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hotel room without wireless

Anyone know how to convert CAT5 Cable to wireless in the Hotel room. I love to bring my PDA with me , when I travel. But, I found a problem to using the internet in most of the hotel.
Problem: Most hotels only have CAT5 network , when you plugin your notebook computer, you have to go to the login page to login. But when you using PDA(wireless). The question is how to use the internet?. If you bring a wireless rounter with you. When you plugin . how to make it found the hotel login page on your PDA?

Easiest method is to buy a Wireless bridge. Linksys sells these. Its a device that will tern an Ethernet Cable into a wireless signal.

I travel a great deal and although there are a great number of ways to deal with this issue...this is how I get around it.
I bought one of the little Dlink pocket routers like this one for a great price (less than $30). What you can do with this product (and others I'm sure...) is clone the MAC address of your laptop's ethernet port. Basically...it'd work like this...
1.) Plug your laptop into the hotel network.
2.) Jump through their proxy hoops to get out onto the net.
3.) Unplug the cable from the hotel network and into the pocket router.
4.) From the router's config pages...set the NIC to clone your laptop's MAC address.
5.) Plug the hotel network into the pocket router WAN port.
Badda bing! You're sharing their network wirelessly...doesn't take a lot of time at all. I've really enjoyed the Dlink one I got...small...flexible...and it comes with a nice travel case. Linksys (or Cisco now), Apple, and others all make similar products and some of them have the benefit of not needing a power adapter and just plugging straight into the wall outlet (a big benefit IMHO), but I can't speak for exactly what kind of functionality they provide versus the Dlink product as I've never used them.
By the way...a bridge will not help you do what you want...you need at least an AP...but if you get one of the devices like I mentioned...you get the added benefit of a NAT firewall between your device and the hotel LAN (which can be a very good thing by the way).

I can't see why you can't just plug in a standard access point via the WANport. Set the internet connection to Automatic DHCP.
Then the first time you access the net it will be ready for logging in.

eangulus said:
I can't see why you can't just plug in a standard access point via the WANport. Set the internet connection to Automatic DHCP.
Then the first time you access the net it will be ready for logging in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because many hotels control access to their internet connections by utilizing various methods but most often by controlling access via MAC addresses. Think filtering a wireless connection by only allowing certain MAC addresses... Now...if an AP allowed MAC address spoofing...then I certainly don't see why just an AP wouldn't work just as well (other than the fact that you don't get the benefits of a router).
By the way...this topic is certainly not Hermes specific and should likely be moved to a more appropriate forum.

One note should be made.... If the hotel is using NAT to assign IP addresss, and you use a second NAT with your router... you may not be able to use various VPN clients. Double NAT'ing doesn't work for many IPSEC VPN clients. i.e. AT&T NetClient
A number of switch vendors offer the ability to limit each port on their switch to allow traffic to one MAC address per port. A bridge would show multiple MAC addresses and typically when the switch sees that, the port is automatically shut down. This is done in many cases where there is a $10-15 a day charge for internet access and the hotel doesn't want you setting up an AP to share the cost with your travel mates. Thus they limit to one MAC address per port. The router solution would show up with only one MAC address... but you then have the double NAT issue in some cases. If you are not using a VPN, that may not be a problem.
Just some additional data points to consider.

I love the linksys travel router - more expensive then their mini router (about the same size) except for 2 things that are key for me. First, it's powersupply is embedded and 110-220v and 2 - it let's you connect it to a hotel wireless hotspot and then share that hotspot over wifi. This is great - it means that 4 people with rooms next to each other can share the fee of the hotspot and share it. It also means I can share that same hotspot with my phone! The only downside on this one over the mini router is it only has one wired out jack but that's no big deal for me!

