iPad in Hotel Room

[flynz4]

Why would you configure the airport express as a router for hotel room access???

1) It works
2) It is more secure

/Jim

 

[guycross]

If there is enough demand I think we'll see an ethernet adapter similar to what they offer for the Air.

I agree, especially as many companies dont want there staff using hotel wifi for sensitive data...

 

[flynz4]

I've run into fun with that kind of stuff too. Last summer I was in a hotel that offered both wired and wireless internet, but once you signed on they would tie your device's MAC address to the room number and last name you gave them until 7 a.m. the next morning or until you checked out. Thus you could only have one device active at one time on each connection. A bit of a challenge when traveling with three notebooks and an iPhone. I had to call someone at a remote call center to deactivate devices each time I wanted to switch to a different one. Perhaps the Airport Express would have worked in that case, but I won't know since I don't travel with it anymore...

B

With an AE, set up as a router... you would have connected the AE to the wired ethernet... logged in using wireless from any of your 3 computers (or presumably from your iPad). Once you got past the log-in screen, you could then use any of your computers, or all of them simultaneously.

As I said... very occasionally (I haven't seen it in years)... a hotel may have an agent (my words) that runs on your PC in a small browser window that says something like "do not close". I believe it gets your computer's MAC address which is compared to the HW MAC address picked off of the internet connection. By setting your router's MAC address using the "MAC Address Clone" feature... you can get past this inconvenience and then once again, you can use multiple devices simultaneously.

I have never experienced any issues using an AE or other device as a router. Someone said there are issues with double router, double NAT, etc. I have never encountered one and I typically use Gmail, Mobile Me, and VPN access.

/Jim

 

[bocadogs]

Not having much luck

Recently got an APE which has worked great at home with three macs, two PC's an iPad and two iPhones. Have taken it to my mother's home where it worked great.

I've read many people not having any problems hooking up their APE to the hotel room's ethernet cable (having once partnered the APE with their macbook at home), gotten the hotel's sign-in page (paid or unpaid) and having wireless access from their different devices: laptops, ipads, iphones, etc.

I recently stayed at a JW Marriott in Lima and am currently at a Westin in California and in both cases I have no problem connecting my laptop wirelessly and doing the required sign-in. Nevertheless, when I join the network with my iPad, iPhone or another laptop, the hotel's sign-in page pops up with the rates.

I obviously don't want to pay twice to have wireless access to a second device. I have the APE set to bridge mode. I thought that once you connected to the APE's wireless network the hotels wired connection is only seeing one device. Obviously, it is detecting the other devices and wanting to bill accordingly.

Any thoughts on this matter are appreciated. Or have I just been unlucky in that the two hotels I have stayed at so far do not allow for this type of connection? Frustrated in Cali

 

[flynz4]

Recently got an APE which has worked great at home with three macs, two PC's an iPad and two iPhones. Have taken it to my mother's home where it worked great.

I've read many people not having any problems hooking up their APE to the hotel room's ethernet cable (having once partnered the APE with their macbook at home), gotten the hotel's sign-in page (paid or unpaid) and having wireless access from their different devices: laptops, ipads, iphones, etc.

I recently stayed at a JW Marriott in Lima and am currently at a Westin in California and in both cases I have no problem connecting my laptop wirelessly and doing the required sign-in. Nevertheless, when I join the network with my iPad, iPhone or another laptop, the hotel's sign-in page pops up with the rates.

I obviously don't want to pay twice to have wireless access to a second device. I have the APE set to bridge mode. I thought that once you connected to the APE's wireless network the hotels wired connection is only seeing one device. Obviously, it is detecting the other devices and wanting to bill accordingly.

Any thoughts on this matter are appreciated. Or have I just been unlucky in that the two hotels I have stayed at so far do not allow for this type of connection? Frustrated in Cali

I am not in front of my AE at the moment... but I believe that I use "create a new network" mode (vs. "bridged mode"). If I understand correctly, this is the mode that basically puts the AE into a "router mode"... which in turn causes the AE to present a single MAC address and single IP address to the hotel's network.

/Jim

 

[Tulipone]

Of course this is not an issue in the UK as either the hotel will not have any Internet access else it will be so expensive to deter you from using it.

 

[striders]

I believe some hotel is now BLOCKING the use of wireless router.

I used NetGear WRG101 and and Linksys WTR54GS travel wireless router and so far BOTH does not work in Marriott hotels. Maybe it has something to do with the fact they move over from Wayport as the Internet provider to AT&T, so they can detect the use of wireless router?

I have tried everything with the above 2 devices, such as:
1) Cloning the IP address of the travel router to the laptop
2) Connect first using my laptop, go to the login screen, pay, then connect my travel router with the same MAC address

I also tried this: I connect first using my laptop, I recorded the IP address information, including gateway and DNS. Then I connect the travel router to the ethernet jack and configure the travel router to use the SAME IP address information and the SAME MAC address. Still no go....

Any insight to this?

 

[leons]

If this is true it would be REALLY BAD news for IPAD owners, and would really undescore Steve's bad judgement in leaving out an ethernet port or adaptor. Even 3G users will be screwed during foreign travel. So much for a "universal" device!

I believe some hotel is now BLOCKING the use of wireless router.

I used NetGear WRG101 and and Linksys WTR54GS travel wireless router and so far BOTH does not work in Marriott hotels. Maybe it has something to do with the fact they move over from Wayport as the Internet provider to AT&T, so they can detect the use of wireless router?

I have tried everything with the above 2 devices, such as:
1) Cloning the IP address of the travel router to the laptop
2) Connect first using my laptop, go to the login screen, pay, then connect my travel router with the same MAC address

I also tried this: I connect first using my laptop, I recorded the IP address information, including gateway and DNS. Then I connect the travel router to the ethernet jack and configure the travel router to use the SAME IP address information and the SAME MAC address. Still no go....

Any insight to this?

 

[Pushkar]

If this is true it would be REALLY BAD news for IPAD owners, and would really undescore Steve's bad judgement in leaving out an ethernet port or adaptor. Even 3G users will be screwed during foreign travel. So much for a "universal" device!

Seriously in all honesty nobody expected a ethernet device, now if some hotels are blocking it then who's fault is that? Not Apple's for sure.

The main oversight was the USB port which we iPad owner's have learn to live with. You don't expect to connect a wired ethernet connection to your iPad do you? It's supposed to be a portable device.