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Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

hotelwifitest.com

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Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#151

Post by lawnchair_larry »

dheera wrote: post #86
danielpal wrote: post #52

One 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.

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.

Don't let Stephen Heymann or Carmen Ortiz catch you doing that. They indicted Gary Host on some pretty serious charges for this.

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#152

Post by GordeHead »

Well, the quality of service here is actually non-existent seeing as how the entire WiFi protocol is still vulnerable to interception, interruption within milliseconds.

So, the word "quality" wouldn't necessarily be the word to identify the current capabilities of any wireless network using the standard protocol suite available to the user today.

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#153

Post by callum85 »

serf wrote: post #138
zevyoura wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize this is a joke, but if it's a reference to Apple laptops, it's worth noting that an ethernet plug literally will not fit on recent models of the Macbook Pro or Air; they're simply too narrow. I'd much prefer a narrower portable to an ethernet port; when I need one I'm happy to use a dongle.

it's not that it's too thick, it's that it minimizes the opportunity for Company X to sell me a whiz-bang conversion adapter at top dollar for increased revenue and brand lock-in (Oh, well I already have the Brand X conversion adapters, I guess i'll continue buying Brand X as a cost saving measure.)

I'm pretty sure people prefer thin laptops because they're lighter and less clunky and easier to slip into a bag etc. Not everything is a corporate conspiracy for lock-in and adapter sales.

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#154

Post by yxhuvud »

jusben1369 wrote: post #101

With the increasing amount of bandwidth (in US plans anyways) I wonder if the days of hotel WiFI is short lived anyways. We'll all be hotspotting it soon if we aren't already. Maybe if you are staying somewhere longer than a week and doing a lot of work in your room....but that seems like a small subset.

Hotspot is very nice when possible, but you really don't want to do it when traveling internationally.

Paying $10 to use the internet would be fine, but paying that much for a 20MB quota makes it a nonstarter.

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#155

Post by lclarkmichalek »

kika wrote: post #137
cynicalkane wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whereas it's obviously silly to suppose that gaining access to Wi-Fi is a criminal act worth worrying about, it's also worth pointing out courts reject arguments like this. In particular, in more serious legal matters, the fact that you admitted you understood the intent of the policy would be held against you. Courts simply don't buy into the idea that "if something is technically allowed, it's authorized", any more…

What about, say, Safari browser itself, which presents "Gecko" in it's useragent string? If it is a punishable offence, imagine how much money one can extract from Apple for doing so...

Did you even read the comment you are replying to? Intent matters.

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#156

Post by callum85 »

Larrikin wrote: post #143
konspence wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yes it's ridiculous you paid that much if those features are crucial to you. You're very wrong if you think those features are crucial to everyone. I definitely want the track pad in the middle more than having page up/down etc.

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#157

Post by callum85 »

konspence wrote: post #136
jimmaswell wrote: post #132

Earlier 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?…

Beautifully said

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#158

Post by antocv »

terhechte wrote: post #75
danielpal wrote: post #52

One 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.

Oftentimes, the reason for this is that those hotels were particularly early in offering their guests internet access but then bought into a draconian external service provider with awful service, high fees, very long contract duration, and slow speed. Usually, when I'm in an expensive hotel with awful (paid) internet, I speak up and they explain this to me. The last hotel where that happened explained to me that man…

What is stopping them from offering a parallel much faster WiFi?

They dont have to break their contract - pay the "external service provider" their fees, and still have money left over to pay for a real service - fast and non-shitty WiFi.

When it comes to 4 or 5 star hotels, I am surprised by this bullshit.

What they are in effect saying to you is "we made a bad business deal and it costs us too much", to which I replied -in a similar situation, 4 star hotel with 1992 wifi (yes it didnt exist at the time so shitty was it) -- "I must have made a bad trade myself, to pay for stay with wifi when the wifi in fact imaginary, good day" and never went to that hotel again, found a 3 star later on with 100mbps and uncongested wifi.

Its not like paying for good WiFi will bankrupt them.

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#159

Post by peteretep »

wtallis wrote: post #115
DanBC wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good tip but is it sensible to admit to several criminal offences on a public forum?

Literally every browser out there sends a user agent that is in some way lying. Anyone trying to authenticate based on a user agent is a victim only of their own stupidity, not any sort of crime by their guests.

Good thing you're not a lawyer, because it's certainly illegal in the UK...

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18

Re: Choose hotels by the quality of their WiFi

#160

Post by paines »

This is heavily dependend on your hardware. In June I visited Australia, and technically speaking it was a nightmare using an iPhone5 (Greyhound Buses worked 80% of the time, Hostels like 30%). All Android users had a much better Wifi experience. Now back here in Berlin I see the same trend. I started a new job and I am staying each week in a different hotel. I just got an Nexus 5, and when I compare it next to my iPhone 5 in the same place, most of the time Android can connect to the Wifi, why the iPhone5 can't. Speed of course is a complete different story. I am wondering if this is an iPhone5 or iOS issue in general.
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