Reply to: Hotel Wi-Fi woes

[gadgetman]

Or get yourself a really long Cat 5 cable and plug in to the router directly

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I'll just add my voice to the 3G contingent - it works fine for me. I have had similar symptoms to those you describe when sharing a connection with others in more than one hotel and (as it happens) at a client site using a wired hub.

I know zip about the technology, but as a numpty end user it seems to me that the mode of failure when the router can't cope is intermittent tulip of the type you're describing. Why not have a chat with the manager and see if they will let you check some stats on the router? I bet some git is running some file sharing stuff and 10 others are downloading dodgy prawn - that's the sort of stuff that was mucking up our connection......

[gadgetman]

WiFi as a technology just isn't very good and things don't seem to have improved much since I first started using it almost a decade ago. True dual channel 'N' may improve things but its still not perfect.

I'm with FaQQer on this. I got a 3G USB dongle on 3 a few months ago. Well worth it for £15 a month.

[TheFaQQer]

How do you work that out? My need to use internet access is intermittent through the year - perhaps two months out of 12, plus a few odd days. The 3G contracts seem to all need £20+ per month. The cards appear to be £140+ to start with, so a first year outlay of > £380. That's even more than the big-chain hotels charge and they are ripping people off big time.

Then their cap is amazingly low. For text emails and drivelling - fine. But more than a few Mb and they start charging silly money.

And it only solves half the problem. When away from home my wife comes with me as she works from a laptop. She would then need one as well.

And why should I buy all that stuff when the hotel Wi-Fi is already paid for?

My 3G contract is £15 a month for up to 3GB of traffic per month. They do a cheaper one on three with lower bandwidth - I think it's £10 a month. Sign up for 18 months and the modem is free (or it was last year when I signed up).

So my first year costs are £180, compared with the £30+ a month I was paying in a hotel. I stay away from home most of the time (current gig will hopefully run for a while), and am currently in a house with no internet access - a 3G modem works a treat. It's also handy for when I'm at my in-laws (no internet access) and at my parents (no wireless and my baby sleeps in the study there).

If you can't connect to the hotel wifi, then complain about it - Spectrum used to refund my money fairly regularly when the signal was bad in one hotel.

[BrowneIssue]

Sounds like a combination of standard settings on the Zyxel router causing problems, DNS issues and possible interferace to be honest.

Well, it beats me.

My wife's XP laptop with integrated WiFi is getting the same as my Windows ME with USB card: a continuous signal but the router "disappears". Typically it is visible for 30 seconds to two minutes, then cannot even be PINGed for 10 seconds to 20 minutes. Yet throughout that, you can watch the signal strength continue wavering at its 20%-40% on my laptop or 80%-90% on hers.

I am running a continuous PING in a DOS window in the corner. When it scrolls with a response time I know I can click on stuff, when it says "No response" I just wait until it does respond.

My wife is running Thunderbird continuously so is OK since email does move back and forth eventually. She has given up web browsing for the duration - which is no bad thing as she has loads of work to do.

It is just annoying that I have brief windows of access in the morning and evening and waste them struggling trying to get stuff working.


There's no BIT Torrents or anything like that. There is no traffic unless I initiate it via email or web browsing.

[BrowneIssue]

Get yourself a USB 3G modem through your company and use that instead. It'll be cheaper than using a hotel wifi that's for sure.

How do you work that out? My need to use internet access is intermittent through the year - perhaps two months out of 12, plus a few odd days. The 3G contracts seem to all need £20+ per month. The cards appear to be £140+ to start with, so a first year outlay of > £380. That's even more than the big-chain hotels charge and they are ripping people off big time.

Then their cap is amazingly low. For text emails and drivelling - fine. But more than a few Mb and they start charging silly money.

And it only solves half the problem. When away from home my wife comes with me as she works from a laptop. She would then need one as well.

And why should I buy all that stuff when the hotel Wi-Fi is already paid for?

[Area-51]

Sounds like a combination of standard settings on the Zyxel router causing problems, DNS issues and possible interferace to be honest.

I had the similar DNS issues at my hotel yesterday in Horsham.

WiFi connected without any issues, could gain outbound access via IP but not via hostname. In the end, I accessed very my Citrix server at home, which impacted upon my constant Torrent downloads!

Seems okay today though.

HTH

Andy

[TheFaQQer]

But I want to drivel in the comfort of my own room rather than in another office.

That's what you call it, eh?

Get yourself a USB 3G modem through your company and use that instead. It'll be cheaper than using a hotel wifi that's for sure.

[NickFitz]

Not sure if it has any bearing on your situation, but last night I was trying to connect to my hotel's wifi and kept getting "connection refused". Then I realised that I still had a BitTorrent client running from when I'd been at home at the weekend. I shut that down and was able to connect reliably straight away.

So if you've got anything similar chuntering away on there, try disabling it and see if that improves matters.

[BrowneIssue]

Assuming you're in a proper hotel like a true contractor, and not some shed on the side of the motorway, go to the business centre and use their pc's instead...

But I want to drivel in the comfort of my own room rather than in another office. And I want to do it on my own machine with access to my own email, data, etc.

[ratewhore]

Assuming you're in a proper hotel like a true contractor, and not some shed on the side of the motorway, go to the business centre and use their pc's instead...

[BrowneIssue]

Windows ME??

No, it can't so there goes that option.. Try deleting the hotel WiFi entry and letting it 'rediscover' when you get back..

I did do that last night. I've had another go at doing so - no difference. Up and down like a <probably can't use that simile in this forum> up-and-downy thing.

[BrowneIssue]

Have you tried Linux? Maybe run it from a memory stick - that's supposed to be easy to set up.

<ducks>

Cailin, may I borrow your paddy-whacker?

[BrowneIssue]

Move hotels.

I have done.

Twice.

[NickFitz]

I am at ClientCo now where the connection is rock solid, despite having a 12-18% signal strength.

I'm running Windows ME so I don't think Windows can handle the WiFi for itself, can it?

Have you tried Linux? Maybe run it from a memory stick - that's supposed to be easy to set up.

<ducks>