VPN access from Hyatt WiFi blocked - Need Public IP Address
 

So I travel alot for work and ALWAYS stayed at the hyatt, great hotel i really like it, just recently though my work requires me to VPN in during off-hours (when i am back my hotel) problem is my work VPN does not work at any of the Hyatts, my IT helpdesk says its because they have a port blocked that is causing this. I talked the front desk and they said there is nothing being done. I have to be able to provide off hour support and this is going to force me to switch hotels to be able to access my VPN at night.

Any suggestions? I really dont want to switch but since it looks like i am going to have to any suggestions on another good hotel award program to join? Marriot??

My suggestion would be to check other chains a few times and make sure that you can connect from their hotels. I suspect that the problem may be somewhere else and your IT guys may need to do some extra work to enable you to connect to your corporate network. AFAIK, this is the first time someone reported this kind of problem. I use VPN all the time and never had any problems with Hyatts (or any other hotel for that matter).

Regarding other chains, Marriott doesn't seem too popular with Hyatt regulars on this board. SPG (Starwood) on the other hand is either the first or the second choice for a lot of people.

Starwood, never heard of that but i will look into it. I really would like to stay at Hyatt but like i said i cant VPN and alot of my co-workers stay at marriot and dont have a problem at all but i am not a huge fan. I just want a really nice hotel that has locations world wide so i can use my free hotel stays for personal vacations all over the US and World.

Going to miss Hyatt :(

I would take your laptop to a colleague's hotel and try accessing the VPN before doing something brash ;)

are you based in the states??

get an AT&T mobile card, 70$/month (way cheaper than hotels) and you get a mobile internet connection anywhere you have cell phone reception.

thats what i use :)

60$ with either of Sprint or Verizon. I tried both of those and I liked Verizon better for their outside-large-city coverage.

HTSC

Yes I am, i work out of Fort Worth, TX when i travel. And the internet is free at the hyatt, even if it was it the company would cover the charges.

I've found that you often get what you pay for. I remember when every hotel charged for internet and it was often much faster and more reliable than when everyone and their virus laden laptops get on the network. If having a good connection as part of your work is required then $60-$70/mo is well worth it.

Are you new to traveling?

Yes I am, just recently graduated college and have a consulting job so trying to learn the ropes of a traveler. Also i figured out my problem thank god. I needed a public IP address assigned to me by the hotel. VPN works now :)

Depending on your VPN connection software there may be other options. Certain versions of the Nortel Extranet VPN client have an option for using an SSL tunnel. Your company has to set up a externally-available website that you browse to, start a Java port redirector applet from, and then the VPN client points at an IP address right on your own laptop which is actually going thru the Java applet from the website. The internet connection "thinks" it's just browsing to an https secure website but it's really creating a full tunnel to your VPN server, and then your VPN client connects through that.

Yeah, I know, technobabble. But if your company IT supports that SSL connection type as well as the usual IPSec, it works great when inside hotel and client site firewalls, when going through routers that don't handle VPN thru NAT properly, that block the usual IPSec port 500, etc. Check with your IT guys to see if you have this option.

But I heartily recommend a Sprint EV-DO mobile broadband card as an excellent solution instead of depending on hotel WiFi free or otherwise for business travel connectivity.

Good to see you found the answer - most VPN's work @ hotels, but for larger restaraunt chains (BW3, Panera, etc) - you may run in to the same issue - if you "befriend" a corp IT person - it'll pay didvidends long in to your career.