Hotels w/ High-Speed Internet Access?

jroysdon asks: "I'm going on a company-paid conference trip to LA for Cisco Networkers in late June. Cisco has a list of hotels nearby that they've nogetiated rates with, but the first 3 I've checked don't have any high-speed internet access (just data jacks for modems). At $.60 a pop per local call, I might as well find a place that's going to get me a decent connection, and plus the company's paying for it and some of the time I'll be spending keeping up on company email, etc. Does anyone know of a good travel site that lists geek-friendly amenities like high-speed internet access, or even 802.11 wireless? At this rate, I'll probably be staying 11 miles away instead of a few blocks so I can have something better than a modem. The hardest thing is getting the 800-number attendants to understand what I mean when I ask: 'Do you have RJ-11 data ports in any of your rooms?'" Honestly, until broadband access becomes a bit more common-place in the US (much less everywhere else), you won't see many hotels offering ethernet service as a selling point, however it would be nice to see a website that lists them as they show up.

Comments

Mariott Hotels

[rhedin]

Most of the high end Marriott hotels (Marriott, Rennaissance) I've stayed at have high speed access in the rooms provided by STSN.

There's a little box on the desk with an RJ-11 connection for modems, a USB port and a 10BaseT connection. The closet has a USB cable and a ethernet patch cable.

It's not free- generally there's a $10/day or so charge for the service.

STSN has a web site at STSN Home with a lookup function to find hotels with the service.

FYI, the Wyndam Checkers hotel is listed.

rob.

Re:Mariott Hotels

[DeusExLibris]

Actually, it's not just the high-end Marriotts. I frequently travel to they bay area and all the Courtyard Marriotts (definitely NOT high-end) all have STSN.

However, my experience is that STSN provides mediocre service at best. I have used it in at least half a dozen different hotels over the past year and usually get 100-150K throughput. Not a lot of additional speed for $10/day.

Finally, on a more positive note, I recently stayed at the Four Seasons Austin (sometimes it pays to travel a lot). I do not remember the name of the service, but it wasn't STSN. I-something, I think. But it rocked! Averaged 300K+ on the few measurements I did.

Re:Mariott Hotels

[TheSync]

I just stayed at the Hampton Inn Oakland airport, and they had STSN with both Ethernet and USB. I didn't measure throughput, but the Ethernet was clearly was a lot better than the 56k dialup I've had to use at the Hyatt Regency! It just used DHCP, trivial to get operation, just plug and go. $9.95/day.

BTW, if you ever have to go to San Francisco, keep Oakland airport in mind. It is almost always cheaper to fly into than SFO, and Dollar and National rental cars are right there outside the terminal.

Re:Mariott Hotels

[jfunk]

Disclaimer: I work for a competitor in this space called SolutionInc. I do not speak for them and none of what I say is official. What I can say is that ours is Linux-based. :-)*

Your speed could probably be explained by the fact that it gets tunneled through Salt Lake City. IIRC, when I was in a Marriott in San Francisco there were, something like, 18 hops back to Halifax, and I was behind two or three levels of masquerading. Apparently, you can do a PPTP VPN only if you're the only guy doing it. IPSec is generally out of the question.

In fact, it's fairly rare to get a real IP in a hotel. Our server allows the user to select whether they want a masqueraded or real IP when you open up a browser, if the site has any and you're willing to pay a few extra dollars.

Ooops, I've rambled...

I-something, I think.

That's CAIS' I-Port, now owned by Cisco. It runs on a Windows NT server.

RJ11 ... for Data Access?

[CyberKnet]

Forgive me for asking, but isnt RJ-11/RJ-12 for phone cabling? I know that it was used for early networking among macintoshes, but I was under the impression that RJ-45 was the networking clip of choice.

Perhaps this is why the 800 number zombies arent understanding what you're asking?

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Negotiated rates

[Tony Shepps]

Cisco has a list of hotels nearby that they've negotiated rates with,

Which protocols did they try?

Speaking of hotels with high speed access

[wmulvihillDxR]

There was a recent local report of a hotel in the area (Carbondale, IL) that was running a prOn site out of the hotel! Here is the story from the Southern Illinoisan. Guess they had enough "access."

Hilton Garden Inn

[CrayDrygu]

I stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn recently (HGI Denver Airport, this past summer), and they had a RJ-45 in the room I stayed in. I think I figured out it was $10/day or so, which isn't bad if you ask me.

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W Hotels

[acoopersmith]

The W Hotels chain advertises that their rooms include "hi-speed Internet access ports, web browser television and two-line cordless telephones." (The chain is owned by the same corp who owns Westin, Sheraton, Four Points & Caesar's.) There's only a handful of them around the US, but they do have one in LA.

Re:W Hotels

[Robert S Gormley]

Also one in San Francisco... very nice, nightclub-like. The Sheraton Rittenhouse in Philadelphia also has a T1, and 10baseT ports in each room, configurable by DHCP. Very nice :-)

Yes, here's the web site

[peccary]

http://www.geektools.com/geektels/

Has a list of hotels all over the world and what kind of geek amenities they offer.

No auto link, cuz you'll want to remember it, and I'm sick of goatse.cx links.

Re:They already do

[srhuston]

The converters are made by Tut Systems and cost about $170 for a 1 megabit converter.

Well, it would depend on the actual wiring you've got there, but at the college I worked for a lot of the old wiring was over RJ11 cables, and we just used RJ11-RJ45 patch cables. Okay, so they wouldn't hold 100Base-T or Gigabit, but they work fine for 10Base-T, and much easier than rewiring a few whole buildings.

You're obviously asking the wrong question.

[Wakko Warner]

Why not just ask "Do you have high-speed Internet access?" rather than "Do you have an rj-11 port with shielded twisted pair copper wiring leading to a DSLAM in the basement with dual redundant power supplies and a sump pump in case of flooding or other emergencies?" Ask something the people at the front desk can understand, and you'll find an answer more forthcoming.

- A.P.

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* CmdrTaco is an idiot.

"hacking" STSN hotel Internet access

[rayd75]

I stayed at a Radison in San Jose a couple of weeks back and found that until you purchase it, the STSN service seems to only redirect HTTP requests to the "purchase me" page. You still have access to the gateway. I was able to sign on to AOL(work-provided), AIM, and connect to my corporate VPN with no problem... And at no charge. I had to use an IP for the VPN as DNS apeared to be blocked, but hey still not bad for free. Sure this is off-topic, but I couldn't help myself.

They already do

[eap]

My apartment complex has ethernet over RJ11 lines. It comes into my apt and plugs into the back of a converter which converts it to regular RJ45, which plugs into my NIC.

The converters are made by Tut Systems and cost about $170 for a 1 megabit converter.

Why they didn't just wire the place with cat 5, I don't know.