Note that plugging a router into a network jack when the site in question is set up to use DHCP can cause some havoc on the network. I doubt many hotels are savvy enough to start hunting around for rogue routers when people in the hotel can no longer get IP addresses, but bear in mind that it's always a possibility. It's probably not a good idea to leave something like this plugged into the network longer than necessary.
Also note that whenever I've encountered a location where the establishment requires you to log into a web page in order to access anything, I've had no problem doing that from the Hermes.

Doom Tints said:
Note that plugging a router into a network jack when the site in question is set up to use DHCP can cause some havoc on the network. I doubt many hotels are savvy enough to start hunting around for rogue routers when people in the hotel can no longer get IP addresses, but bear in mind that it's always a possibility. It's probably not a good idea to leave something like this plugged into the network longer than necessary.
Also note that whenever I've encountered a location where the establishment requires you to log into a web page in order to access anything, I've had no problem doing that from the Hermes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The one I mentioned only asigns an IP to people on it's end and not outside - it even uses it's own IP range. It is designed to be transparent to the existing network.

Yes, I know. However, depending upon the network setup, this can still cause problems.
For example, some versions of Symantec's 'On Command/CCM' (a suite for pushing software updates to computers automatically when they are booted on the network) can communicate with some routers in such a way to where the router thinks it needs to try to provide one of its IP addresses to the network. This invariably ends up having a computer in some random place on the network ending up with a 192.168.x.x IP. When an admin sees this, he/she knows that there is a rogue router on the network.

Alot of work... as you know these hotel internet connections are controlled. If you're posting here use that 3g or even edge instead of giving the hotel your credit card to have a field test (is that a ppc program?) or field day with.

Doom Tints said:
Yes, I know. However, depending upon the network setup, this can still cause problems.
For example, some versions of Symantec's 'On Command/CCM' (a suite for pushing software updates to computers automatically when they are booted on the network) can communicate with some routers in such a way to where the router thinks it needs to try to provide one of its IP addresses to the network. This invariably ends up having a computer in some random place on the network ending up with a 192.168.x.x IP. When an admin sees this, he/she knows that there is a rogue router on the network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I doubt this will happen in most hotel networks and aside from that - I doubt that there is hardly ever a network admin on hand 99.9% of the time

The Linksys Travel Router is the product I'd highly recommend as I've been using it around the world for some years now.
It has a hardware switch that let's you control its functionality. In one position, the Wired Ethernet is simply converted to Wi-Fi and once you connect, you still get the IP from the hotel's DHCP server. If you need to share the connection with more systems (such as your laptop and your phone or with some colleagues in adjacent rooms), you just switch to another mode after logging in to the hotel's network and the Linksys becomes a NAT router and gives you a private IP.
It also comes with a nice travel case...

SayMobile said:
The Linksys Travel Router is the product I'd highly recommend as I've been using it around the world for some years now.
It has a hardware switch that let's you control its functionality. In one position, the Wired Ethernet is simply converted to Wi-Fi and once you connect, you still get the IP from the hotel's DHCP server. If you need to share the connection with more systems (such as your laptop and your phone or with some colleagues in adjacent rooms), you just switch to another mode after logging in to the hotel's network and the Linksys becomes a NAT router and gives you a private IP.
It also comes with a nice travel case...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the device I've been talking about - the only thing I add to the kit is a european outlet adapter (which fits nicely inside the coiled ethernet cable included

Wi-Fi router

All
I have my htc setup to both internet sharing and Wi-Fi connection on my work PC with a lan connection. On both of these connections e.g. wired USB and wireless i can get the internet for about 3 minutes then it stops working. Is there some sort of block? I did see a while back that the WiFi app has no restrictions...
Any help would be superb.
Cheers
Baker0

Thats a little odd, there is certainly no block and I have had the wifi router running for a good 30-40 minutes without failing.
what part is failing, is the phone no longer running the wifi router, or is the pc no longer getting internet on that network connection?
If you need help on how to find this info just reply and I can walk you through some more diagnostic steps.

