Hotel fixed ethernet line in room - make wireless

MungoMan

I stay in an hotel which has a cable which i put into the ethernet port in the laptop. This gets me wired internet access.

Is there a device I can buy which will allow me to plug this cable into which will enable me use the laptop wirelessly (when sitting on the bed for example, or use my ipod touch for skype)

Would my ASDL wireless router do the job..........I think not as it has input for a telephone line, and 4 ethernet outputs (no ethernet input I think)

What I probably want is a wireless router with an ethernet input, isn't it ?


Can someone post me the a link to a device which will do the job, preferably something cheap from ebay !

qwertz

I did exactly what you are looking for this week. I used an old Eircom Netopia 3347 or (whatever the model number is).

All I had to do was disable the DHCP server. Plugged the RJ45 cable into any of the LAN ports on the Netopia. The Netopia got an IP address from the hotel LAN and we had our own WIFI access point.

Bear in mind that this might be impractical if you are travelling with carry-on luggage only but works fine if you drive to your destination.

Overheal

you can use a router. Apple Airport Express is actually gonna be a good investment too if you travel a lot, setup to do just that, and let you hook up a printer to it, or speakers if you want to stream music off the laptop. Definitely less bulky than a regular router, the whole thing is tiny and hangs right off the wall outlet:



Will work with PC.

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

MungoMan

qwertz wrote: »

I did exactly what you are looking for this week. I used an old Eircom Netopia 3347 or (whatever the model number is).

All I had to do was disable the DHCP server. Plugged the RJ45 cable into any of the LAN ports on the Netopia. The Netopia got an IP address from the hotel LAN and we had our own WIFI access point.

Bear in mind that this might be impractical if you are travelling with carry-on luggage only but works fine if you drive to your destination.

Thanks a lot.

Just wonderin, why would you need to disable the dhpc server ?
Doesn't the dhpc server apply an ip address to the laptop, i.e. something like 10.0.0.2

if you disable the dhpc server, how will the laptop get an ip address ?...you'd need to force the laptop to have a static address, would you ?

Firblog

You have to turn of the DHCP on the eircom one or it will conflict with the Hotel's router an could cause some trouble on the whole network as there would now be 2 devices handing out IP Addresses.

What you really want is a wireless access point, these are made specifically for this job, an you should be able to pick one up cheapish.

http://www.dabs.ie/products/tp-link-54mbps-wireless-access-point-77RS.html

MungoMan

Firblog wrote: »

You have to turn of the DHCP on the eircom one or it will conflict with the Hotel's router an could cause some trouble on the whole network as there would now be 2 devices handing out IP Addresses.

I thought the Hotels router would assign an ip address to my router, and the DHPC server in my router would assign an ip address to my laptop, and that there would be no conflicts.........maybe I misunderstand how it works.

qwertz

If you leave the router's DHCP server active then it will serve IP addresses to not just your laptop but also every other requesting client that contacts it.

This has been done numerous times. Do a search either here on boards or in your favourite search engine

Gadgetman496

Turn Your Windows 7 Laptop into a WiFi Hotspot with Connectify


In some computing situations, you might need to create a WiFi hotspot quickly so other wireless devices can use an Internet connection. Today we take a look at Connectify which easily turns your Windows 7 machine into an instant WiFi hotspot.


You might be at a location where there is only one Ethernet connection available (hotel room, office or meeting room etc.) and you need to share the Internet connection with other people or devices (Including Mobile Devices). Connectify is a free utility which is light on system resources and makes it easy for you to set up your Windows 7 machine as a secure WiFi hotspot.


Note: Connectify only works with Windows 7 Home and above, Starter Edition is not supported.


Connectify

Installation is quick and easy, and once complete, you can access Connectify from the icon in the Taskbar.





Under settings, type in a name for the WiFi network, a password to access it, then decide the type of internet connection you want to share. It allows LAN, VirtualBox Host-Only, Wireless Network Connection, and no Internet sharing. When you’re ready, click on the Start Hotspot button.





Now you’ll see it running and can begin connecting your other wireless computers and/or devices.





Now that Connectify is running on the Windows 7 laptop, In this example we go over to an XP laptop and connect it. Open up Wireless Networks and you’ll see the new hotspot we just created that you can connect to.





You’ll be prompted to enter in the Network Key (password) you set in Connectify twice, then click on Connect.





Wait for a moment while a network address is acquired…





Here you can see the XP machine is connected to the TechKings - Fi network we created on the Windows 7 machine.





When you go back to the Windows 7 machine you can see the device(s) connected. It also keeps track of devices that were previously connected as well.





Right click on the Connectify icon in the tray to get different options for running it.





In our tests, the signal strength and connection speed was adequate, but may be a bit slower than your used to. Results will vary based on the type of hardware you have sending and receiving the signal. Overall though, if you need to create a Hotspot in a pinch, Connectify is more than capable. If you’re looking for an easy way to share your Windows 7 wireless connection with other devices (Including Mobile Devices), and want it to be secure, Connectify get’s the job done.

Download Connectify:



Watch The Video:

-

Zimmerframe

Overheal wrote: »

you can use a router. Apple Airport Express is actually gonna be a good investment too if you travel a lot, setup to do just that, and let you hook up a printer to it, or speakers if you want to stream music off the laptop. Definitely less bulky than a regular router, the whole thing is tiny and hangs right off the wall outlet:



Will work with PC.

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

Yes, as Overheal posted, thats the perfect device for the job. Been using one for years.

MungoMan

qwertz wrote: »

If you leave the router's DHCP server active then it will serve IP addresses to not just your laptop but also every other requesting client that contacts it.

This has been done numerous times. Do a search either here on boards or in your favourite search engine

Thanks Qwertz

It worked, I disabled the dhpc server and I'm using a wireless connection now from the hotel with my old adsl wireless router.

The IP address assigned to my laptop is one from the hotel.

qwertz

MungoMan wrote: »

Thanks Qwertz

It worked, I disabled the dhpc server and I'm using a wireless connection now from the hotel with my old adsl wireless router.

The IP address assigned to my laptop is one from the hotel.

Of course it did

Glad to have been of help to you.

Filibuster

I want to do the same thing as the OP - use a hotel wired internet connection to a old vodafone router. How do I disable DHCP?? I presume its through the router settings page (192.168.1.1) and I just disable something.

After I have disabled the DHCP what happens next. Will my iPhone etc connect automatically using the old logon details or does turning off DHCP change the connection process.

yoyo

Filibuster wrote: »

I want to do the same thing as the OP - use a hotel wired internet connection to a old vodafone router. How do I disable DHCP?? I presume its through the router settings page (192.168.1.1) and I just disable something.

After I have disabled the DHCP what happens next. Will my iPhone etc connect automatically using the old logon details or does turning off DHCP change the connection process.

Its different on all modems but the dhcp settings should be under Network/LAN settings. You will probably need to login to the hotels wifi on any device you connect to it. Some systems may save the devices MAC Address, others use cookies or session variables. Hard to know what they will use

Nick

Gone Drinking

Happened in a job once.. someone from the warehouse plugged in a wireless router, it handed out 192. IPs to all the workstations on the same switch and took about 35 people offline.

Was able to get into it from one of the work stations using the default eircom password and disable the DHCP server.

Then had to use my phone to track it down by its wireless signal (this building was huge).

Never actually found it but when I walked into the warehouse and told the guys that 35 people in one office above were really pissed off, the wireless signal disappeared very quickly.