Q: Unable to connect to wifi in some hotels (self-assigned IP address)
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May 19, 2011 7:33 AMby nbevan,I have finally found a solution!
I copied the IP address that the hotel had assigned to my iPhone (in the 192.168.0.xx series) into the TCP settings for the hotel network on my Mac, and then managed to get a connection (but only by using "DHCP with manual address", rather than "Manually").
But this seems to have killed the wifi connection on my iPhone: whatever I do I now get a self-assigned IP address 169... on the iPhone (there is no "DHCP with manual address" setting), so as I am in Paris I hope the Mac connection continues to work!
The general solution seems to be to use a static IP address, but in the "DHCP with manual address", which I had not tried before.
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May 19, 2011 8:06 AMby nbevan,If it is just a flaky hotel network, why did it work OK on my iPhone and for other people?
The first thing the hotel tried was to reset the network, but it did not make any difference.
So while hotel networks can go down, I am not convinced that the problem is with the hotel?
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May 19, 2011 9:41 AMby etresoft,It is always with the hotel. If you don't believe me, get an ethernet cable and hook that up. Hotel networks are not cut and dry working or not working. I'm surprised your iPhone connected. Perhaps it connected earlier. Then the 4 kids on your floor fired up their P2P software. Nobody new will connect to the network until they leave.
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May 19, 2011 10:39 AMby nbevan,I wish it were so simple! Just search for many other people who have had problems with self-assigned IP addresses on their Mac when others can connect to the same network.
This does appear to be a solution to that problem (when other devices can connect successfully).
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May 19, 2011 12:23 PMby etresoft,That's not really a solution. You've just hacked your TCP/IP settings to bypass the hotel's DHCP server that has crashed or been overwhelmed.
Hotels are notoriously unreliable for internet. They don't have any better connection that you do at home on your cable modem or DSL - they just share it with a few hundred more people. Just checking e-mail can be a challenge.
If you are traveling and need reliable connectivity, get yourself a 3G device. You can get devices that can share the signal over wifi with a number of your own devices.
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May 19, 2011 1:48 PMby nbevan,I don't agree that the "the hotel's DHCP server has crashed or been overwhelmed". I was unable to connect even at offpeak times, and have had the same experience before. It is a problem with the Mac software that other people have experienced. (When you get a self-assigned IP address, the wifi icon includes a "!".)
When travelling nationally a 3G device is a very good solution (even better my UK account for the iPhone includes tethering, so I can use that to connect my Mac to the internet in the UK).
Unfortunately when travelling to other countries, data roaming costs are prohibitive, so the 3G solution is not economic in that situation.
As I have said before, I am not the only one who has been consistently unable to connect a Mac to some wifi networks when other devices are able consistently able to connect.
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May 19, 2011 2:52 PMby etresoft,nbevan wrote:
As I have said before, I am not the only one who has been consistently unable to connect a Mac to some wifi networks when other devices are able consistently able to connect.
I don't dispute that. I'm just saying there is no "magic bullet" to get it to work. I have hacked up my DHCP too a couple of times. There is virtually an infinite number of routers in the world, all with levels of system health. There is no way you will be able to connect to all of them. There are a number that use hardware and software combinations that are particularly unfriendly to Macs.
If it doesn't work, try ethernet. If that doesn't work, try to get the router rebooted. If that doesn't work, and you don't have your own 3G device, you just have to go elsewhere. If you can't get it to connect in a minute or two, you won't ever get it connected so don't waste your time.
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May 19, 2011 9:19 PMby nbevan,I did waste a lot of time till I found this solution!
What would be useful to people who are unable to connect in a hotel is a list of simple things to try. I have suggested one (use "DHCP with manual address"). You have suggest another (get the hotel to reboot their system). Maybe there are other solutions that people have found to work?
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Apr 14, 2012 8:25 PMby nCisiveMan,I had a similar problem at a Marriott on my first trip with my Mac. I had to go into the preferences and the privacy tab and unblock cookies. Turns out that the Marriott wifi insists on writing a cookie, if you don't let it then you simply won't get the login page.
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Sep 16, 2016 6:26 AMby mvallerie,Make sure you try to sign onto the internet with Safari. not chrome, not firefox, not anything except Safari. I was trying all these hard things that I didn't understand, and once i tried to log in with Safari the login page from the hotel just popped up and it worked! Good luck!
