Posted:
Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:49 am Post subject: How to connect in hotel with wireless internet service
I don't know if this info has been shared previously on this forum, but I'm so excited about this solution I just had to share it.
I travel a lot, and always want to use my internet phone in the hotel. I carry the small Linksys Router WRT54GC, which works sometimes when there is a wired connection. But most of the time it will not connect because there's no way past the hotel's "internet registration". Yes, you can futs around and use MAC cloning after registering your laptop, but it doesn't always work. And if the hotel has WIFI service only, forget about connecting your internet phone. And softphone is not the workaround at all.
Then the light went on, I found the solution
Windows has had an "Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)" feature built in since Win98 version. And in recent years I'd forgotten about it.
So I went to the WinXP Internet configuration panel and set up my laptop with the WIFI connection as the ICS connection to the internet and the built-in Ethernet wired connection as the shared connection. I cabled the Vonage adaptor (I've got the old Cisco ATA 186) to that port. After rebooting with this configuration change and realizing I had to disable my Zonealarm Firewall (WinXP Firewall can be left on!), it worked!
But what if the hotel provides a wired-only connection?
I now carry a PC Card Ethernet adaptor, which gives the laptop two wired connections. I then configure the PC Card adaptor to be the ICS port, and the built in port as the shared connection.
Only problem is making sure your not downloading or uploading a big file and trying to use the phone at the same time, that stretches the WIFI's or the laptop's sharing abilities.
I hope this helps all of you who have fought to make this 21st century communication link work for you on the road.
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