The phone is still running just the internet stops on the machine. I have to stop the wi fi on the phone then start again then connect. I think it might be t-mobile but the internet on the phone is fine

are you in the uk?
if you connect your laptop to the phone via the wifi router you should be able to right click the network logo, click on status and view the wifi network info, it should tell you in there if it has internet access on that network connection.
If you try this again and when it fails check this status window and see if windows is seeing an internet connection or not?
when the net fails again try and visit http://72.14.203.100/ (this should be the google homepage) if you see google then there is a dns problem if it still says network timeout or failed to connect or something like that then we will have to dig further.

LOL thanks for your help. I am in the UK. ive been working in IT for the last 12 years and I know and have done the test, its not the machine it has something to do with the phone or t-mobile network

Sorry to hijack your thread a little, but I'm on the T-Mobile Network in the UK too (except I'm using a Touch Pro with a custom ROM), and although I can make connections from the PC to websites using the IP address, the DNS isn't working so I can't resolve domain names.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Steve.

Baker0 said:
LOL thanks for your help. I am in the UK. ive been working in IT for the last 12 years and I know and have done the test, its not the machine it has something to do with the phone or t-mobile network
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It must be the phone then since I do use wifi router, I am on t-mobile and in the UK and I do not experience this :S
I seem to be saying this more and more but maybe you should try a hard reset and see if that fixes the problem?

StevePritchard said:
Sorry to hijack your thread a little, but I'm on the T-Mobile Network in the UK too (except I'm using a Touch Pro with a custom ROM), and although I can make connections from the PC to websites using the IP address, the DNS isn't working so I can't resolve domain names.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Steve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is likely an issue with the way your machine has been setup to connect to the wifi network. Try visting the properties of the network and vieing the dns settings for the tcp/ipv4, It should be set as Obtain DNS server addresses automatically. If it is set like this then try setting it too 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 these are googles, dns servers if this works for you then you could stick with this or do some further digging as to why you are not getting the dns server addresses automatically like you should be.

Xp3RiM3nT said:
This is likely an issue with the way your machine has been setup to connect to the wifi network. Try visting the properties of the network and vieing the dns settings for the tcp/ipv4, It should be set as Obtain DNS server addresses automatically. If it is set like this then try setting it too 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 these are googles, dns servers if this works for you then you could stick with this or do some further digging as to why you are not getting the dns server addresses automatically like you should be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Setting the DNS entries to Google's makes it work, but attempting to get the DNS Server's automatically leaves me with no ability to resolve domain names. How strange?
Thanks for the workaround, not sure where to start looking to fix it properly.
Cheers,
Steve.

Hey guys,
I am new to this wifi router thing and got the following questions:
1. To be able to use it, you must have data connection with your provider. Am I right?
2. By any chance, can I use this system by using a sim taken out of a prepaid mobile broadband dongle and inserted into my device (htc touch HD)?
3. Once I get connected can I surf the internet/check emails etc from within the device itself without the need to use a laptop?
Please don't mind these basic stupid questions.
cheers

Wifi Tethering to a wifi router / network

A picture is better than 1000 words.
For an application I'm trying to get this configuration working:
Is this possible or not?

WiFi Tethering to a WiFi Router / Network
Yes, IF your wifi router will accept wifi as an input.
If all of the devices need to be on a network OTHER than your cell phone, then yes, you need a router. The router will have to accept wifi as it's source.
If all of the devices can be on the same wifi network as your cell, then you can get a wifi repeater or range extender. Repeaters "extend" the range that wifi will reach. I don't see that as an issue here as should be able to place your cell phone well within range of your other wifi-enabled devices.
I don't immediately see why you can't have all of the devices connect to your phone directly, but I don't know anything about the application you are working on.
What I cannot say is whether this setup could bypass the number of wifi devices your service provider limits you to. I know my hotspot (Verizon) limits you to five concurrent.
I hope I've answered your question and I've helped. BTW - your picture was perfect!

