The pain that is Marriott wireless
 

What is it with Marriotts and their wireless setups?

I had a terrible experience with the Marriott LAX in Sep (see last para of my trip report http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/004064.html for gory details if you want -- in essence, my 28.8k modem was about 3 times faster than their supposd broadband.)

Last night, I was at the Marriott Bristol City Centre, and their setup is even worse: There's supposed to be free wireless on the Terrace level, but if you attempt to use it, it takes you to a sign-up screen to pay for it. If you try to continue and pay, it fails (if using a standards-compliant browser) because of them using faulty javascript. If you use IE, the faulty code works ... to the extent that it attempts to go to the next screen and times out with a DNS error!

If it did actually work, it would no doubt work badly. Not only was there the publicly accessible STSN network, but also 2 other networks running WEP. This wouldn't be a problem usually, if it weren't for all 3 networks running on the same channel!!
(And I'm fairly certain they were all in the same area, not from outside the hotel.)

What is it with these morons? They could put a couple of access points in for US$100, pay for broadband and have tiny costs, offering it free. Instead, they are no doubt paying a fortune for servers that are supposed to accept payment, yet don't work and for the IT people who are setting things up badly.

10 times the costs, in order to provide a means for payments to be made, is just stupid. Moreso when the people setting up the systems clearly are out of their depth.

My laptop is aging and of the wired variety. But I am increasingly concerned about the hodgepodge of wired broadband connections at various Marriott properties. STSN here, Wayport there, Merlot in some other places, etc. And each requires me to change my e-mail settings in a different manner to send e-mail. Plus some of the “highs-speed” connections are incredibly slow. I paid the standard $9.95 last night at the Irvine, CA Marriott and the STSN coonnection was waaaaaay slow. Should have complained but I was in a hurry to leave this morning and just blew it off.
Also, another pet peeve is the almost total lack of anyone on staff who can assist when there is a connection problem. They send up an engineering guy who is usually clueless on the workings of the high speed connection.
Guess this whole HS internet thing is still in it’s infancy and the bugs will eventually be worked out but it’s frustrating on many an occasion.

Marriott broadband has been more than disappointing lately.

I stayed at a Courtyard that has free broadband. The network port in my room was on, but I could not obtain an IP address, and could not do any work. It was late at night so I just called it a night. But I will have to switch brands unless Marriott gets this broadband thing right.

I had a very positive experience at the Fairfield Inn in Clarksville, TN. The wireless was free. I was even given a PCI card for my laptop to borrow, with an $80 deposit. It worked fine. I'll bring my Christmas gift 802.11a card to try next time I'm there.

outoftown: If your card is 802.11a only then it will NOT work. You need a 802.11b, 802.11g aor a 802.11a/b card for it to work.

Also, people might want to try releasing and renewing their IP leases before connecting.

In the run menu or dos window type, ipconfig/release then at the prompt ipconfig/renew (windows 2000. other systems differ in the nomanclature)

>>ipconfig /renew<<

Also, make sure your network adapter is setup for DHCP in the first place! (obtain IP address automatically).

You may have a static IP address at your workplace. If so, write all the settings down so you can put them back after your stay.

Given my experience with Marriotts so far and my experience with FlyerTalkers, I'd say the chances of incorrect wireless setup by Marriotts is much greater than by FTers attempting to use their network.

Sorry I was hazy on the gift. It's an a/b/g card...however, I thought that "a" was backwardly compatible with g and the older b. Birthday in January, I'll ask for an "a" router and desktop card so I can use it at home.


[This message has been edited by outoftown (edited Dec 25, 2003).]

FYI, you would probably be better off asking for the "b/g" router/card. "a" is not backwards compatible at all and its the same speed as "g".

Or you can get a combo card that does all three...but honestly you will rarely find an "A" network in public.

Also...if you have a cordless phone or other cordless device, get an access point on a different band to eliminate interference. A is 5GHz. B & G are 2.4GHz.



[This message has been edited by Pointfreak! (edited Dec 27, 2003).]