Dachshund? Gesundheit!
Das echo?
Allergies & sneezing a lot
I have an allergy to cats and dogs so I can relate.
I just returned from a week long trip. Encountered something different at the last hotel in Saratoga, New York. In order to access the free wifi I had to either join the Choice Awards program (free but who wants to do all of that for one night in a hotel) or listen to a 12 minute advertisement.
Never saw that before.
My cell phone has unlimited data so I could have used the hotspot for my kindle but I just listened to the ad.
It also would not let me access the wifi on my cell phone for some reason but I was tired and did not research the situation.
It was possible they only allowed so many devices to access per room which I have seen before.
I would have just used my phone; 12 mins is waaaaay to long!
There is no feasible way to discriminate per room, unless each room had its own wireless access point (which is unlikely as that would be a massive waste of money) or they gave every guest a unique login ID (which is also unlikely because I’m not sure how you’d even do that for a WAP).
In all likelihood, it’s probably just that your phone and your Kindle are different devices with different ways to connect to WiFi, and one was able to connect better than the other could to whatever system they use for authenticating guests. Having supported guest WiFi at my agency for many years, I see that issue all the time. Some devices will connect smoothly, some are a pain in the ass, and some just won’t work.
I have seen that in hotels. It’s rare, but I have seen it.
Thinking about it more thoroughly, I have seen systems where there is an SSID broadcast for (not from) each room. And you were given a password at the front desk that only worked on that one SSID.
Did that mean one WAP per room? Or did they have one in the hallway that supported multiple rooms on multiple SSIDs (RF channels?).
I don’t know enough about modern Wi-Fi gear to say.
Theoretically you could potentially do it either way, I suppose. But what a massive pain in the ass to administer. Seems like a huge waste of time and money to me.
Oops! I still have travel brain fog - I meant 12 seconds lol!
I like to read my kindle at night before falling asleep and it is easier to hold.
It’s been awhile since I encountered the device limitation per room. It seems the last time may have been at least 7 years ago. It was definitely annoying.
My traveling companion would have 2 devices and I would have 2 devices and the limit was sometimes three so I would just not use one of them or we would alternate.
Many hotel WiFis appear to be free now without any need to log in. But there are still some that demand passwords to access - typically the last name of the person purchasing the room and room number. Or they will give you a log in password at registration.
This trip 2 out of the 3 hotels demanded passwords. The first one in Mystic, Connecticut did not need a log in protocol.
Air B&Bs are a little different but equally frustrating at times.
Stayed in one a couple months ago in West Virginia and the owner was from Australia so it took awhile to get the WiFi password by text lol. Not long - about 45 minutes or an hour. It was apparently forgotten during the registration.
The little cottage in the forests of West Virginia was excellent but I couldn’t understand all the pictures of kangaroos on the walls until the Australia connection was revealed.
Watch the 15-30 second ad to get free wifi is extremely common in public places. I’ve not seen it in hotel rooms but I have seen it in the lobby / meeting room areas. And of course airports, shopping malls, etc.
But the underlying idea of using the advert as a small stick so you’ll go instead for the easy carrot of no ad, but along the way they harvest your email is very, very common.
IME Joe/Jane Blow and Q@w.e works on many of those kinds of barricade pages. If not, try Q@wer.com. Hey, does anyone know an email address for the occupant of the white house? 
I honestly don’t know, there could be so many of them
- a-hole(at)us(dot)gov
- Imincharge(at)king(dot)me
- swampthing(at)wheresthedrain(dot)com
Thank you for that information. It was probably a device issue and I just did not have the energy to explore at the time.
Trust me, I hear you. It can be a real pain in the ass, and then you might spend a lot of time and just not have it work. You can turn the WiFi connection on and off, reset the device, turn airplane mode on and off, try to figure out what the URL of the agreement page is (usually a bare IP address link) and try to manually navigate in a browser (and try multiple browsers), and so on. And still not find anything that connects properly.
I have done a lot of what you mention at different times and it takes up so much time and energy.
I guess if I were going to be somewhere for an extended stay I would definitely proceed with the list of options.
Thanks for the URL in a separate browser suggestion - that is one I have never tried!
You’re welcome. Sometimes if you get one device to work it will show the address at the top of the page, and you can try it on another device that’s not finding it. And getting to it manually might allow that device to authenticate and then use the WiFi.
There are a lot of qualifiers in that previous statement because it is so iffy and far from guaranteed to work.
I have been fairly fluent with technology through the years but lately it seems that every device and website has developed different methods of access and it’s become frustrating.
I have to unlearn and learn far too often.
I foresee me becoming a frazzled Luddite in my older years lol!
Try supporting a system when you have a BYOD policy.
I’ve never been an alcoholic but I’ve had jobs that have tried to make me one.
Oh my I can just imagine.
I am always thankful I have our IT department to assist when my work equipment has issues - which is frequent these days.
They have even eliminated routine guest WiFi at my office and the method to get guest access is complicated.
I have a separate mini laptop to take home for work at home if I want to do that but just can’t muster up the energy to go through the protocol. And by now i have likely forgotten everything I was told months ago. 