topic Re: Hotel Rooms and Ethernet ports for wireless service in Communications and Wireless

Hotel Rooms and Ethernet ports for wireless service

SM_3 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:08:32 GMT

Hello experts

I have a question.

Im trying to get wireless ethernet in the hotel room for my phone(s). Good wireless service is normally in the hotel lobby.

When abroad and in hotel rooms , we have the familiar ethernet port(s) for a laptop.
Is there anything I can plug into the ethernet port which will give a wireless access point for my phone(s) to connect to?

Thanks is advance.

Re: Hotel Rooms and Ethernet ports for wireless service

Matti_Kurkela — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:57:47 GMT

Yes - a device commonly called a "wireless access point" or "wireless network base station". Some of the newer models are quite small.

If you use a wireless base station in this way, you probably should configure it for minimum transmission power necessary, so your wireless network won't reach too far beyond your hotel room.

It would also be smart to use encryption in your little wireless sub-network, especially if the hotel's intranet allows you to order some hotel services electronically: if a next-door neighbor accidentally uses your wireless network instead of the cable connection in his/her room, you might accidentally end up with some unwanted, expensive or embarrassing charges on your hotel bill.

Of course, if the hotel uses some kind of a login mechanism in their network connections (e.g. to include the network access costs to your bill), it isn't absolutely guaranteed you can login using a wireless base station and a phone browser.

MK

Re: Hotel Rooms and Ethernet ports for wireless service

SM_3 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:54:11 GMT

Thank you Matti.

The wireless access point, is that plug and play if I insert into an ethernet port or would I need to log onto the wireless access point and congiure it?

There is the airport wireless from apple but it's too expensive, I think anyway.

Re: Hotel Rooms and Ethernet ports for wireless service

Matti_Kurkela — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:35:24 GMT

That depends on which access point you choose, and on the configuration of the hotel's network. I guess in most cases hotel networks would use DHCP, so you can probably configure your access point once and then use it in different hotels with no further configuration.

Although Apple's Airport Express is small, I think Apple's products must be configured using a special software that is available for Windows and Mac only. So it would be less than ideal for use with smartphones.

Other manufacturers' access points are configurable using a regular Web browser, so if you end up in a hotel that has special configuration requirements, it would be possible to use the phone browser to change the configuration of your AP.

If at all possible, test before buying: some access points might use ActiveX in their configuration interface, which would make it pretty much impossible to use with a phone browser.

If you had problems setting up your AP in some particular hotel, the hotel would be unlikely to be able to offer technical help for configuring an AP: you would have to deal with any problems on your own.

MK

Re: Hotel Rooms and Ethernet ports for wireless service

SM_3 — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:42:18 GMT

Thanks Matti.

Re: Hotel Rooms and Ethernet ports for wireless service

SM_3 — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:42:37 GMT

Thanks again.