I think I may know the answer to this, but will the Apple TV work in a hotel?Whenever I connect a computer to the hotel internet connection, a screen typically pops up asking if I will accept the hotel's terms of service. The apple tv does not have a web browser as far as I know, so I am wondering how I would go about accepting the terms of service when trying to connect the apple tv to a hotel internet connection.
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Will the Apple TV work in a hotel?
- Thread starter chicago19
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The whole login/agreement page may throw a bone in the process. Would you still travel with your computer and the ATV? If so, could you maybe connect to the internet with the computer and then share your internet connection to the ATV? I'm not familiar with how the hotel networks work. Just throwing the idea out there.
If you take a portable wireless router like an Airport Express with you, you can accept the agreement with some other device with a web browser like a computer or smartphone. Then any other device connected to that router (like the ATV) should be able to access the internet as well without needing to accept the agreement.
That is a good question. I think I agree with the Router suggestion. If anyone has tried this let me know if it works!
Should work with wifi share from your Mac as long as the mac is on a hardwired connection and you can use the airport in your mac to function as the router.
I don't see why not. Technically, other than agreeing/logging in, it's no different than how i have my Mini hardwired a home and all my content lives on the external thats connected to it.
I don't see why not. Technically, other than agreeing/logging in, it's no different than how i have my Mini hardwired a home and all my content lives on the external thats connected to it.
Regardless of the password situation, there are two other reasons I can think of why the AppleTV might not work in hotel rooms:
1. An awful lot of hotel rooms have antique 4:3 TVs with either composite (yellow/red/white) or RF connections. Unless it's a pretty new hotel, there's a pretty good chance the ATV will not be compatible.
2. It has been my experience that hotel internet connections are slow and can bog down tremendously during prime hours. On a recent trip, I performed a speed test in two different hotels and got less than 1 Mb/s each time.
1. An awful lot of hotel rooms have antique 4:3 TVs with either composite (yellow/red/white) or RF connections. Unless it's a pretty new hotel, there's a pretty good chance the ATV will not be compatible.
2. It has been my experience that hotel internet connections are slow and can bog down tremendously during prime hours. On a recent trip, I performed a speed test in two different hotels and got less than 1 Mb/s each time.
I will add a third reason.
3. If the hotel has newer digital sets, the VAST majority of the time the HDMI and other inputs are disabled for customer use.
The hotels do not want you to use your own DVD players, etc to watch on their sets. They want you to rent from them.
I have not found ANY hotels that haven't locked their set's inputs.
I travel with a 15" MacBook Pro and a 1 gig mini hard drive with all my ripped movies to watch movies in hotel rooms.
Should work just fine, just do an ad-hoc connection between your mac and the Atv and you should be up and running.
Actually, the newest hotels are adding complete AV input panels -- often at the desk or another convenient spot for all your gear -- that include at least one HDMI input. I've seen this in the Aloft and Element hotels from Starwood, Hyatt Place and similar. YMMV of course.
Nice! It is good to see the changes.
I was at a wedding last weekend. We stayed at the Chigaco O'Hara Westin. They had the largest set I have seen in a regular room (46") but the inputs were still locked out.
During the summer I was at the Omni William Penn in Pittsburgh, the Columbus, Ohio Westin and several lesser motels. They were all locked out.
Hopefully the changes you note will catch on to more hotels.
Does anybody have any idea if this would work if you don't have a laptop? Could this work with just an ATV2 and an iPad for example?
As has been previously brought up, so long as you can access the HDMI inputs, it should work.
I have had to open a web browser and agree to the hotel's terms and conditions. However, in most cases, I've been able to do it with one device on the airport express, and all other devices (iPhone, iPad, laptop, appleTV) have worked just fine.
Hope that helps.
I have had to open a web browser and agree to the hotel's terms and conditions. However, in most cases, I've been able to do it with one device on the airport express, and all other devices (iPhone, iPad, laptop, appleTV) have worked just fine.
Hope that helps.
AirPort Express + AppleTV2 is probably the best bet. Especially now that the AirPort Utility App allows you to manage network settings without having to depend on a computer to do that. Once you've set up your network, your AppleTV can connect to it as opposed to the hotel's. This is something I'll definitely have to try out on my next hotel stay.
True. Almost all hotels have TV's with a hotel setting to disable all inputs. They want you to be spending $19.99 for movies rather than using netflix.
