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HomePod PISSED about HomePod

A MacBook lover

A MacBook lover

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Original poster
May 22, 2009
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Just got my HomePod yesterday and was super excited! It sounded amazing and really did rock my house. The quality was excellent and I LOVED the bass it produced.

I was so excited that I decided to pack in my luggage for my 13 day trip to daytona. I couldn’t wait to get to my hotel every night and jam out as if I was at the club.

Unfortunately, when I got to my hotel my HomePod would not connect to the WiFi network of the hotel even though my other devices were connected.

Then I saw this

*HomePod doesn't support public or subscription networks with sign-in requirements or enterprise-style deployments.
Click to expand...

This made me livid. I wasted space and time packing the HomePod and it won’t even work at all on public WiFi.

Is there ANY workaround guys??

Love the HomePod but these stupid restrictions have me leaning to returning it before the 14-day window.
 
I'm guessing the reason for this is your hotel requires you to access a certain page and agree to their terms and/or sign in when you first connect a device. Since the HomePod does not have a web browser, it is unable to access that page and allow you to perform the navigation steps required to access the network.

Like @DesterWallaboo said, using your phone's personal hotspot is probably going to be your best bet for getting that sort of device working in that sort of situation.
 
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Shadow Jolteon said:
I'm guessing the reason for this is your hotel requires you to access a certain page and agree to their terms and/or sign in when you first connect a device. Since the HomePod does not have a web browser, it is unable to access that page and allow you to perform the navigation steps required to access the network.

Like @DesterWallaboo said, using your phone's personal hotspot is probably going to be your best bet for getting that sort of device working in that sort of situation.
Click to expand...

This ^^^

And I have found hotel WiFi to be quite finicky at times even with sign ins completed

This is a limitation/restriction imposed by the hotel and not an issue with the HomePod itself
It works and functions as it should
 
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Amacfa said:
Just got my HomePod yesterday and was super excited! It sounded amazing and really did rock my house. The quality was excellent and I LOVED the bass it produced.

I was so excited that I decided to pack in my luggage for my 13 day trip to daytona. I couldn’t wait to get to my hotel every night and jam out as if I was at the club.

Unfortunately, when I got to my hotel my HomePod would not connect to the WiFi network of the hotel even though my other devices were connected.

Then I saw this



This made me livid. I wasted space and time packing the HomePod and it won’t even work at all on public WiFi.

Is there ANY workaround guys??

Love the HomePod but these stupid restrictions have me leaning to returning it before the 14-day window.
Click to expand...
Wait, you're pissed because you think a hotel wifi network would somehow operate like your home wifi? That's not an Apple problem.
 
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It is for exactly the same reason that your Apple Watch (if you have one) also can't connect to these same networks!
 
Thanks to those who actually gave me solutions, I’ll try them when I get back to the hotel.

I paid for a speaker, it’s so silly that a speaker requires WIFI to even be allowed to play music.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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MacDawg said:
This is a limitation/restriction imposed by the hotel and not an issue with the HomePod itself
Click to expand...
This isn't strictly true. As with the Apple Watch, HomePod gets WiFi network settings from the iPhone it's paired with, but only when the WiFi network is completely open or protected with a key/password e.g. WEP/WPA. As soon as you need to login into/authenticate yourself on the WiFi network the Apple Watch/HomeKit are left out in the cold, because the iPhone can't transfer that information.

Our corporate WiFi network is like this, I can log into it from my iOS/MacOS devices, but my Apple Watch can't connect.
 
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richard371 said:
Turn in hotspot on your iPhone and connect that way. I did it at work
Click to expand...
This didn’t work. You can’t connect to the WiFi hotspot if your own device is making the hotspot. Also you can’t pair HomePod with a MacBook.

Do I really have to drive to Best Buy to buy a WiFi repeater just to get my stupid ass speaker to play music? Jesus.
[doublepost=1520463044][/doublepost]Some people have suggested using peer to peer airplay. But this only works if it has already been set up.

I may drive somewhere to do the initial setup on an open network, then enable peer to peer, and drive back to hotel to test it out.
 
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Amacfa said:
Just got my HomePod yesterday and was super excited! It sounded amazing and really did rock my house. The quality was excellent and I LOVED the bass it produced.

I was so excited that I decided to pack in my luggage for my 13 day trip to daytona. I couldn’t wait to get to my hotel every night and jam out as if I was at the club.

Unfortunately, when I got to my hotel my HomePod would not connect to the WiFi network of the hotel even though my other devices were connected.

Then I saw this



This made me livid. I wasted space and time packing the HomePod and it won’t even work at all on public WiFi.

Is there ANY workaround guys??

Love the HomePod but these stupid restrictions have me leaning to returning it before the 14-day window.
Click to expand...
It is called the HomePod, so I was always under the assumption that it is strictly designed for the home and not for travel. With that being said, if you knew the MAC address, a quick phone call to your hotel concierge could get you to the internet support folks that can just add it into their trusted device list for your stay. I've done this with an Apple TV all over the world.
 
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Amacfa said:
Do I really have to drive to Best Buy to buy a WiFi repeater just to get my stupid ass speaker to play music? Jesus.
Click to expand...

That won't work either, because the repeater won't be able to connect to your hotel Wifi for the same reason. One of the reasons hotels use captive portals is to prevent this very thing - they want only computers, tablets, and smartphones (stuff with real web browsers) using the wifi, and they don't want people using the hotel wifi for dozens of smart devices.

If you're going to drive to a Best Buy, you should instead buy a bluetooth speaker. I'm not a fan of bluetooth speakers in general, but they are the best way to listening to music while traveling, or when away from a power plug. If you like bass, Apple even makes a pretty good one for you: Beats Pill+.
[doublepost=1520464035][/doublepost]
chabig said:
An Airport Express could offer a good solution to this problem.
Click to expand...

No, Airport Express can't connect to networks behind a captive portal either. The only way to connect to these networks is (a) with a proper web browser, or (b) get your mac address added manually by IT.
 
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Buerkletucson said:
If you don't get my point, I can't help you.......

Use a product outside the scope it was intended then call it a POS is just plain stupid......
....and if you impulse buy without researching a product first, you have no one to blame but yourself.
Click to expand...

I don't think there has been much publicity regarding intended usage. Only way we can find out the limitations or practical use of anything is from experiences like this. Automatically coming to the defense of Apple, and making ridiculous analogies to prove a protectionist point really adds nothing.

I think the thread starter genuinely did not know the limitations of an "intended use" speaker. He even thanked those who "contributed" to solving his issue. Sometimes the best response is not criticism or sarcasm.
 
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