I almost always have difficulty getting decent internet service in hotel rooms that offer only wireless internet. I am wondering if this is a common problem, or if it is me. Let me pose the following questions:

1. Is this a common problem?

2. Are there any hotels (or chains) that offer better wireless than others?

3. Are there any websites that accurately list which hotels have wireless and which have ethernet (I have found that hotel websites themselves are seldom accurate on this point)?

4. Are there any "gizmos" that help pick up wireless internet in hotel rooms...range extenders, antennae, better wireless cards, etc.?

5. Can you get better wireless service depending on your location within the hotel (eg lower floors)?

6. Any other advice for solutions I haven't thought of?

Thanks!

My old laptop did not have built-in wireless, so I had a PCMCIA card. It often gave problems with the wireless in hotels (disconnecting often), and in one hotel it didn't work at all. I then updated the driver software (or was it even the firmware) after I realised that the one provided on the CD that came with the card was more than two years old. From that moment, I didn't have any problems anymore.

SmilingBoy.

In my experience, the hotel internet is usually very poor. Either
poorly designed or ill equipped.

Only time I've seen a better internet access when they had those
wireless routers in your room connected to the network via in-wall
ethernet jacks.

I keep a CDMA internet service handy, and it works well for me in
most places within US.

(Sprint card or data connection)

I've also had mixed results using wireless access
Just a couple of rambling thoughts (Windows)...

1. Every so often (or if you're having problems) delete the access points that aren't part of your home networks which are associated with your wireless adapter. Control Panel > Network Connections > (right click) Wireless Network icon > Properties > Wireless Networks > click on each alien AP and click remove.

Each time you successfully connect it adds it to the table and if you have the same named SSID (e.g., nwaworldclubs) with a different security setting it can cause problems linking up (it might have changed since the last time you were there).

2. Have had different results in different locations within the hotel. Don't know if the lower floors are better but the only place you can count on is the lobby since the installers surely tested it there. If I'm having problems in the room, I always go to the lobby to debug connectivity first.

3. If the thing just isn't connecting, try right clicking on the wireless icon in the system tray & selecting repair. This occasionally works.

Security:

Please please be very careful when using the internet from hotels or other hotspots. Assume the bad guys are always listening in. If I can't establish a VPN tunnel to my home server I don't check POP e-mail, bank, etc.

Last year at a 5* hotel in Vegas, I noticed that when linking into my hotmail account it was connecting to a 10.x.x.x address! When I pinged www.hotmail.com it also reported the same address meaning that someone had hijacked the DNS server. Not happy!

One other thing of late. It seems that a lot of kiddies are setting up phony open access points near hotels & airports with names similar to real entities, i.e., hhonors (actual Hilton a/p) and HiltonGuest (somewhere across the street).

The game is becoming more irritating.

It's not unusual, not sure I would call it common


My profile asks for a room far away from the elevators and that usually means the end of the hall.

That also means usually lousy internet service for wireless. It all depends on where the routers are, but generally if they offer wireless in the lobby it's full strength. You could call and ask, I mentioned it in one place the signal didn't reach my room (not to complain, just to mention it in case they had a router that was down), and they pulled out a sheet and showed my room highlighted as poor, with some others as good and fair. So they possibly know when you are checking in.

In my experience, the cheaper the hotel, the better the Internet connection. For some weird reason its always the >$125 hotels that have crappy connections at $20 per 24 hours while the $59/night hotels have perfect strong signals all through the property for free.

Maybe because the cheaper hotels tend to be smaller, so the signal doesn't have to go as far?

May be cheaper hotels have simple WiFi with a cable/DSL connection

While the big ones use some custom WiFi solution with a dedicated ISDN
connection


I've noticed the same.. the big hotels have some fancy solution with
authentication mechanism etc.. while small ones have a simple linksys
router attached with free WiFi access

Google "wifire" and go the hfield, or something like that, website. In November I was in a hotel in South America with horrible wi-fi only access and I bought this thing to keep in my kit. I have not used it yet because every hotel I've been in since (including this one in San Salvador) has only had (good) wired connections.

Leo

If/when I ever get

The cheaper the hotel usually the better the broadband. Wired broadband is usually more stable than wireless broadband. Free broadband is preferred to pay broadband. I carry my own router for the wired broadband only hotels

MisterNice

Thanks for that info. I just purchased one and can't wait to see how well it works.

I'd be interested to know how well it works, from you or anyone else. There seem to be a lot of these kinds of things on the market, I just have no feel for what works and what doesn't.

I am in the booking process now, and tearing my hair out trying to figure out which hotels have wired and which have wireless. The Marriott web site identifies which it has in which parts of the hotels. Hilton is silent on the subject. Any other ideas or experiences?

I've had some good experiences with this adapter:

http://www.airlink101.com/products/awll3055.html

Fry's often has it on sale for $22 which is a steal.

Most hilton's (Embassy suites usually) have the wireless one.. and not
a good one to be honest.

You are better off calling them directly to find out.