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Thread ID: 135353 2013-10-24 08:18:00 Portable router to share hotel internet when travelling Chikara (5139) Press F1
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1356977 2013-10-24 08:18:00 Hi all,

I travel often for business and use hotel's internet. Sometimes this is cabled, and sometimes it's wifi. Sometimes it's free, sometimes paid, and sometimes it is restricted to one device connected only at any given time (or sometimes, only one device is allowed to be activated and once you're chosen which one, you can't connect your other devices)

What I would like to do is purchase a portable router that can re-broadcast the hotel room internet wirelessly, so I can use it on all my devices concurrently. Sometimes I have 3 or 4 devices running at the same time - my work laptop, personal laptop, work phone and personal phone.

I get the general concept that a portable router, designed for travel situations like this, just plugs into the LAN cable and converts the signal to wifi, just like a home modem/router does. But my questions are:

- Where the signal needs logon via a web page before it's activated, will this still work? And if so - if I am doing this from cabled into wireless - would each device need to logon to the hotel page first to activate? (or can this somehow be managed on the portable router)?
- If the hotel has a one device connected only policy, is there any way I can get around this a portable router? (EG somehow the router *is* identified as the allowed device and then I connect multi devices behind that? Regardless of if hotel signal is cabled or LAN?
- Can I protect the wireless signal it creates, so neighbouring hotel rooms can't snoop?

If that is possible, can anyone recommend a good make/model? I need something ideally that is smallish in size and lightweight, but reliable.

Thanks in advance!
Chikara (5139)
1356978 2013-10-24 08:36:00 The apple airpot express original is the size of a power adaptor, is very portable. Exchangeable plugs for overseas travel. plod (107)
1356979 2013-10-24 08:46:00 Dont think you're going to get it wirelessly from a car, if the hotel is miles away. Probably better if you get a portable router that supports 3G dongles, then use that to access the internet. Something like this? (www.pcworld.co.nz). You could probably just use a cellphone if it uses a program like joinme, or a smartphone. And use that as a hotspot Speedy Gonzales (78)
1356980 2013-10-24 09:07:00 Answer = NO!

And if it did would be complicated for a non tech to configure from site to site.
berryb (99)
1356981 2013-10-24 09:10:00 Thanks, just to clarify I'm just talking about my in room usage, I realise this won't work beyond my hotel room. I just need something that will let me use more than one device at the same time, instead of having to connect my laptop and then set up a hotspot from there (which will still acheive the same result but sometimes it's a hassle running the laptop only for the purpose of creating a hotspot).
I guess something that supports 3G dongles, *as well as* sharing the hotel room internet is ideal.
What about the scenario where the hotel restricts usage to one device via MAC address, will this still get around that problem? EG can the portable router be this device, and I have the ability to log on via the device to register?
Chikara (5139)
1356982 2013-10-24 09:11:00 pbtech.co.nz inphinity (7274)
1356983 2013-10-25 01:15:00 Any router will work. Get yourself something nice like the TP-Link TL-WR941ND and put Gargoyle on it.

Otherwise something like the Accton MR3202A I've used in the past are *tiny* little suckers

Finally, you can do it from your laptop with the right software. I don't recall off the top of my head but it's easily doable.
Chilling_Silence (9)
1356984 2013-10-25 08:07:00 I use an ASUS Travel Router, smaller than a pack of cards, even has a USB port to plug in a 3G dongle as backup if need be

appears to hotel networks as 1 device with its MAC address, and have multiple devices connected to it over WiFi
nmercer (3899)
1356985 2013-10-26 02:59:00 If the hotel doesn't offer cabled internet, they only offer wifi, do these smaller portable ones still let you connect to hotel wifi and only appear as one device still?
How does that work where the hotel requires logon via a web page? I guess you connect the router first to wifi, then connect your devices, and then can register/logon through any connected device? As from the hotels point of view, they would only see the MAC address of the router - so effectively it's the router MAC that is registered for use?
Chikara (5139)
1356986 2013-10-26 20:42:00 the Asus one that I use will only work with Wired, I'm not aware of one that would work with wireless, ie resharing 1 wireless connection with 1 MAC address over the same wireless nmercer (3899)
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