Airport Express Connection in a Hotel

Welcome to the discussion area!

First, not all hotels with ethernet connections will allow a router to connect to their network. You might want to check with the hotel's front desk about that regarding their policy.

Use AirPort Utility - Manual Setup to check some of your settings on the Express.

Click the Wireless tab below the row of icons
Wireless Mode = Create a wireless network
Wireless Network Name = Your choice
Radio Mode = 802.11n (802.11b/g comatible)
Wireless Security = WPA2 Personal or WPA/WPA2 Personal
Wireless Password = Your choice
Verify Password

Click the Internet icon
Connect Using = Ethernet
Connection Sharing = Off (Bridge Mode)
Update to save settings

Power down the Express and connect it to the hotel's ethernet jack using an ethernet cable.
Power up the Express
Open your browser to see if the hotel's internet page will appear so you can agree to terms, pay fees, etc.
Once you agree, you should be on the internet and wireless should be working.

Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

Additional Q: in the internet panel, there is the "internet connection" panel (you explained already, thanks), and the "TCP/IP" panel.

In the TCP/IP panel you get to select how to configure IPv4: manually or DHCP. I would assume for hotel or other public use that you would select DHCP. Is that correct?

Yes, correct.

If I am traveling to Maui with my iPad, can I use the same hotel settings for a condo that has a broadband internet connection? I believe they have a ethernet cable you would connect to a computer, but as you know the iPad does not have an ethernet port.

Do I still configure the Airport Express to bridge mode?

Try bridge mode first.

If that does not allow more than one device to connect at a time, try the "Share a public IP address" setting. This will probably display a Double NAT message, but you can click to ignore that and see if the hotel will allow the connection(s).

The above assumes that you have AirPort Utility installed on a laptop so you can change the configuration on the fly. The iPad cannot handle AirPort Utility, so if that's the case, I would pre-configure in bridge mode and know that you may not be able to connect more than one device at time. It all depends on how the main router has been configured in the office at the condos.

Thanks, I will only have my iPad with me. (I traded off my laptop.) There will only be one device connecting, so that should not be an issue. This is a private-owned condo, and I did get confirmation that they do only have an ethernet connection from their cable-modem.

I will configure the Airport Express with your outlined settings and hope for the best. Any other suggestions? I appreciated your knowledge on this.

Should work fine in the settings outlined earlier in the thread. If you are pretty sure that you will have line-of-sight, or close to it between the AirPort Express and the iPad, you could set the Radio Mode for 802.11n only 5 GHz. This will allow a faster connection...IF...there are no substantial obstructions in the signal path.

Bob,
Just wanted to say thanks for your tips in setting up Airport Express for traveling. I configured as you suggested, and when I got to the Maui condo I plugged in the cable and crossed my fingers. To my delight, I got a green light, and moments later my iPad was on the Internet! I am so glad this worked, and am thankful for your expertise in this area. As they say on the islands, "Mahalo!"

Great! Glad things are working well for you.

Bob, just FYI...in Bridge mode, the Extreme does indeed support multiple devices connecting via wireless simultaneously. They essentially get "hide NAT'd" or as some would call it many-to-one NAT behind the IP address that you assign or that gets DHCP assigned under the TCP/IP panel portion of the Extreme's config. This was a helpful thread, inspired a new re-use for my old Airport Extreme.

Cheers for that 🙂

Just to clarify, the Express or Extreme will support multiple devices....IF....the router has been configured to allow multiple connections.

Often Hotels, limit connections to only one device, so if you have the Express/Extreme set up in bridge mode, only one device will be allowed to connect. If you try to connect a second wireless device, it will either knock the first one off the connection or it may not connect at all.

Thankfully, most hotels allow multiple connections...for now.

Ahh, right on Bob, and great point. Now I see what you had meant. And I need to clarify my earlier comment on "hide NAT". I am doing some testing with different configurations of Bridge mode as we speak. The Extreme in bridge mode does not actually do any NAT'ing, hide NAT or otherwise. It also does not do any DHCP serving to wireless clients. All it will do is dutifully pass the DHCP client request to it's default gateway, and if that device is serving DHCP, then the wireless clients will get their IP address that way. And it in fact works quite well 🙂 Now it's time to turn it into a dedicated 5GHz N network, for that long range line-of-sight goodness. Cheers!

Could you please tell me exactly what i should do to get the bridge mode? I don't see it anywhere.
I want to use the iPad with the AE in a hotel.
So before i go on holiday, i setup the AE as a new wireless network, wpa2 etc. And then it works, i use it in my house.
But how do i set it up as a bridge?

As outlined earlier in the thread, the step by step to configure the AirPort Express in bridge mode is outlined below. Note that you will need to use the AirPort Utility application for this. On your Mac computer, it's located as follows:

Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility.

+Use AirPort Utility - Manual Setup to check some of your settings on the Express.+

+Click the Wireless tab below the row of icons+
+Wireless Mode = Create a wireless network+
+Wireless Network Name = Your choice+
+Radio Mode = 802.11n (802.11b/g comatible)+
+Wireless Security = WPA2 Personal or WPA/WPA2 Personal+
+Wireless Password = Your choice+
+Verify Password+

+Click the Internet icon+
+Connect Using = Ethernet+
+Connection Sharing = Off (Bridge Mode)+
+Update to save settings+

+Power down the Express and connect it to the hotel's ethernet jack using an ethernet cable.+
+Power up the Express+
+Open your browser to see if the hotel's internet page will appear so you can agree to terms, pay fees, etc.+
+Once you agree, you should be on the internet and wireless should be working.+

Hi Bob!

I´m quite new in the Apple world - so I´m hopefully allowed to ask this:

Once the AE setup is made at home ( using your settings from last post ) with Macbook .... I can install/use the AE only by Ipad in the hotel ... no need of carrying the Macbook with me ... am I correct ??

Thank you for an answer .... what a pitty my english is limited, too .... maybe my question is already answered somewhere above.


Best regards
Gregor