[X4U] connecting to hotel wireless network

[Jim Warthman]

I just got back from a trip, and had a similar experience in the hotel.

For me, the solution was to go into the Network control panel, and create a
new location, with only Airport checked under "Port Configurations".  (The
new "location" has the advantage that he can just switch back to "Home" or
whatever location later, and know that he hasn't modified it for the hotel.

Then, in the TCP tab, I set Configure IPv4 for "Using DHCP". Last but not
least, I had to provide addresses to my DNS Servers, because for some reason
the hotel's DHCP server did not. Your Father can probably use the same DNS
Server addresses that work for him at home - they don't need to be specific
to the hotel.

After getting all the settings right, and "applying them", I needed to turn
Airport off then on, which I could do from the Airport control in the menu
bar.

Perhaps most important, I needed to open a new web page in order to get the
hotel's "login screen" to display. I didn't need to provide any username or
password, just agree to their terms. Then, voila, I was online!

Hope this helps.

Enjoy!

-- Jim


On 2005-08-28 8:04 AM, "Samantha Cornell" <samantha at netresults.biz> wrote:

> My father has called, from the road, and is having problems
> connecting to wireless networks at hotels.  He is running 10.2 on a
> G4 iBook with an airport card.  They regularly use the airport card
> at home, so I doubt that is the problem.
> 
> He is able to select the network in the airport menu, and it shows a
> strong signal, but Safari is unable to resolve any URLs.  I did have
> him change his location to "automatic" in his network preferences (it
> had been set to Comcast), but it did not help.
> 
> I'm stuck here, and he's frustrated.  I know that Comcast configured
> the iBook for their network, and I'm wondering if they would have set
> it up in a way that somehow makes this difficult.
> 
> I would greatly appreciate any pointers.  They've had alot of
> problems with this Ibook lately, and are threatening to go back to
> Dell (ugh...)  They have had to send it in twice in the past month
> for logic board replacements, and the second time Apple forgot to put
> the batter back in, and then took two weeks to ship the battery.  I
> would love to help them get online on the road with this, I want them
> to have a good experience.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Samantha
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