Question about data ports in hotels

Factual Questions
1

I see hotels now offer data ports for business traverlers to hook up their laptops. Does anybody here know if those ports are direct internet connections or are they just dial tone?

I’ve already called two of the hotels in the area I’ll be staying and the person who answered the phone was having trouble holding up his end of the conversation like so:

Me: Is the data port already configured for internet access?

Him: Well, ya got’s to have a computer.

Me: Yes I have a computer, but I don’t have an ISP local to your fine community. Is the data port internet-ready or do I need to dial in to a local ISP?

Him: We got these plugs where ya can plug in your computer and then just like that, right there is the internet.

Me: So I don’t need to dial in to an internet provider?

Him: Well we got phones already in the room if ya’s wants to dial anywhere’s.

Me: No, I’m talking about the data port for internet access- do I–

Him: Oh yeah we got those right next to the phones. Ya just plug in yer computer and there’s the internet right there.

… and so on.

So does anybody know the technical details behind these data ports in hotel rooms?

2

My guess is they are likely Ethernet ports.

So you’ll need an Ethernet card for your laptop, if you don’t have one built in.

3

They are dial up ports, often on the same line as the room phone so you can’t use both at the same time, and you do need an ISP. When I travel on business I have to download a list of local access numbers for wherever I’m staying so that I can dial in to the company ISP.

4

Phones in most hotels (and most offices) are different from the phones in your home. The internal phone networks in these locations are different from the standard phone network, with different voltages and uses on the lines. Your modem will not work if you plug it directly into the jack on the wall. In fact, you will very probably damage your modem and/or your computer.

The “data port” on the side of the phone is simply a place where you can safely plug in your modem. Other than that, it is the same as a standard phone line.

5

I used to work for a PCMCIA modem manufacturer and we were constantly having to repair modems that customers had plugged into these data ports. As tanstaafl pointed out they often have different voltage, etc. Very often they are part of a digital phone system and won’t work with a standard modem. Sad thing is, if you ask clerk at the hotel “Do you offer direct analog phone lines for computer access?”, you get the same kinda of replies as the op. Eventually, we put a fuse on the telephone connection so we didn’t have to repair so many modems. AFAIK, there is no real standard for these data ports, it’s just a marketing ploy. If they say is a connection on the phone, you can pretty well bet it won’t work. YMMV.

6

It also depends a lot on the hotel. Most Hiltons & Wyndhams have internet ready access (corp requirement) Also, in moost hotels to find out for sure, you’d do better to talk to the engineering or accounting department. (They generally handle the systems stuff and will know the answer.)

7

Unless I miss my guess, you’re talking about the new data ports from STSN. IIRC, they have both a modem interface and an ethernet interface.

8

You just connect your modem to the jack with a regular phone cord. Then you have your computer dial your ISP to get on the net.

Need a worldwide ISP with local numbers around the world? Try Compuserve or AT&T GLobal Access. Otherwise get juno.com its free & they have numbers around the USA. Otherwise your modem may dial a long distance call for your ISP from zee hotel.

9

I’m staying in an AmeriSuites right now, and it has one of those data ports. It states specifically on the instructions that you need an Ethernet card. You can also use the dial-out jack on the side of the phone for modem connection.

10

Yes, for two weeks. Think AT&T will go for a two week contract? I’ve had Netzero ever since they were born, but haven’t used it in the past two years since I’ve had DSL.

I finally got somebody to tell me with absolute certainty that their hotel provides a 2nd dial tone line, so I can hook up my analog modem. So I’m booked!

11

I stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott in California about six weeks ago, and in a Hilton in Phoenix about 8 months ago. Both offered in room high-speed access, as well as “data ports” on the phones that allowed you to dial out with your analog modem and connect to your regular ISP. Both claimed to give you “T1” speeds on the high speed line. Both charged $10 to $15 per day for the high speed access.

The Hilton’s high speed access was RJ-45 connection only. They supplied a crossover cable to connect to their hub, which sat next to the phone. They supplied instructions for setting your computer to use DHCP so it was assigned an IP address by their system. After that, you lit up your browser, pointed it to a specific URL (it wouldn’t connect to anything else until you went to this page), and you got a “Are you Sure” page asking you to confirm that you really wanted the high speed access for the next 24 hour period. If you clicked yes a confirmation screen was shown, and then you were off and surfing (or emailing, or FTPing, or NNTPing, etc.). The charge appeared on your room bill just like a pay-per-view movie.

The Marriott was very similar, but a little simpler. It offered either RJ-45 or USB connections, and again supplied cables for both. It required no reconfiguring of your computer (at least for the RJ-45 connection, I didn’t try the USB). A soon as you plugged in to the hub, you were on line, and could surf, use mail, etc. Again the charge appeared on the bill like a pay-per-view movie.

Both gave good speed, well above dial in, and I had no problems with surfing, reading email, or accessing newsgroups.

