Prespd
join:2004-03-10
San Diego, CA
| 2 cents.
WiFi in Hotels works like this from my experience:
1) The more expensive the hotel, the less free internet you will get, wireless or otherwise. Works the same for bottled water too.
2) The cheaper the room rate, the more likely it is that internet let alone wireless will be free, the doughnuts good, and the coffee flavorful.
Hotels realize you are willing to pay a premium, so they nickel and dime you where they can. This is especially true of the so called high end name hotels.
Fortunately, in more and more hotels you can find a wireless signal from another open AP either in a hotel nearby or local business with open access (sometimes Panera). I love how at most airports I've been to, including Florida (Orlando), Jersey (Newark), San Francisco, you can get free wireless from the hotel attached to the airport. And Hong Kong is the Best. Wireless available even in the most remote parts of the airport. |
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PhoenixAZ
Joshua
Premium
join:2004-01-04
Phoenix, AZ
| When I have stayed at the Mariott, it was $9.95, but that also included unlimited nationwide long distance. Also, I could roam the lobbies and use it's wireless internet, or be on a wired connection in room.
What I am more worried about are these authentication programs for some hotels, they seem to hate other browsers such as Firefox (Being a Mac user, I am kind of stuck with either Safari or Firefox), and are only IE-Friendly.
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Josh| About Me |
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howrman
join:2000-07-08
Philadelphia, PA
| reply to Prespd
said by Prespd  :WiFi in Hotels works like this from my experience: 1) The more expensive the hotel, the less free internet you will get, wireless or otherwise. Works the same for bottled water too. You've hit on one of my pet peeves. I recently spent $1,000 a night at the Four Seasons in NYC and they had the nerve to add $9.95 to the tab for wired Internet! Same thing in Boston at the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons. Next time, maybe I'll stay at the Holiday Inn Express and buy a new computer with the $800 I save. |
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tango65536
join:2001-12-26
Catonsville, MD
clubs: 
| said by howrman :said by Prespd :WiFi in Hotels works like this from my experience: 1) The more expensive the hotel, the less free internet you will get, wireless or otherwise. Works the same for bottled water too. You've hit on one of my pet peeves. I recently spent $1,000 a night at the Four Seasons in NYC and they had the nerve to add $9.95 to the tab for wired Internet! Same thing in Boston at the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons. Next time, maybe I'll stay at the Holiday Inn Express and buy a new computer with the $800 I save. $1000/night!! Thats insane!! I hope you can write that expense off!
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Team Discovery |
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afsfdafs
@comcast.net
| reply to Prespd
This is true, the best I find is the Baymont Inn.... always free internet (stayed at them in multiple locations), always a good price also. Everywhere in LV charges as mentioned above. I actually book my hotels based on their free internet, so I'm hoping others do the same and those charging can lose the extra business. Howard Johnsons also had free wifi. |
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rob_in_chatt
Premium
join:2004-09-17
Chattanooga, TN | reply to howrman
there is no hotel room worth a grand a night, i dont care where your staying. |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to howrman
said by howrman :You've hit on one of my pet peeves. I recently spent $1,000 a night at the Four Seasons in NYC and they had the nerve to add $9.95 to the tab for wired Internet! Same thing in Boston at the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons. Next time, maybe I'll stay at the Holiday Inn Express and buy a new computer with the $800 I save. While it wasn't $1000/night, I had a computer training at this resort in Orlando. It was $229/night or there abouts. In-room Internet was $15/night but that also included unlimited local and long distance. Unlimited local was already included in the room rate and I had a cell phone and/or Skype so long distance was free anyways.
It pissed me off that a COMPUTER training seminar was being held in a hotel that changed for internet access. Heck, our classroom didn't even have internet. Luckily there was a rogue AP that someone had setup somewhere in the resort that we could pick up almost anywhere (the resort was a large square with a very open atrium in the middle). Screw the $15/night charge. I'll take the slightly spotty free AP.
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Go Colts |
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EGeezer
Go Bobcats
Premium
join:2002-08-04
Country!
 ·Callcentric
 ·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T CallVantage
| There are lots of free APs out there, especially at airports. However, some are put up by enterprising folks with portable routers and laptops with traffic sniffers, proxies and ARP cache exploit utilities to catch even encrypted logins, passwords etc. A tipoff for the proxies is the "unknown issuer" certificate warning when you go to an SSL site.
I consider most networks untrusted, including most hotels since I don't know how well they secure my connection from other systems on the network. When I use these nets, I use an SSL connection through a Citrix Server to remote to my desktop PC and do mail, etc. Logmein, gotomypc or other similar legitimate services also work well.
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The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes or its theories will hold water.
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| said by EGeezer :I consider most networks untrusted, including most hotels since I don't know how well they secure my connection from other systems on the network. All networks should be treated this way unless you explicitly know that there is nothing rogue between you and what you are connecting to.
In the case of my travels, if someone wants to sniff me reading news here or downloading a MSDN article, more power too them. I'm happy knowing there is someone with even less then a life then me. 
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Go Colts |
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EGeezer
Go Bobcats
Premium
join:2002-08-04
Country!
·Callcentric
·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T CallVantage
1 edit | said by cdru :All networks should be treated this way unless you explicitly know that there is nothing rogue between you and what you are connecting to. I'd say that for some, even logging in here or at other sites that don't have SSL login could present issues. Some folks use the same password and login for multiple sites and even email, a handy little fact for miscrants who can often Google a user's login name to see what posts and URl's are returned. From there, looking at profile information, including any non-public profile info gleans more information. Reading their IMS could get more information, and so on.
Your caveat is excellent, especially for folks who decide to hop on that convenient open AP with the SSID of "Baymont", Hampton", "Starbucks" that may be a rogue. And, we haven't even touched on rogue users scanning weakly secured legitimate APs by using sniffers and utilities like Cain and Abel to hack clueless AP users.
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The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes or its theories will hold water.
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