Wifi in, wifi out....
February 6, 2010 7:18 AM Subscribe
Hotel/Hotspot wifi question: Is it possible to share the same connection on many devices? say my laptop/ipod/SIP phone without paying incrementally for each device?
As the number of devices has multiplied I find it very expensive to pay for internet per device. If there is regular ethernet I can just plug in my travel router but in hotels where there is wifi I am stuck.
The options could be
1. to log in using my laptop and somehow pipe the internet to the ethernet port and plug a hub or wireless router. Is it possible to do in Vista.
2. maybe there is a router which logs wirelessly into the hotspot (allows me to enter login details somehow) and then give me an ethernet port.
Would love to hear your personal experiences and recommendations.
Devices like mifi etc are not an option as international roaming costs are prohibitive.
As the number of devices has multiplied I find it very expensive to pay for internet per device. If there is regular ethernet I can just plug in my travel router but in hotels where there is wifi I am stuck.
The options could be
1. to log in using my laptop and somehow pipe the internet to the ethernet port and plug a hub or wireless router. Is it possible to do in Vista.
2. maybe there is a router which logs wirelessly into the hotspot (allows me to enter login details somehow) and then give me an ethernet port.
Would love to hear your personal experiences and recommendations.
Devices like mifi etc are not an option as international roaming costs are prohibitive.
What odinsdream is describing is a little roundabout, but it should work. Unfortunately you can't take an upstream wifi signal and directly share it downstream over wifi (barring some specialized hardware).
posted by adamrice at 8:47 AM on February 6, 2010
posted by adamrice at 8:47 AM on February 6, 2010
dd-wrt can do it using a single radio. you might look for the smallest device capable of running dd-wrt. alternatively, if you are a linux user, you could see what mojo dd-wrt does and replicate that.
posted by rbs at 9:15 AM on February 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by rbs at 9:15 AM on February 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
What you want is a MiFi device connected to your cell plan.
Although I guess if you had a cellular data plan already, this wouldn't be an issue, since your PDA and your laptop could each connect over GSM/3G.
But yeah, no passing through a wifi signal directly.
posted by fourcheesemac at 9:17 AM on February 6, 2010
Although I guess if you had a cellular data plan already, this wouldn't be an issue, since your PDA and your laptop could each connect over GSM/3G.
But yeah, no passing through a wifi signal directly.
posted by fourcheesemac at 9:17 AM on February 6, 2010
Computers do this already. On windows its called internet connection sharing or ics.I am not sure what its called on a mac but i am pretty sure they can do it to.
posted by majortom1981 at 10:20 AM on February 6, 2010
posted by majortom1981 at 10:20 AM on February 6, 2010
A relatively simple method would be two Airport Express's. One connects to the hotel wifi and shares it out via the wired connectin. The second takes the wired connection in and shares it out over wifi.
posted by fief at 12:44 PM on February 6, 2010
posted by fief at 12:44 PM on February 6, 2010
Ah, I just saw you said MiFi was not an option. Apologies.
posted by fourcheesemac at 1:50 PM on February 6, 2010
posted by fourcheesemac at 1:50 PM on February 6, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
For windows I have used the program connectify to do exactly what you are referring to in hotel hotspots.
I found that it worked best when my laptop was hooked up to the internet via an ethernet cable and was able to pipe out/in the internet via wifi.
Good luck!
posted by alhadro at 8:33 AM on February 6, 2010