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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
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1356987 2013-10-27 01:50:00 The ones that say they have a WISP feature - Wireless Internet Service Provider - should they be able to manage this? Or is there something else I need to look for? Chikara (5139)
1356988 2013-10-27 02:12:00 If it only offers cabled internet, you'll need a "repeater-bridge" function. Anything running something like DD-WRT can do that quite easily :) Chilling_Silence (9)
1356989 2013-10-27 02:20:00 Thanks, I think most of the portable travel ones offer that feature (convert wired, to wireless accessible for multiple devices) if I'm not wrong. Plus the regular sized ones. (Either with the stock firmware or DD-WRT or Gargoyle).
But it's not unusual that when I travel, the hotel *only* offers wireless. I'd really like to be able to share that one hotel wireless signal with my multiple devices.
Some hotels allow multiple devices but many require logon/registration and therefore know the MAC ID of the device connecting. So i'm trying to get something that can also share the wireless signal via the router, too, and not have any problems with the MAC identification/logon part.
Should any router that has WISP as a feature be able to do that, or is there something else I should be looking for?
And would I really need to flast with DD-WRT or Gargoyle, or if is has WISP, shouldn't the stock firmware be capable of that already??
Thanks!

PS - I realise I could achieve this via software on the laptop, something like Connectify or an equivalent, but I'd prefer to manage it through the router as I may nto always want to have to turn laptop on, just to connect my phone or other devices to the internet...
Chikara (5139)
1356990 2013-10-27 05:26:00 This is the software I was thinking of ! :D

http://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/

Used it in Hawaii to share from my laptops WiFi connection to my tablet and stuff...
Chilling_Silence (9)
1356991 2013-10-27 06:48:00 Great, I'll check that out as a plan B if I cant get a router to do what I want.
I used to use Connectify, but the free version is a lot worse now, it only keeps you online for a limited time, then disconnects you and you have to manually reconnect - their nagware to get you to buy their full version. Plus I hate their pop-up ads!
Chikara (5139)
1356992 2013-10-27 07:45:00 Yeah thats why this ones great :D Chilling_Silence (9)
1356993 2013-10-27 10:49:00 OK, thanks all for your input and suggestions. For travel purposes I decided to get the Asus WL-330-NUL, because of it's portability for travel, and it seems to support sharing of both cabled and wireless internet - I read through the manual and it also has a MAC spoofing feature via the admin page, which I think may overcome any limitations with hotels requiring logon and limiting to a particular MAC address. Next time I stay at a hotel that has wireless only internet I'll try it out and try to remember to post back here with how it worked. (and will install the virtualrouter software too as a backup)

I am also in need of a new router at home too, my old one often has signal drops, and generally I haven't been too happy with it. So I think I will go with Chill's suggestion of the TP-Link TL-WR941ND or maybe even the next model up, the TL-WR3543ND.
I will use this as my home router (but if the Asus travel router doesn't do the job I could also take the TPLink away when I travel too - although it's heavier and bulkier so far from ideal for this purpose)
Can I ask Chill, why do you recommend Gargoyle on it, instead of the stock firmware? What advantages (or disadvantages) does Gargoyle have over stock? And if for any reason I try Gargoyle and don;t like it and want to revery back to stock, is that easy to do?
Chikara (5139)
1356994 2013-10-27 10:58:00 Yeah you can go back. Basically it's a lot more user friendly, a lot more reliable, a lot more solid... And features like per-device quotas and things, very cool :D Chilling_Silence (9)
1356995 2013-10-27 20:56:00 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!

These is any number of 3g Wireless routers available now, we use several for our auditors while out on the road, easy to setup and connect, they evn power over for laptop USB if required....
SolMiester (139)
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