Thank you for your explanation.
This is a very specific setup.
The router is an Airlink NMini and I carry in my pocket. It has to be near my camera for the wifi connection to work. I get a lot of interference from wireless equipment on my photoshoots. The Wifi router is trong enough to overpower the interference (only when used in B-mode). It's hooked up to a 5 volt power pack.
Close to me I have an Android tablet for quick selecting the right images, then the images are copied over to a remote laptop that is used by my colleage to edit the images.
I needed the internet connection for sending the processed images to a ftp server or dropbox, so my clients can download the images.
I tried using the router as a relay/bridge, but couldn't get that to work. Maybe it's possible, but that's higher networking config.
I finally got it to work by connecting the phone to the laptop using usb.
Configured the laptop for ICS connecting the USB-internet connection to the wireless router. Had to set ip adresses manually, becaue the dhcp of the router did not transmit the correct gateway. But as there are only 2 devices attached, that's not a problem after documenting this change.
So I'm good to go for our next photo assigment. Case closed.
Sent from my Transformer TF101

Sweet setup man

[Q] Wifi issue. New findings?

Hello, been a long time reader from my G1 to my G2 and now my nexus 4.
I am unfortunately not able to use my device on certain wifi networks which is a real bummer.
Being that i have a background in diagnosing computer problems in my real world life, i thought i would post my findings as i found some interesting things!
First i will say that the network i will use as the demonstration is secured with WPA2 PSK AES security and encryption.
I can connect to it and often find i have problems on the first connect to the network. By this i mean if i have made my wifi settings 'forget the network' and then try to connect again.
On the first time it seems to indefinitely hang, showing the message 'authenticating' on screen next to the network and if i long press on the network name and press modify, the dialog shows that i have a link speed of 1mbps.
I can usually get past this by turning wifi off and on and then reconnecting, at which point it will connect straight away and have a normal link speed. (in this example 72mbps).
After i am connected, i find that the following does not load:
-browsing webpages through chrome does not load
-the wifi icon turns grey
-play store cannot load anything
I find that i get assigned an ip address by dhcp correctly too with the right gateway and dns.
I decided to download a network tool to have a better look. I use fing personally.
I found it very interesting what i found, which no other threads about wifi issues mention.
Network discovery found every device on the local wifi network.
I was able to scan the services of my computer which is also on the network and it found everything, including a http server which i run which i could browse to.
In fact i could do everything through wifi with this device and most others.
Again it got interesting when I then took a look at my gateway, the router.
I had discovered its mac address which i can verify through my computer is correct which to my understanding, being that i can communicate through the wifi, means that i have the information available to send information to that physical device?
When trying to scan services, i find nothing, which is not true, at the very least it exposes a http server on port 80 which my computer can access.
When trying to ping i have 100% packet loss.
So at this point it is only the gateway i cannot access.
So i figure i could setup another computer which is connected to the network with a wire to share its connection through wifi onto that network and then i have a standin gateway?
I connected this computer through wifi to the network and pinged it succesfully with my phone. I then turn ICS on my wired adaptor to share to my wifi adaptor. I ensure that the wifi maintains an ip address in the right range and subnet.
I then try to ping that ip with the phone and it then gets 100% packet loss.
Could this be that when a device is configured to act as a gateway something changes about how it handles any packets sent to it that the nexus 4 is currently in compatible with?

