2 ms·

What do you typically hook the router up to when traveling?

sowbug 3y ago
Not the person you are replying to. It's not unusual to find a working RJ45 in a hotel room, and as a bonus they often don't have a captive portal. Otherwise you can usually set up a router to bridge one WiFi network to another. Sometimes the captive portal screen just works on your computer that you're connecting to your own router. Other times you can sign in while connected to the hotel WiFi, and then clone your machine's MAC address so the network thinks the router has already signed in. My favorite hack is bridging a congested hotel 2.4GHz network to my own personal 5.8GHz network, which benefits everyone if you are a family about to light up 5-10 more devices. The WiFi-to-WiFi bridge isn't always very efficient, especially if the router has to multiplex the two connections using a single antenna, but speed isn't always the top concern.
- litoE 3y ago
  > My favorite hack is bridging a congested hotel 2.4GHz network to my own personal 5.8GHz network, which benefits everyone if you are a family about to light up 5-10 more devices. I do the same thing. It's failed only once: the /24 address space in my "internal" network was the same as the /24 used by the hotel's network and I didn't think to chrck. I brought down the hotel's router.
  - kortilla 3y ago
    This is a misconfiguration. Your private address space should not leak at all towards the hotel router side. If it brought down the hotel router it sounds like you had some kind of loop between the “private LAN” and the “WAN”. Depending on if the NAT configuration in the router is fully correct, it should even fully work if both are the same.
Brajeshwar 3y ago
1. Wired Ethernet Cable (RJ45). Almost all hotels have it. If you cannot find one, ask for it or ask right at the reception to give you a room with it. If on extended stays (Airbnb, Service Apartments), I plug one into the primary router to have my Wi-Fi. It is rare not to get one way or another to set this up. Carry one of those thin but lengthy RJ45s (such as the ones from Monoprice or Ubiquiti) with your router. They will fit well in your tech pouch. 2. Connect to the Wi-Fi, but run your own DHCP in the router to distribute your IPs to your devices. References; - https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=44504 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=44504 - https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/accessories-cables-dacs/products/unifi-ethernet-patch-cable-with-bendable-booted-rj45?variant=U-Cable-Patch-8M-RJ45-BK https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/accessories-cables-d...
al_borland 3y ago
Several years back I was staying at a hotel than made me re-authenticate through their portal (enter my name, room number, etc) every time I unlocked my phone. I happened to have an AirPort Express with me. I plugged that in, authenticated once, connected to my new WiFi network instead of the hotel WiFi, and was good for the rest of my trip. Using cellular internet wasn’t a great option at the time/location, so I was really happy I had the little pocket router with me.

Not the person you are replying to. It's not unusual to find a working RJ45 in a hotel room, and as a bonus they often don't have a captive portal. Otherwise you can usually set up a router to bridge one WiFi network to another. Sometimes the captive portal screen just works on your computer that you're connecting to your own router. Other times you can sign in while connected to the hotel WiFi, and then clone your machine's MAC address so the network thinks the router has already signed in. My favorite hack is bridging a congested hotel 2.4GHz network to my own personal 5.8GHz network, which benefits everyone if you are a family about to light up 5-10 more devices. The WiFi-to-WiFi bridge isn't always very efficient, especially if the router has to multiplex the two connections using a single antenna, but speed isn't always the top concern.

litoE 3y ago
> My favorite hack is bridging a congested hotel 2.4GHz network to my own personal 5.8GHz network, which benefits everyone if you are a family about to light up 5-10 more devices. I do the same thing. It's failed only once: the /24 address space in my "internal" network was the same as the /24 used by the hotel's network and I didn't think to chrck. I brought down the hotel's router.
- kortilla 3y ago
  This is a misconfiguration. Your private address space should not leak at all towards the hotel router side. If it brought down the hotel router it sounds like you had some kind of loop between the “private LAN” and the “WAN”. Depending on if the NAT configuration in the router is fully correct, it should even fully work if both are the same.

Brajeshwar 3y ago

1. Wired Ethernet Cable (RJ45). Almost all hotels have it. If you cannot find one, ask for it or ask right at the reception to give you a room with it. If on extended stays (Airbnb, Service Apartments), I plug one into the primary router to have my Wi-Fi. It is rare not to get one way or another to set this up. Carry one of those thin but lengthy RJ45s (such as the ones from Monoprice or Ubiquiti) with your router. They will fit well in your tech pouch. 2. Connect to the Wi-Fi, but run your own DHCP in the router to distribute your IPs to your devices. References; - https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=44504 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=44504 - https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/accessories-cables-dacs/products/unifi-ethernet-patch-cable-with-bendable-booted-rj45?variant=U-Cable-Patch-8M-RJ45-BK https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/accessories-cables-d...

al_borland 3y ago

Several years back I was staying at a hotel than made me re-authenticate through their portal (enter my name, room number, etc) every time I unlocked my phone. I happened to have an AirPort Express with me. I plugged that in, authenticated once, connected to my new WiFi network instead of the hotel WiFi, and was good for the rest of my trip. Using cellular internet wasn’t a great option at the time/location, so I was really happy I had the little pocket router with me.