Would like to see this for coffee shops.
Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
141–150 of 240 posts
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#142I used to do consulting and traveled 100%. The term "High Speed Internet" is a common misnomer with Hotels, and was a bane of my existence, because it typically meant > 56k but These were with Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton hotels, mind you. If aggregaters like Hipmunk could incorporate this speed data, the way that they have with in-flight wifi, then hopefully there will be a push to improve this standard.
I thought the same thing (re: hipmunk) -- working on it!!
Hey Alexis - have you evolved completely from kn0thing these days? (Wow does that sound meta-physical. Haven't we all evolved from nothing?)
I find the whole 'real name online' discussion fascinating, and would love to hear your thoughts / experience. (Apologies if my google-fu has failed to produce any previous explanation on your part.)
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
An external ethernet dongle is more likely to break or get lost. Wasn't there a push against dongles a while ago? Are they becoming normal again? There's no VGA port either which is a necessity for me. No CD drive either. Is this thing a laptop or a big smartphone with no touch screen? No numpad either, wow.
> An external ethernet dongle is more likely to break or get lost. Sure, but it's replaceable for the cheap cost of ~$10 - 20. > There's no VGA port either which is a necessity for me. 2007 called, they want their already-deprecated video standards back. > No CD drive either. 2000 called, they want their already-deprecated media storage standards back. >Is this thing a laptop or a big smartphone with no touch screen?…
Personally I think its absolutely ridiculous I paid $3000 for my Mac Book pro and I don't have a numpad with crucial keys like home, end, page up and down because they wanted the the track pad in the center. My old vaio laptop that was the same size fit the numpad just fine. I ended up buying having to buy one just because I was much slower at programming without it.
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#144One thing that I noticed, is that the more expensive the hotel, the worst is the WiFI. Same applies when I have to pay for WiFI - the more I pay, the worst it is. I've found that 3 star hotels that offer free WiFI usually have the best speeds/service. Whereas 5 star hotels that usually charge $14.95 daily have the worst.
If you're an employee travelling on business, your company might have a per-night budget for hotel accommodation. If your budget is $150, then you can't stay in a $160 hotel. You _can_ probably stay in a $150 hotel which charges $15/night for internet access. You'll expense the hotel (within the budget) and expense the internet access fee (reasonable expense whilst travelling).
The hotel gets an additional customer. The employee gets to stay at a slightly more expensive place than the official budget allows. The employer loses.
I'm ignoring the speed/latency/packet-loss etc., of course.
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can corroborate this. I did a network setup at a B&B that hadn't had any wi-fi since the place got internet. We bumped up their ISP plan to proper business class and got an upgraded router to boot. I ran wire from it to each floor via existing conduit and set up APs. No middle-man slave master for internet and certainly anyone else can service the setup after I was done. No other contract except their ISP. Everyone…
Hey EJR, I am new to HN so not sure how to message you outside this thread. Do you have any links that could point me in the direction to do some of my own network setup at home? I'm just a beginner but would love to start learning and fix some stuff
Also, HN doesn't have a private messaging feature. If users don't put their email in the free-text field on their profile, there's no way to get in touch with them privately.
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#146One thing that I noticed, is that the more expensive the hotel, the worst is the WiFI. Same applies when I have to pay for WiFI - the more I pay, the worst it is. I've found that 3 star hotels that offer free WiFI usually have the best speeds/service. Whereas 5 star hotels that usually charge $14.95 daily have the worst.
Last time I was in San Jose, I was surprised by how terrible the WiFi was at the hotel I stayed at. You could tell most of the guests were programmers, yet I could barely get 96k. And I specifically asked for a room close to the router. I guess maybe the boom in Silicon Valley means hotels can fill rooms without having competitive WiFi?
So true... I've stayed at the fairmont in SF and San Jose, both of which charge $15 for slow internet (unless you opt for the club where they usually bill you anyway and use your information to bombard you with ads). They even charge for the crap gym haha. I tend to steer clear now
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#147One thing that I noticed, is that the more expensive the hotel, the worst is the WiFI. Same applies when I have to pay for WiFI - the more I pay, the worst it is. I've found that 3 star hotels that offer free WiFI usually have the best speeds/service. Whereas 5 star hotels that usually charge $14.95 daily have the worst.
Same experience. I can't believe that such high quality hotels have such low standards for internauts. Every time my company schedules a stay in such hotels, I happily downgrade my stay to somewhere else.
Hotel chains are in a far worse situation: I stayed twice in a Novotel and I had to pay for a crap wifi, I'll never cross their path again.
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know you're just joking, but the thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter I bought years ago has been worth it's weight in gold at hotels with slow wifi and fast wired.
Other things that have been worth their weight in gold while traveling: my thinkpad with built-in ethernet AND vga!
but it dont have a punchcard reader!
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was once in a Marriott that gave free Wi-Fi to Apple devices and charged all other devices. I didn't know about the Apple deal till a colleague on the same trip told me he was getting it free on his Macbook Pro. Needless to say, I spoofed my MAC address and User Agent and got it free as well. Not sure which one it was actually checking, but probably the latter. Anyway, something to be aware of.
Good tip but is it sensible to admit to several criminal offences on a public forum?
Oh DanBC, your comments never disappoint.
Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey EJR, I am new to HN so not sure how to message you outside this thread. Do you have any links that could point me in the direction to do some of my own network setup at home? I'm just a beginner but would love to start learning and fix some stuff
Also, HN doesn't have a private messaging feature. If users don't put their email in the free-text field on their profile, there's no way to get in touch with them privately.
He probably also doesn't know that he isn't getting any 'notifications' for reply on his comments and most probably he's not going to see this either :D