do any wifi transmitters allow multiple devices, without extra payments?
 

Are there any wifi transmitters that will allow me to plug into the wired hotel internet connection, that will allow multiple devices to log on without payments for each individual device?

-or do they all allow this? I have zero knowledge of this sort of thing at all!

Any travel router (which provides NAT - network address translation - as opposed to just a bridge/access point) should do that, at least at most hotels. It wouldn't surprise me if some now try to detect this, but the basic idea of the device is that it makes however many devices connect behind it "look like" one device at the basic IP level.

It's pretty easy to tell one is there if you know what to look for or and looking at the application-protocol rather than IP level, but most hotels don't bother. Like I said, it wouldn't surprise me if some do, but I doubt it's many yet.

Any wireless router should do what you're looking for. To the hotel it looks like one device (or at least one IP address) regardless of how many devices are connected to the wireless router.

what you want is a travel router. they're small (pocket sized) and can bridge wired to wireless and vice versa. some of them are even battery operated. you create your own private wifi network and multiple devices can join (be sure to use a passphrase so neighbors don't). linksys, d-link, trendnet, zoom and apple make them, probably others as well.

In my experience, I go through the hassle of signing up each device separately and charging to the room. I've never been to a hotel that charged for more than one connection per day. If two+ charges appear on the bill, I've never had a problem asking them to remove the duplicates. seems easier to me than setting up a network.

True, but I figure that I want the wireless I might as well have this additional functionality.

Thanks all, I'll look at the airport for routers.

The Asus wl-330ge is a very popular travel router for this sort of application. It's about the size of a pack of cards. It's 802.11g/b only, however.

If you will be connecting your laptop to the hotel's ethernet, and are running Windows 7, you could try turning your laptop into a hotspot:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...l#post15593691

Not many hotel rooms big enough for the range advantage of N to kick in, nor many hotels with connections fast enough for the speed advantage to kick in that I've seen (although I'm sure there are some out there!)

I have a question similar to the OP's, but i want a portable router that can receive the hotel's wireless signal and send it out wirelessly to multiple IPads and IPhones. A secondary issue to the same question is once I get such a router, and I go into a new hotel room, how do I get the router to receive the hotel's wireless signal since (presumably) neither an IPad or IPhone can be hard wired to the router (to direct it to get the hotel signal, enter the hotel password, etc).

Thanks in advance.

The Asus model I mentined earlier does all this.

Your iPad will always connect to the private wifi network the router creates, so you'll always be able to control the router.

Actually, the ASUS WL-330ge only repeats the existing signal; it doesn't create a second WiFi network (universal repeater mode).

So if you have poor WiFi reception in your hotel room, then universal repeater mode can help, BUT, the hotel / ISP may charge you for each device connected (some do, and some don't; I've experienced both).

Also, the Asus model can only operate as a universal repeater for WiFi networks that are unencrypted or use WEP encryption only. WPA or WPA2 are unsupported (in repeater mode).

Another box that may work as well is the Apple Airport Express. Can't use it as a universal repeater, but if the hotel room has wired ethernet, you can certainly use it as a local gateway with WiFi, to avoid multiple connection charges. And it has the advantage of being quite simple to set up, and can be set up from either an iPhone or iPad directly (no laptop required).



Patrick

I have a nice travel router, but there's an even simpler solution. Connectify turns your computer into NAT wireless router. I use it at work to allow my tablet and phone to connect the internet while working on my laptop, which is connected to the company LAN (my company doesn't have wifi). It works very well. It has a free version which may be sufficient for your purposes. I use the "pro" version.

I use the Airport Express at home and it would be a perfect solution, but for 2 issues.

First, it reuqires a hard wire input, and most of the places I stay have wifi but not an ethernet or other hard wire. I need a repeater that can do both.

Second, the Airport Express is a little heavy to be carrying around for this purpose.

Thanks for your post-that Asus model looks like it would be of little help and I really want to avoid buying a unit, figuring out how to use it only to learn it doesn't do what I need.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

What you're looking at doing essentially requires two radios (one to act as client; one to ask as base-station). There are a few devices that can do this, but not usually in the same RF band (ie, 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz). Items like the Apple Airport Extreme can do it, BUT it's obviously not as portable, and two, they generally don't act as a separate NAT device. IE, they simply would repeat the signal, and not create a private WiFi network for your use only.

Even with the "Extend Wireless Network" option or WDS option in Apple routers (Express or Extreme), I don't believe they allow you to create a separate DHCP pool and assign addresses from it. They're simply acting as layer-2 bridges between two WiFi radios (which appear as one network to the hotel / ISP). So you could be charged for each individual device.

Now, you could do it, but you'd need TWO access points to carry with you (and connect them via Ethernet cable).

Now, another option could be to get a USB WiFi key, plug it into your laptop, and share it that way. So one WiFi interface is connected to your hotel's WiFi network, and one WiFi interface becomes your 'private' WiFi network.

On the Mac, this functionality is built-in (just need the second WiFi interface); on Windows you might need an app like Connectify to do it.

This may be the cheapest way to go, and the most portable, as a small, WiFi usb key is dirt-cheap, and as portable as it gets (also, no need for a separate power supply!)



Patrick