If hotel rooms are supposed to become my home away from home then there is one thing that I absolutely hate: the unfriendly wifi.
- I dislike paying extra for wifi
- I dislike having to log on with superlong codes each time I need to use wifi
- I dislike having to buy wifi for each of my devices separately!
The first two are unfortunately not going to go away until hotels come to their senses but the third can be resolved by without relying on the hotels.
This is a guide to creating your own wifi in a room where the only Internet connection is wifi (i.e. no Ethernet). You will need laptop, wireless router, Ethernet cable. I have done this with my Apple equipment. I am sure you can do this in other connections but I have not tried it. I have not done this all too often and remembering these settings are the reason I wrote this guide.
Begin by Logging into the wifi with your laptop.
Go to sharing (Settings->sharing->Internet Sharing) Select from wifi share via Ethernet and turn it on. When troubleshooting turning sharing on/off again has sometimes resolved the problem.
Connect your Wireless router to the computer. I use the new small Airport Express its lightweight for travel. Connect you Ethernet cable from the laptop to the Ethernet WAN port.
Then its time to set up the Wifi
Go to the Airport Utility (Applications -> Utilities -> Airport Utility)
Base Station: pick a name and password for the base station. This is not the wifi net or password but the way to log into the base station to make changes if need be.
Network: You are creating a wireless network. Pick name for that wifi and password. Chose Bridge mode.
Note some situations may not like you doing all this so picking a wifi name that screams out whom you are may be unwise. Obviously be wise about passwords as well.
Internet Connection: This is the hotel wifi that you logged into in the beginning of this guide.
The update and you are away. You should now log all your devices onto the wifi you have created and they are all sharing the internet connection that you are paying for.