successfully connected. (My suspicion is they are blocking internet access to the router if there is no VPN connected) I also switched the packet size on the router to the same size as the ships network (61) and that didn't work either (for the admins to figure out why a vpn is necessary to access the internet). I will be experimenting with another router brand in the future to see if the results are the same and report back. I was using the GL-MT1300 for this setup with the latest firmware.
- Your personal router should now be successfully connected to their network and allowing all devices connected to access the internet.
Also note that if you want to setup the router in the cabin and leave it there and you want to leave the cabin and connect your phone again to the ships wifi to move around the ship you will need to go into the personal router and disable the connection if not you will not be able to connect back with the phone to the ships network as you will have the phone and router clashing on the ships network.
I had the ships network disconnect my router once or twice in 7 days of usage. All I had to do was disconnect the router, reconnect my phone to their wifi and use their app to disable and re enable the internet connection. Then disconnect the phone from their wifi and reconnect my router to their network. A small inconvenience but I was able to use 4 devices off of one internet plan. I took my google tv and was able to stream 720p perfectly fine 2 phones and a laptop.
Hope this helps! Have Fun Cruising!