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Roadwarriors take note: 3G faster than hotel wifi consistently

S

ScottFitz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 3, 2007
666
0
This was a bit surprising to me. I figured speeds would slow down at peak times at hotels but this is nuts. I guess you've got 50 laptops splitting a DSL connection or something.

3G is cranking along at an average of 3.25 Mbps. Having the 3G iPad was well worth the wait. (in contrast, hotel is pulling 500kbps at best).
 
With quite a bit of travel with my Macbook, iPhone 3G and now my 3G iPad....I have come to the conclusion that most motel/hotel wifi BLOWS!

This past weekend I just gave up and used 3G in the hotel we stayed at. I had to walk 10' down the hall to even get my iPad to see their network. At first I thought it was my iPad, but it was these same with mu iPhone.

If I hadn't had the 3G option, I would have been pretty dang annoyed.

Steve
 
normwood said:
With quite a bit of travel with my Macbook, iPhone 3G and now my 3G iPad....I have come to the conclusion that most motel/hotel wifi BLOWS!

This past weekend I just gave up and used 3G in the hotel we stayed at. I had to walk 10' down the hall to even get my iPad to see their network. At first I thought it was my iPad, but it was these same with mu iPhone.

If I hadn't had the 3G option, I would have been pretty dang annoyed.

Steve
Click to expand...

Sad part is that I stay at hotels that routinely set my company back 150-200 a night. Slow speed is just inexcusable.
 
I generally use my airport express to create my own wireless network and in that instance hotel wifi still tends to beat 3G-- sometimes by a Wide margin.
 
normwood said:
With quite a bit of travel with my Macbook, iPhone 3G and now my 3G iPad....I have come to the conclusion that most motel/hotel wifi BLOWS
Click to expand...

I've often considered exposing these hotels that claim "hi-speed wireless" by youtubing just how bad they really are after 8pm. Stay at a hotel chain that guarantees satisfaction and tell them you'll pay half the room rate because you couldn't get any work done the previous night. It's the only way to get them to realize it is a real problem.
 
ScottFitz said:
This was a bit surprising to me. I figured speeds would slow down at peak times at hotels but this is nuts. I guess you've got 50 laptops splitting a DSL connection or something.

3G is cranking along at an average of 3.25 Mbps. Having the 3G iPad was well worth the wait. (in contrast, hotel is pulling 500kbps at best).
Click to expand...

I agree. I stayed at a lot of embassy suites and hotels downgraded their wifi speeds to 250-300kps. That's enough to sue basic webpages but not video intensive webpages.

It also depends if wifi is paid service or free (I was a Hilton Diamond VIP) so it was free for me. But it seemed like half the hotel guests was sone type of Hilton preferred class and they got wifi free also so the wifi was slow.

On the other side, try using 3G at South Beach hotels like I was at last week in Miami. Barely usable since AT&T network was jammed. I mean I could barely get 15-30kpb with 3G.
 
commercial internet expenses are insane. you should be blaming time warner/at&t. if you knew their fees, you'd give thanks every day for your home internet bills.
 
fizzwinkus said:
commercial internet expenses are insane. you should be blaming time warner/at&t. if you knew their fees, you'd give thanks every day for your home internet bills.
Click to expand...

Actually, I pay a commercial bill and a personal bill using
suddenlink Internet in TX. I get 10+Mbps at home for 50/month (I use dish for my TV). It's a one price for home use thing.

At work, that same 50 gets me 2 Mbps. For 15 more, I can get 4 Mbps.

To get the 10+, I'd have to shell out a hundred.

In the case of hotels that charge 200/night, they need to step up and have true high speed.
 
random person said:
I generally use my airport express to create my own wireless network and in that instance hotel wifi still tends to beat 3G-- sometimes by a Wide margin.
Click to expand...

I do the same thing since I used to carry a MacBook air. Not much faster as the total bandwidth has a limiter per account access. Generally the bandwidth is more limited on the pipe coming in versus the G speeds most of the wireless systems are running.

,
 
I'm sure wireless strength has something to do with it. Some high-end hotels have a wifi access point in room.
 
I quit using hotel WiFi years ago in favor of an air card (now MiFi). Speed is one issue but lack of security is far worse.
 
I've stayed at three hotels in the last year and they've all been awful. Two of them were because the access point were far away but the other was full signal with both of my devices and they were awful. I used ATT Edge for one of them just because it was consistent.

I would have paid 10 dollars a night just to get some decent internet since watching the tv at most hotels sucks.
 
aneftp said:
............

On the other side, try using 3G at South Beach hotels like I was at last week in Miami. Barely usable since AT&T network was jammed. I mean I could barely get 15-30kpb with 3G.
Click to expand...

Hip-Hop week (whatever that means) overlapping with MDW.
 
ScottFitz said:
Actually, I pay a commercial bill and a personal bill using
suddenlink Internet in TX. I get 10+Mbps at home for 50/month (I use dish for my TV). It's a one price for home use thing.

At work, that same 50 gets me 2 Mbps. For 15 more, I can get 4 Mbps.

To get the 10+, I'd have to shell out a hundred.

In the case of hotels that charge 200/night, they need to step up and have true high speed.
Click to expand...

have you tried 2Mbps shared between 50-300 guests?
Yeah.
Next time, try calling a real commercial account.
 
A couple of years ago when I did a lot more personal travel... never had much issue with high-speed internet - though it was much slower than at home (have 10Mbps speeds sometimes here) it was OK. But never had 3G service before my iPad. Looking forward to seeing how upcoming travels turn out.
 
DSL blows, what can you expect? Mifi is the way to go. Especially if on the road a lot, and you have no 3G.
 
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