After reading about the new Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Philadelphia touting it's high-speed Internet Access that's just in time for the Republican National Convention, my geek-like interest in this has sprouted up again.

Does anyone know of a list of hotels in the U.S. that offer high-speed internet access? Is there such a resource out there? As an IS/IT professional, I would almost certainly consider a hotel with internet access over those with only dial-out lines. I know that most Wingate Hotels offer this, but I'm looking for more of a complete list.

There is no list unfortunately. Different equipment vendors have lists of where their equipment is located. But no total. It would also be interesting to list out the costs. At the DoubleTree Pittsburgh, DSL access is $9-10 per hour. However if you are a bit of a hacker it's easy to get on for free.

I saw this system in my room at the Portland Hilton a few months ago, but the cost was a distinct disincentive as I could do an hour of "surfing" using the free local access I have with my ISP, and the Hilton system was not Mac compatible (not that I expected it to be). And while the phone modem is slower than the high speed cable I am use to at home/in the office, it was enough to get/send a few emails and check in on FlyerTalk!

Here's Hilton's list:
http://www.hilton.com/specials/cais/


Find other hotels using CAIS technology:
http://www.cais.com/products/prod_hotel_search.htm

Most hotels I've been to that have this service typically charge around US$9.95 per day (24 hour period from start), not per hour.

Approx 60-70% of the Hiltons seem to have some nice variety (Cais, NCWS etc) costing $9.95/24 hours. It usually works well, but be aware it sometimes fails part way through the 24 hr. I have called and gotten full credit from Cais in one situation after it failed. Most of the Hilton hotel business centers have computers which have a free high speed connection to the web.

It is totally free at the Hilton Garden Inn, Mountain View Ca (I believe that is the location), and they nicely allowed me to borrow a RJ-45 cord too. LAN cards are also available. I downloaded IE 5.5 at 91.2 KB/sec (ie slighty less than 1 megabits/sec).

Please note out-going email is usually NOT permitted on any of the hotel high speed systems I am aware of. You have to revert to a dial-up connection for this.

I am staying at the Courtyard Market Center in Dallas quite often. Thier high speed in-room internet access is $9.95 billed from noon till noon the next day (IMHO $5 would be a more reasonable price for the service). It is fairly reliabe and usually very quick. Easy to set up as well. I just plugged my ethernet cable into the box and turned on my computer and was off and surfing. The only restriction I have found is that I cannot run my VPN software to access my corporate servers etc. But all other mail and web functions work like a champ. There is even a bag in the closet with rj-45 cable, phone cable, software, and a fairly good set of setup instructions for the novice user. 24hr tech support # is also provided.

Marriot claims they have high speed internet in 50 of it's properties but I have been unable to find a list of them.

-rollyo11

[This message has been edited by rollyo11 (edited 08-03-2000).]

Marriott uses STSN.

Follow the above link and click on hotel locator.