If you are on the road much and hate the hotel tv lock-in, then you can go buy a $40 Harmony remote and simply unlock any of them.
http://www.gadling.com/2009/03/26/hacking-the-hotel-tv-making-the-most-out-of-being-stuck-in-you/
Access Internet with Apple TV via Hotel WiFi
Need to connect your Apple TV 2 or other devices to the Internet using wifi from a hotel that requires a login screen but alas no web browser to provide credentials? You know when you connect to your hotel’s wifi network and the first time you try to access a webpage you are redirected to an internal page asking you to present credentials such as a code provided by the front desk or the name the room is registered under and the room number. Once presented and you accept the terms your machine is registered and allowed access to the Internet.
The authentication method is usually very simple such as MAC/IP validation. When you connect to the wifi network your MAC address is fetched from the ARP table and the corresponding IP address that was assigned to you during the DHCP negotiation. When the 1st request for access to an external site hits your gateway a lookup is done to see if the MAC/IP has been authenticated if not then a redirect to the logon page is initiated. Here is where the simple non cryptic URL comes into play. It will usually look something like this:
"http://ExampleISP.com/index.adp?MacAddr=XX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX&IpAddr=10.10.2.112&continued..."
If it does you are in luck!
The construct of the URL string is done based on the IP associated with the NIC originating the request but the fetch comes from an external db and is not directly queried from the PC. In other words the webpage typically does not validate that the PC currently displaying the URL actually has that specific MAC/IP combo it is just assumed. So no MAC spoofing etc. is required
This writeup is not meant to help gain unauthorized access to the Internet or any other resources or to usurp any controls. It is assumed you have legitimate credentials and have been granted the privilege of use from the provider. Check the terms and condition to ensure you are not violating any conditions before proceeding.
Here is what is required to gain access:
1. Connect your Apple TV to the WiFi network as usual. Go to Settings>General>Network You should see a valid IP address and MAC address (WiFi Address i.e. b8:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx) Keep this info handy
2. Connect to the same WiFi network from a device with web browser functionality such as a PC/MAC/IPAD/IPHONE. Once connected open a web browser and select an external site so that you are redirected to the URL requesting credentials. Copy and Paste the URL to a text editor.
a. Note: Authentication is usually granted for extended period such as 24hrs so if you have already accessed the internet from the device you may not be presented with the URL again till said time has lapsed so you might have to check your history to obtain.
3. Obtain the MAC and IP address from the device you connected with in step 2.
a. For PC go to command line and type ipconfig /all
b. For MAC go to a terminal session and type ifconfig
c. IPAD/IPHONE go to Settings>General>About (WiFi Address)
4. Now find the pattern in the URL that you copied to your text editor that matches the MAC and IP address you obtained in step 3. Note for the MAC address you will see a “%3a” pattern between 2 characters. This is Hex for the “:” portion of the MAC address and should be left in place instead of typing a “:”. If you see a bunch of %3a strings you are probably in the correct place. Replace the two characters that are separated by the %3a with the ones you obtained from your Apple TV in step 1 For example replace the first XX with b8 and so on. There are a total of 6 two character sets in a MAC address that will need to be replaced.
XX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX where XX is the replacement
5. Replace the IP address portion of the URL with the IP address from your Apple TV (step 1)
6. Copy the modified URL back into the web browser and select enter. This in essence is allowing you to use your PC as a proxy for accepting any terms on behalf of your Apple TV. You will then provide your legitimate credentials and accept the terms and services agreement on behalf your Apple TV. Note: You must ensure your AppleTV is still actively connected to the WiFi network with the IP address in the URL prior to selecting the connect/ok/accept button if not then an error will most likely be returned from the website indicating that MAC/IP combination is not found.
Once you receive the confirmation page that access has been granted that should be it and you will be able to access Netflix etc… from your Apple TV for the duration of the validation period set forth by the provider.
Note: If afterwards you attempt to access an external site from the device utilized in step 2 you will most likely be issued the authentication url once again. This time with the actual devices MAC/IP address you will need to provide the appropriate credentials and accept the terms for it as well.
Need to connect your Apple TV 2 or other devices to the Internet using wifi from a hotel that requires a login screen but alas no web browser to provide credentials? You know when you connect to your hotel’s wifi network and the first time you try to access a webpage you are redirected to an internal page asking you to present credentials such as a code provided by the front desk or the name the room is registered under and the room number. Once presented and you accept the terms your machine is registered and allowed access to the Internet.
