Comments on: Apple Airport Express: A WiFi Hotel Room Network.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:34:04 +0000

Michael,

Yes, that’s what I was trying to say. My access point at home is a Time Capsule. The AE is setup in my house with a default configuration as just another network device. It serves in no way as an access point.

Therefore, in the hotel room it was essentially “lost” until I plugged it directly into the MacBook and reconfigured it as an access point.

I set it up a few days ago with profiles for ‘Home’ (AirTunes only) and ‘Remote’ (bridge). I don’t travel often, so it’ll be a while before I use the Remote profile, but at least I’m ready.

Still, I’ll have to remember to switch to the Remote profile before I leave the house (i.e., while I have access to the device on my home network), or I’ll still need to plug it directly into the MacBook before I can select it.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:24:27 +0000

Hey Tom,

I think (Sam | Bogie | Rus) ’s comments were based on the fact that they use their AirPort Express as their Wirelesss Access Point at home, as I do. Since that’s the case, it’s not (as you say) “just another device” on *their* networks like it is on yours. I’m assuming that you have an AirPort Extreme (be it one of the newer “draft-n” models or not) that you use as your actual AP, and the Express is just for streaming AirTunes, or whatever, right? With the AirPort Utility, you can set up mulltiple profiles (on the AirPort Express itself, not just on your MacBook), so you don’t have to go through the config process again. Just set one up like you did for “Disney,” call it “Hotel” or something, and then you have that set up to run at hotels as your main AP from their eternet connection, and you have your bridge for AirTunes (just another network device) at home. Are you sufficiently confused now? Good. Glad to help, hehe. Seriously, I hope what I said was at least intelligible, even if it doesn’t help you personally. Maybe it will help someone else.

Michael

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:16:14 +0000

Rus,

$9.95 per 24 hours. That’s what I agreed to. In fact, I had to agree to this every 24 hours. I’ll check my final Amex bill and see if it was charged or not.

As for the other comments…

Sam,

You have your AE already configured as a Bridge at home, I do not. That would have saved me step #2, and so #1 would likely have not been necessary either.

Bogie,

You say you just plug the AE into Ethernet and have the laptop “find” the Express. How does it find it? My AE is setup to join a ‘Home’ network and simply stream music. It neither extends nor bridges that network — in fact it’s just another device on it. In the hotel room the ‘Home’ network is gone, so wirelessly my laptop didn’t see it at all. That’s why I connected the laptop to the AE: To create a wireless network with it (called ‘Disney’) they could communicate on.

If I’m missing something, by all means clue me in and I’ll try it next time. However, until I plugged the AE directly into my laptop and created ‘Disney’, the laptop could not find it wirelessly. This didn’t surprise me because normally my AE is totally dependent upon ‘Home’, which obviously wasn’t available.

By: Rus

Rus — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:40:43 +0000

Tom,

I ALWAYS base my hotel stays on free wifi access … I’ve stayed on Disney property several times and never heard of a charge for wifi access.

I believe you went to extremes with your extremes when it would have been much easier following what Sam and Bogie said here. The ethernet/wifi connection should automatically take you to the login page. If you are worried about security just hide your SSID. An airport express can also repeat a free wifi signal and add a firewall.

Furthermore, did you see my way to get 3G on an iPhone? It has the added benefit of giving you 3G for your laptop, therefore you don’t have to worry about hotel networks. Orlando has awesome 3G speed.

By: Bogie

Bogie — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:04:21 +0000

Your method sounds pretty complicated. I just plug the ethernet into the Express, have my laptop find the Express, so we’re communicating. Then I just open up a browser window on my laptop, and the hotel sends me to their payment page. Takes about 30 seconds to get to the payment page. This is basically what Sam said above.

By: James Bailey

James Bailey — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:56:54 +0000

Don’t forget you can create profiles. Make a profile for your normal home use. Then when you get back from a trip, you can just click the profiles drop down to be back to normal. A 20 second operation.

By: Leland

Leland — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:47:09 +0000

When I bought my Express three (or was it four?) years ago, it was specifically because I was stuck in a hotel for a few extra days.

It should go in every laptop bag, right next to the power adapter. I’ve been going wireless since 1999, and I don’t want to be tethered again.

By: SuperMatt

SuperMatt — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:07:24 +0000

I used to do the same thing with my express. The last TDY I did though, all the hotels for the 2 weeks had free Wi-Fi, so I didn’t need to bring it along at all. I should mention that it was also good for setting up an ad-hoc network if we wanted to play lan games in a place without wi-fi.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:58:38 +0000

I use my Express for exactly the same thing. Since I use it as a bridge at home, too, for me I just plug it into the Ethernet at the hotel and do the “I agree” web page right over the wireless connection. It works great, and it lets me use my iTouch in the hotel as well.