Note that even though you can normally receive mail with no problem, you may not be able to send mail, depending on your ISP’s setup. Many, if not most, ISPs don’t not allow sending mail when you are not connected through their network. This was the case for me. So I surfed and read email using the high speed connection, composed any outgoing mail, and then used the regular phone port and my modem to dial long-distance to connect to my ISP to send the mail. A two minute long-distance call is pretty cheap.

So if the guy at the hotel tells you that the “internet thingy” sits next to the phone, it’s probably a high speed Ethernet type, and they will act as the ISP. If the port is actually in the phone it’s probably just an analog connection for your modem, and you’ll need to dial your ISP.

Good luck.

Ugly

12

I must be staying in cheap hotels. Next time, Mariott!

Actually, you can just got to Kinkos, they have computers on the net for you to use. I think about twelve bucks an hour, kinda high but an alternative.

13

Are you certain? Probably all you need to change is your SMTP server to match the one for the internet connection you have.

If you don’t change, the ISP you are connected through will say something like ‘we do not relay’ which is the same thing as saying ‘you have the wrong SMTP server in your setup, you silly person’.

14

Working in the industry (hotels) I can tell you it is a very haphazard placement.

I just finished doing our Downtown hotel. Our website will clearly indicate we have the high speed in the hotel. We don’t. Since it is a corporate standard we have to have it but since it is a capital expense (new phones) and times being what they are, we put them only in BUSINESS CLASS rooms and raised the rates on those rooms.

So most of the hotel has only a data port.

What to do. Check the websites (we are the 2nd largest hotel chain in the country). If it indicates high speed, book it. Like I said most will say this as the advertising was done before the economic slow down. And remember this slow down for the hotels came in April of this year, (it didn’t tank till after 9/11). So when you get there demand your high speed and to appease you they will upgrade you to the business class w/o charge.

Also to find out if a hotel has it. LIE…In my hotel onl my (I’m the systems analyst, and our MIS guy, who’s only there once a week) really know and understand ths. Just say to the clerk or manager “My laptop is very expensive and if I use the wrong line it will corrupt it, or destroy it. I MUST know for sure.” Then the will find out for you by asking there person.

Most hotels in our company have laid off the PBX managers. So it is hard for anyone to know.

15

Well, yes, this is exactly what I meant. Since most mail servers don’t allow relaying, you may not be able to send mail.

Unless I missed it (and that’s very possible) neither the Hilton nor the Marriott offered an SMTP server to use. So when connected through their network, I couldn’t send mail. However dialing into my own home server for the couple of minutes it took to send the mail solved the problem.

You are absolutely correct in saying that if they did, changing the SMTP server in my mail client would have let me send mail over the high-speed line.

Also, this problem doesn’t occur with web based mail servers like Hotmail (and IMAP servers?), since all of the mail functions are done by the mail service, and all you do is connect to that through the net.

Ugly

16

We have data ports set up in our dorms. More than likely it is an ethernet connection (super-slap-your-mother fast - you’ll love it). It doesn’t use RJ-45s, you’ll need a CAT5 cable and an ethernet card. They sell the whole package, CAT5, card and software for about $60 at computer supply stores or maybe even radio shack. With this you can also network you’re computer to others with cards. This is pretty cool if you have a boat load of mp3s you need to burn on CD, and you don’t have a burner, you can just hook it up someone who does and piracy abounds.

C

17

CAT5 UTP (that’s Category 5 Unshielded Twisted pair for non-geekier among us) Ethernet cables are usually terminated with RJ-45 connectors. These are the connectors that look like oversize telephone plugs, with 8 wires instead of 4 or 6. (IIRC, RJ-11 is 4 wire, and RJ-12 is 6 wire, but they are the same physical size).

Older Ethernet cards and hubs used a coax cable, which was referred to as 10 base-2, because it supported 10 meg transfer rates and used a two conductor wire. When twisted pair took over, everyone switched over to RJ-45 connectors. I haven’t seen a coax card or hub in service for three or four years now. Even older cards used a DB-9 (or DB-15? Which one was thick-net, I can never remember) connector (like your com port or old joystick uses) but I haven’t seen one of those in a long time!

Does your dorms use some other type of connector? USB maybe?

Ugly

18

Just one observation about SMTP: they can be configured in many ways. Some ISPs require you to be logged in to them to use them but others will use authentication (I do not know why they all don’t do this as it is so convenient). In Outlook Express you just check in Servers “requires authentication” and that’s it. Then they can give you access from anywhere without fear of the SMTP server being used by other people.

Anyway, I have never had a problem sending email. I have several accounts which let me do it from anywhere and then, there’s always Hotmail.

19

Well, the data ports in the dorm are at least 6 years old. They are CAT5 connections (that’s what it says on the box and Computer Services said thats what I needed), and they look like as you said, oversized RJ45’s. If you could describe a USB connector for me, I’ll tell you if that’s what it takes or not. ( averts eyes to floor in shame I kinda use the prob around in the back of the computer until something fits method of connecting things).

C

20

This is a USB port, which I have never seen in a hotel. Damn stinkin’ cheap corporate rates.