I will be traveling to a conference a few days after I get my iPad in April. I always choose my hotel based on whether or not it has free internet, and I thought this would be my first opportunity to pack lighter and leave my laptop at home. However, I just noticed on the confirmation that the room has wired internet. There goes my plan to leave my laptop at home. I know the iPad is not marketed as a laptop replacement--but this is a drawback. I would have been very unhappy had I not read my confirmation more closely. I am now going to try to change my hotel to one with wireless.
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iPad in Hotel Room
- Thread starter vidsmart
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An Airport Express might be worth investing in for you, then, although it's $100 and another (small) device to carry. Makes it easy to turn those wired-only situations into wireless without paying extra.
Depends on whether that's easier and more worthwhile than changing your hotel reservation, of course.
jW
Depends on whether that's easier and more worthwhile than changing your hotel reservation, of course.
jW
thanks for letting us know your travel plans, we were all getting a bit concerned for a bit there....
the drawbacks are well documented already, it didnt need a travel blog to re-affirm it.
Going back to the Airport Express. I am in the same situation as OP. When we travel we usually stay at Hampton Inn's and about half the time all they have is wired interenet. We also go down to Walt Disney World a lot and all of the WDW resorts are wired. If you take use an Airport Express, does it require a connected PC to do the initial setup for a new network? Or does it pretty much do everything for you and you just connect to it?
Find a better hotel. Even lousy Days Inn rooms have wireless. Adding an ethernet port to the iPad is a non-starter.
To Vincebio
What a smart-assed reply. I'm just having a conversation. I love the iPad--as you can tell from my post I have preordered--so I am not a hater. The post before yours was very helpful. Yours on the other hand was a waste of keystrokes.
What a smart-assed reply. I'm just having a conversation. I love the iPad--as you can tell from my post I have preordered--so I am not a hater. The post before yours was very helpful. Yours on the other hand was a waste of keystrokes.
This is why a 3G model is really needed when being used for travel.
Before opting to get a mac mini, I was planning on purchasing the iPad 3G model because when ever I traveled the resort/hotel I stayed at invariably had internet problems. Then there's the number of hotels that use a wired internet solution as opposed to wireless. All things being equal 3G is really the safest approach when traveling.
Before opting to get a mac mini, I was planning on purchasing the iPad 3G model because when ever I traveled the resort/hotel I stayed at invariably had internet problems. Then there's the number of hotels that use a wired internet solution as opposed to wireless. All things being equal 3G is really the safest approach when traveling.
I would call the hotel just to be sure. I just stayed in one that said wired internet, and had the ethernet connection in the room but they also had wireless access available.
Nothing smart assed about it. Having Ethernet ports on an iPad is not worth it. Complaining about the lack of USB or SD card in the iPad is much more legit, IMO. The vast majority of hotel rooms have wireless, IME. If it matters that much to you, find a new hotel. Why even bother buying a $100 AE for an outdated hotel room?
Geez....sensitive aren't we?
Marriott,Holiday Inn Expresses and Shilo Inn Suites all usually have Wireless.
I just took a trip to San Francisco and I usually stay at Marriott Hotels and they all had wireless. A couple had both wireless and ethernet. I actually prefer ethernet over wireless but with the iPad I would make sure the place has wireless.
And changing a reservation to a different hotel is no big deal.
I just took a trip to San Francisco and I usually stay at Marriott Hotels and they all had wireless. A couple had both wireless and ethernet. I actually prefer ethernet over wireless but with the iPad I would make sure the place has wireless.
And changing a reservation to a different hotel is no big deal.
+1 I stay in hotels about 100 nights a year. Almost without fail, the ethernet ports in the room are a backup plan intended for people who for some reason can't or won't connect to the wireless. I see a lot of hotels with wireless, but no wired ports. I almost never see the opposite (except in a couple of oddball hotels with concrete walls).
Just a comment. I used to travel with my Airport Express, but many hotel wired Ethernet connections require some kind of login page before they will assign you an address and let you connect to the internet, making it less likely that an Airport express or other router will be useful.
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That is very common and might end up leavea wireless router on the go useless.
For the time being, the OPs best bet is to either ensure that the hotel has wifi, or take a laptop with an ethernet cable with.
It needs a PC for initial setup, but that can be done prior to arriving at the hotel (i.e., setup at home before you go). I've never run into any problems with using a standard DHCP setup on it, any passwords needed by the hotel are usually run through their router as a webpage that displays in the browser, so it doesn't affect the setup of the Airport Extreme.
Of course, it'd be nice if Apple would release a version of the Airport Utility for the iPad so you could configure it without a computer handy for just that usage, but I don't know if they're likely to do so.
jW
Yep. The issue with these types of devices is you usually need to sign in to the hotel's network with username/password, to setup the wifi device. The issue becomes if you don't have a device with an ethernet port to do the initial login, you won't ever be able to setup the Airport Express. iPad won't serve the purpose in a wired room, it simply is not a 100% laptop replacement.
The outside chance, which is not likely to happen is they make a 30pin to ethernet dongle, or the USB in the camera pack would accept an adapter to set the router up. Considering the OS and Apple sandbox approach to apps and add on's I doubt this will work though.
If there is enough demand I think we'll see an ethernet adapter similar to what they offer for the Air.