How to configure travel router for hotel network?

itm · 12 Jul 2011 at 21:29

We frequently visit hotels which offer in-room cabled ethernet, coupled with a login web page which you need to get past before you can access the internet. I have a wireless travel router which I'd like to use to provide wireless internet access for 2 laptops from the ethernet connection in the room.
The router is a Tenda 3G150M, and has 4 modes of operation:
- 3G/4G Router mode (not relevant here)
- Wireless AP
- WISP
- Wireless router mode

Can anyone advise on which of the above modes is appropriate to the above situation, and how I should configure the router to achieve it?
For example, should DHCP be enabled or disabled on the wireless router?

Skidilliplop · 12 Jul 2011 at 22:19

Anything with an ethernet WAN would potentially work.

However there's 99.9% likely to be measures in place to stop you doing that.
Rogue unsecure APs are a nightmare in hospitality scenarios because you want to make it as open as possible, but only to your customers. Most Hotels invest quite heavily in this.

KIA · 13 Jul 2011 at 01:29

Can the router spoof its MAC?

TBirdUK · 13 Jul 2011 at 14:15

must be a cable router (cant check yours as its blocked at work), connect router to socket in wall, leave DHCP, connect 1 laptop via cable and logon as normal.

Once logged on, clone routers MAC address (in routers settings) to the one the laptop logged on with.

Once done, enable wireless, unplug laptop and should work.

bigredshark · 13 Jul 2011 at 15:10

As said, most places will have measures in place to prevent this...but where are you staying which doesn't have free wireless, I don't remember the last place I stayed in which didn't...

moss · 13 Jul 2011 at 15:20

http://www.connectify.me/

I used this on my laptop last time I stayed in a hotel with ethernet only internet. Worked great sharing the internet to my phone.

Sin_Chase · 13 Jul 2011 at 16:17

If you ran it in an AP mode I am unsure how the hotel would ever block this. The LAN needs to be open enough to allow any wired MAC addresses to connect and all an AP will do is obtain an IP via DHCP (which your AP mode will need to support) and that's that.

What you do AFTER obtaining a DHCP IP on _whatever_ device is down to you and largely unenforceable dynamically. If they were blocking any intermediary devices as they did not match the source MAC address (IE your laptop) then you would need to ghost the MAC onto your AP....something else which will be dependant on your AP software.

Skidilliplop · 13 Jul 2011 at 16:33

Sin_Chase said:
If you ran it in an AP mode I am unsure how the hotel would ever block this. The LAN needs to be open enough to allow any wired MAC addresses to connect and all an AP will do is obtain an IP via DHCP (which your AP mode will need to support) and that's that.

What you do AFTER obtaining a DHCP IP on _whatever_ device is down to you and largely unenforceable dynamically. If they were blocking any intermediary devices as they did not match the source MAC address (IE your laptop) then you would need to ghost the MAC onto your AP....something else which will be dependant on your AP software.

The AP approach could be beaten by simply limiting the MAC learning on the port to 1 address.

Most home routers don't rebuild the IP headers completely when doing NAT and will just change the source or destination addresses so the TTL field will still get incremented.
If they use a captive portal then the portal can drop cookies etc to tell if multiple machines are connecting from a single source IP.

And those are just ways i thought of in 5 mins. There are probably many more clever ways out there.

itm · 13 Jul 2011 at 19:42

TBirdUK said:
must be a cable router (cant check yours as its blocked at work), connect router to socket in wall, leave DHCP, connect 1 laptop via cable and logon as normal.

Once logged on, clone routers MAC address (in routers settings) to the one the laptop logged on with.

Once done, enable wireless, unplug laptop and should work.

Sorry - dumb question: I need to clarify what you're proposing as there's only one ethernet port on the router, so if I connect it to the socket in the wall I won't be able to connect a laptop via a cable at the same time.
Is the essence of your suggestion as follows?
- establish a wired connection on one of the laptops
- clone the laptop's MAC address on the router
- unplug the laptop and connect the router (in Router mode, rather than AP mode?)
- connect the first (and second) laptops wirelessly to the router - presumably picking up an IP address from the DHCP server on the wireless router?

bigredshark · 13 Jul 2011 at 22:08

There's a decent chance it won't work though, it's easy enough to detect that you're doing that if they want to (and most of them do, given the chance to make some more money)...

itm · 15 Jul 2011 at 19:59

For these types of connections (i.e. the ones requiring a browser login before granting internet access) should I set up my router in AP or router mode?