Six ways to cope with flaky hotel Wi-Fi - daystol1941

Blessed Virgin OverDrive Professional raiseable hotspot.

During a new trip I stayed at a hotel offering free Wisconsin-Fi—e'er a nice perk. Just one problem: the network was terrible. The link hurry reminded me of my old telephone dial-skyward modem, but without the consistency.

Needless to order, information technology was impossible for me to get my work done, and that was a problem. Fortunately, I'm a Son Scout when it comes to technical school obstacles: always prepared. When faced with flaky hotel WI-Fi, I try one or more of these six fixes:

1. Ask the front end desk to reset the router If you can't get or stay connected, it power just be a router emerge. Birdsong the in advance desk, secern them you bum't get on their net, and ask them to reset the hotel router. Wait 5-10 minutes then try once more to plug in.

2. Check for an Ethernet option Some hotel rooms have an Ethernet port or corduroy that would allow your laptop to circumferential Wi-Fi altogether and just Jack into the network. If you need to share that link with, say, your tablet, try Connectify Hotspot, which acts A a software router on your laptop computer. Alternately, camp a travel router like the TP-LINK TL-WR702N.

3. Render the lobby It's possible the bad connection is simply the outcome of your room's distance from the closest Wi-Fi repeater. Try affecting to a conference room or the lobby to see if the berth improves.

4. Pack a pay-as-you-go hotspot A mobile hot spot gives you Cyberspace access anytime, anywhere. But if you buy one from one of the big carriers, you might pay back cursed with yet another two-year condense and goodish monthly fees. For episodic and/or "emergency" table service, view a pay-as-you-go hot spot.

For example, DataJack, TruConnect, and Virgin Mobile fling no-contract MiFi hotspots for under $100, with pay-as-you-go data plans that won't break the bank. Or you can snap a Photon hotspot from FreedomPop, which includes 500MB of freed, no-string section-attached data per month (assuming there's coverage in your area—here in metro Motor City, there's not).

5. Use your phone's hot spot boast Most Mechanical man phones and all the stylish iPhones have a mobile-hotspot (a.k.a. tethering) feature, which can come in mighty W. C. Handy in a apprehension. On my iPhone, for example, it's a heart-shaped matter of venturing into the settings and enabling Personal Hot spot, which shares my 4G connection with nearby devices.

Confirmation with your carrier to see what options are available happening your phone, and how much they might ADD to your monthly bill. Just remember that you'll not only drain your battery in a hurry, you'll also face possibly extortionate data charges compared with what you ordinarily incur.

6. Regain the nighest Starbucks If all else fails, try a bit wardriving: Use up your loved WI-Fi-finder app to settle the nearest coffee tell on, library, or even some other hotel that offers radio receiver Internet, then assemble patronise to draw your work done. While you'atomic number 75 at IT, check come out VPN tools that will help secure your data.

Bear another brilliant way to deal with outlandish Wi-Fi when traveling? Tell me about it in the comments.