elltg said:
So at this point it is only the gateway i cannot access.
So i figure i could setup another computer which is connected to the network with a wire to share its connection through wifi onto that network and then i have a standin gateway?
I connected this computer through wifi to the network and pinged it succesfully with my phone. I then turn ICS on my wired adaptor to share to my wifi adaptor. I ensure that the wifi maintains an ip address in the right range and subnet.
I then try to ping that ip with the phone and it then gets 100% packet loss.
Could this be that when a device is configured to act as a gateway something changes about how it handles any packets sent to it that the nexus 4 is currently in compatible with?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have found a bit of a workaround that i can use!
When i said i turned on the wifi and ICS i did the following:
-Turned on wifi.
-Connected to wifi network.
-Turned on ICS on my wired network to share to my wifi
-Observed that my ip changed from 192.168.10.x to 192.168.137.1 with no gateway or dns.
-I decided to change my ip on the wireless to 192.168.10.x and gateway to my router 192.168.10.10
-I then tested.
I ran through this again but slightly different:
-Turned on wifi.
-Connected to wifi network.
-Turned on ICS on my wired network to share to my wifi
-Observed that my ip changed from 192.168.10.x to 192.168.137.1 with no gateway or dns.
-I decided to change my ip on the phone to 192.168.137.5 with gateway and dns as 192.168.137.1
-I then tested. And it works!
I know this doesnt fix the wifi issue itself, but for me, this makes a big difference as i can now use wifi at work where we also have poor mobile network coverage.
Edit:
Additionally i previously tried to setup this same computer to host a wifi network to share the connection using 'netsh' and creating a 'hostednetwork' but i found i was in the same situation where i still couldnt get the internet.

[Q] Tethering Issue

I am hoping someone would be kind enough to help, I have spent hours searching the net and still can't find the answer
I have the Note 3 on Three UK which allows unlimited data and tethering, I can tether to my PC no problem.
I want to tether to my wired devices which I currently connect using a router and Netgear WN3000RP Range Extender, this set up works fine when I connect to my main router.
I tried to set up my tethering to the WN3000RP and it connects, but does not share the connection. I did the firmware check and it said there is no new version - so that tells me the extender is accessing the internet, but going out of it, no connection to the internet
I have tried pinging 192.168.43.1 which is no use - fail
Has anyone done this before? is there an app to help?
I am not sure what the problem is but I have tried everything - resets, reboots, restores etc.
Thanks in advance

what are your wired devices looking for as the default gateway and DNS, are they trying to DHCP for their address?
If they can identify the phone and ping it then at least you have comms up to the edge but the gateway and DNS need to be set for them to reach further and out to the web.

aengus4h said:
what are your wired devices looking for as the default gateway and DNS, are they trying to DHCP for their address?
If they can identify the phone and ping it then at least you have comms up to the edge but the gateway and DNS need to be set for them to reach further and out to the web.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After much hair extraction, I think I have finally figured this out!
I was not setting any security and using MAC filtering on the phone instead of encryption as the bridge was struggling. As soon as I connected the extender, I added it as an authorised device, then connected to my pc and nothing.
After much messing about, I put some rubbish apps on which reset all the settings and renamed the APN to (APPNAME_COOL) or whatever it was and removed the MAC Filtering - and it works
So, I dont quite understand this, but the setup goes
1) Note 3 - WIFI Tether
2) Netgear Range Extender - RJ45 to
3) Netgear DSL Router - RJ45 to 4 different devices
Now all these 5 devices show up as connected by wireless, I thought the router would be connected to the extender and the extender to the phone as totally different devices, not passed down each step of the way.
Oh well, now on to the next amazing challenge, I have just put OpenWRT on the router and am aiming to set this up with my ADSL from downstairs and my DC-HSDPA as a "Bonded" connection to give me download speeds of about 40-45meg!
Thats a long way off though as I have not even got 1 connected via wireless yet, so still using extender+router
Not too shabby, but could be better

good to hear you got it working
I take it your DSL router is connected to an ISP? You may find that you get contention between the router and the tether in terms of where traffic ends up going, will depend on where the devices see the default gateway taking them. If the router were a cable type you might get away with the extender plugged in to the WAN port so all traffic would route via the 4G tether. Wouldn't then extend the range for other devices that well if the phone isn't there to provide the uplink to the isp.
Am on EE myself, not unlimited data (3GB) but last check I got 40-50Mb download and 24Mb up