The authentication method is usually very simple such as MAC/IP validation. When you connect to the wifi network your MAC address is fetched from the ARP table and the corresponding IP address that was assigned to you during the DHCP negotiation. When the 1st request for access to an external site hits your gateway a lookup is done to see if the MAC/IP has been authenticated if not then a redirect to the logon page is initiated. Here is where the simple non cryptic URL comes into play. It will usually look something like this:
"http://ExampleISP.com/index.adp?MacAddr=XX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX&IpAddr=10.10.2.112&continued..."
If it does you are in luck!
The construct of the URL string is done based on the IP associated with the NIC originating the request but the fetch comes from an external db and is not directly queried from the PC. In other words the webpage typically does not validate that the PC currently displaying the URL actually has that specific MAC/IP combo it is just assumed. So no MAC spoofing etc. is required
This writeup is not meant to help gain unauthorized access to the Internet or any other resources or to usurp any controls. It is assumed you have legitimate credentials and have been granted the privilege of use from the provider. Check the terms and condition to ensure you are not violating any conditions before proceeding.
Here is what is required to gain access:
1. Connect your Apple TV to the WiFi network as usual. Go to Settings>General>Network You should see a valid IP address and MAC address (WiFi Address i.e. b8:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx) Keep this info handy
2. Connect to the same WiFi network from a device with web browser functionality such as a PC/MAC/IPAD/IPHONE. Once connected open a web browser and select an external site so that you are redirected to the URL requesting credentials. Copy and Paste the URL to a text editor.
a. Note: Authentication is usually granted for extended period such as 24hrs so if you have already accessed the internet from the device you may not be presented with the URL again till said time has lapsed so you might have to check your history to obtain.
3. Obtain the MAC and IP address from the device you connected with in step 2.
a. For PC go to command line and type ipconfig /all
b. For MAC go to a terminal session and type ifconfig
c. IPAD/IPHONE go to Settings>General>About (WiFi Address)
4. Now find the pattern in the URL that you copied to your text editor that matches the MAC and IP address you obtained in step 3. Note for the MAC address you will see a “%3a” pattern between 2 characters. This is Hex for the “:” portion of the MAC address and should be left in place instead of typing a “:”. If you see a bunch of %3a strings you are probably in the correct place. Replace the two characters that are separated by the %3a with the ones you obtained from your Apple TV in step 1 For example replace the first XX with b8 and so on. There are a total of 6 two character sets in a MAC address that will need to be replaced.
XX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX where XX is the replacement
5. Replace the IP address portion of the URL with the IP address from your Apple TV (step 1)
6. Copy the modified URL back into the web browser and select enter. This in essence is allowing you to use your PC as a proxy for accepting any terms on behalf of your Apple TV. You will then provide your legitimate credentials and accept the terms and services agreement on behalf your Apple TV. Note: You must ensure your AppleTV is still actively connected to the WiFi network with the IP address in the URL prior to selecting the connect/ok/accept button if not then an error will most likely be returned from the website indicating that MAC/IP combination is not found.
Once you receive the confirmation page that access has been granted that should be it and you will be able to access Netflix etc… from your Apple TV for the duration of the validation period set forth by the provider.
Note: If afterwards you attempt to access an external site from the device utilized in step 2 you will most likely be issued the authentication url once again. This time with the actual devices MAC/IP address you will need to provide the appropriate credentials and accept the terms for it as well.
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Op, try connectifyhttp://connectify.me
It lets you share your laptop internet wirelessly, making a hotspot. So the agreement process can be eliminated
It lets you share your laptop internet wirelessly, making a hotspot. So the agreement process can be eliminated
Going through a router did not work for me. The hotel did not allow a NAT device to connect. It has to be switched to "bridge" mode. Every device still has to accept its own terms and conditions. I have several. Maybe a different hotel would work better, but I can't get this one to play ball like I would like.
It will work for AirPlay - you can even connect to a paid hotel Wi-Fi network and use it for AirPlay - Apple TV only needs Wi-Fi - doesn't matter if its active or not - as long as both devices are on it - that will work - I recently did this at a hotel and was quite amazed.
Sadly my ad-hoc network from my Mac didn't work - Apple TV didn't see the network because it was a device or something like that
Sadly my ad-hoc network from my Mac didn't work - Apple TV didn't see the network because it was a device or something like that