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Can an Airport Express Be Used To Allow Multiple Devices on One Hotel WiFi Charge?

A

adoland

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 18, 2008
5
0
The hotel only has wireless in the room and charges separately for each device logged in. Any suggestions in kindly appreciated in advance.
 
Only if the hotel uses an Apple router, and will let you access its settings and set up your express as an extender.

Or if theres an ethernet port in the room, you could create your own wireless network.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Depends on how they authenticate the device. If you have to open a web page and enter credentials, you might not be able to get an ip address for the router.

Ah, but if it's wireless only, I think you are out of luck.
 
r.j.s said:
Through what antenna?

I don't think they can receive on WiFi and rebroadcast a shared connection on the same Airport antenna.
Click to expand...

You are correct... I forgot that the internet sharing only works when the computer transmitting the new signal is hardwired with an ethernet cable.
 
r.j.s said:
You could try, but is it really worth it? Why not just use one device?
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I'm traveling with the wife and son which equals 3 iPhones, 2 iPads and a PC. That totals $72 / day for wifi charges at the Westin Coral Gables, so if there are any other thoughts about how to do this with a hard wire I'd love to hear it. My conversation with the manager made me feel about 1/2 inch tall so I'd love to send this one out the right end of the tube big time.
 
adoland said:
Thanks, but I'm traveling with the wife and son which equals 3 iPhones, 2 iPads and a PC. That totals $72 / day for wifi charges at the Westin Coral Gables, so if there are any other thoughts about how to do this with a hard wire I'd love to hear it. My conversation with the manager made me feel about 1/2 inch tall so I'd love to send this one out the right end of the tube big time.
Click to expand...

Really, no, there isn't a way.
 
r.j.s said:
Really, no, there isn't a way.
Click to expand...

Actually there is a way, if you can get hold of a Linksys WTR54G travel router (note, it's WTR, not WRT). This has the useful capability of being able to connect to a wireless network (provided it isn't encrypted) and at the same time create its own wireless network using the 192.168.16.xxx IP range. Unfortunately Linksys discontinued the device some years ago but you might find one on FleaBay. It's absolutely perfect for what you want to do.
 
Surely it'd require you to enter your password when a new device connects to your newly created network, kicking the previous device off?
 
Yep...as others have said, you better hope they have an in-room ethernet port.

If so, you can use an Airport Express or just your Apple laptop to get internet from that and then share it from its own self-created wifi network.

If they don't have that then I don't have any ideas with the current hardware you have.
 
Benjy91 said:
Surely it'd require you to enter your password when a new device connects to your newly created network, kicking the previous device off?
Click to expand...

No, that's the clever thing about it (I assume you're talking about the Linksys router?). You log on to the hotel network from a computer connected via the Linksys and as long as the Linksys is powered on It stays connected and you can connect as many devices (well, up to 255) as you want.
 
sjdigital said:
No, that's the clever thing about it (I assume you're talking about the Linksys router?). You log on to the hotel network from a computer connected via the Linksys and as long as the Linksys is powered on It stays connected and you can connect as many devices (well, up to 255) as you want.
Click to expand...

The OP could even resell the other 249 connections to other victims staying at the hotel!
 
Perhaps a nudge to management made progress

Mr. Doland,

Thanks for your comments regarding your recent stay here in Coral Gables. Although it is not pleasant to hear of our shortcomings I am grateful for the gift of feedback from your comments!

I understand your frustration over the Wi-fi I actually was not aware that we were charging for multiple devices in the room and of course I am putting a policy in place that one room, one charge per day moving forward. With regards to our escalator, it indeed took almost a month to have the right hand guard replaced as they are all custom produced and this made the process that much longer. Both handrails are now fixed and I don’t believe we should have issues with the escalator moving forward.

As far as the unseasonably cold weather and our lack of heat in the Hotel….we do have small heating elements in our guestrooms but even those do not put out enough BTU’s in extreme cold in some instances. The hotel public space has no heat provision but unless it’s a prolonged cold snap we tend to not feel this cool in these areas..

Once again I apologize for the issues on your stay, I would like to show you a better more refreshing stay if you allow me another opportunity.

If your travels bring you back to Gables please contact me directly and I will make your next stay a renewing one

Be Well and Happy New Year

Mike Wurster
General Manager
 
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