Hotel Wi-Fi networks with iPad

Had the same problem, turning off autofill solved it!

Thx!

While I can not talk directly to the OPs problem, my wife and I just spent 10 nights In 5 different hotels in Italy and did not have a problem in any of them. (2 were free and the other 3 required payment and a login.) However I did have problem at the Frankfurt Germany airport. The iPad did successfully log into the Sprint network - unfortunately I don't have a Sprint account - and the "free public access" network never assigned an IP address. (I was told by someone else with a laptop that it took him FOREVER to get assigned an address and my layover was only one hour.)

Another thought for those with multiple devices: multiple charges. I recently spent three nights in a W and was hit with 6 x $14.95. They happily removed three of the charges, but frequent flyers know that this is ridiculous practice still crops up in a few hotels.

swandy wrote:
the "free public access" network never assigned an IP address.

Never attempt to connect to a network named that or "Free Public WiFi". Like everyone else, I've seen them in airports pretty much every time I'm in one. No one really knows what they are. There is a theory that it is not a virus or honeypot but a symptom of a Windows bug, but I'm skeptical.

Used mine at the London NYC last week no problems.

I suspect that hotel wired access is secure....I am not certain about their wireless access and would never connect to an airport open wifi.

I do use both Verizon and ATT 3G, and I suppose with the right equipment that can be accessed by others.

If I was a criminal, I would run around the world staying in expensive hotels capturing all sorts of data from the wealthy travelers also staying there and using hotel unsecured wifi.

Perry

pkincy wrote:
I suspect that hotel wired access is secure

But useless to an iPad user.

....I am not certain about their wireless access and would never connect to an airport open wifi.

An wireless network, open or not, from a legitimate source is perfectly safe. Just make sure to always use secure protocols for any passwords. Those "Free Public WiFi" networks will clearly show up under "Computer-to-computer" networks. Only use those if you personally know who set it up. A legitimate computer-to-computer network like that would always have a password anyway.

I do use both Verizon and ATT 3G, and I suppose with the right equipment that can be accessed by others.

But that equipment needs its own truck and costs a few million dollars. Getting a sucker to connect to your rogue ad-hoc network to skim passwords and credit card numbers is free.

If I was a criminal, I would run around the world staying in expensive hotels capturing all sorts of data from the wealthy travelers also staying there and using hotel unsecured wifi.

That doesn't sound like a viable criminal enterprise. That is probably why you see those things at airports and not hotels.

Tamara wrote:
Why do people think Apple should always be the one to fix other manufacturer's devices? If the hotel offers wifi then it is their responsibility to make sure they are compatible with wifi devices.

Because other devices are working fine and there is compelling data that the iPad has a number of significant WiFi issues.

Oh ... and because never in my experience have I ever come across a hotel with support for their WiFi that could do more than pass along the login details ... well, to be fair some offer the really brilliant suggestion of restarting the device and perhaps clearing the cache.

etresoft wrote:

Chris Carlson wrote:
Princeton University is the only unbiased authority on this subject that I can find.

Please stop with the Princeton story. That is old news and was bogus to begin with.

How is it old news? Has the issue been resolved?

How is it bogus? Specifics please about how the iPad WiFi issue identified by Princeton is bogus.

Tamara and etresoft are one and the same.

It is ridiculous to expect hotel and airport wifi providers to fix an issue that only affects one product that doesn't even exist worldwide. Millions of travelers are using MacBooks, netbooks, iPhones, Symbian devices, etc without these connection problems. Yet, these two die-hard Apple fans insist that there is nothing wrong with the iPad and each and every hotel/airport/hotspot needs to be pestered into upgrading their system to accommodate a flawed Apple product.

But, just to make the two of them happy, I called customer service in Singapore yesterday and they promptly informed me to "clear the cache, reset the connection settings and turn off the iPad". Nice try, but it didn't help.

I think that some of the helpful hints here might work for some people, but the networking problems with iPad really seem to be too numerous to take on. Some of the spin in these forums is like getting a helping hand up, but at the same time may feel like a surprise elbow to the gut. If you expect empathy, you're more likely to receive distain.

Don't be too distracted by these forums, *as your 14 days to return the item are passing*. Don't blame yourself, or your router, or the hotel's router. Not one of these networking experts ever touch the topic of why all of your other APPL devices connect just fine everywhere. Don't believe in the tooth fairy, or hotel tech support.. neither one are going to come to your room or do anything.... but don't waste you time making a personal plan of action.

If you are not happy, consider exercising your return rights, and become an owner when all of these problems are fixed.

It is a great device, with a brilliant future, but these are Apple's problems to solve. It's hard to take it back even if you aren't satisfied. Good luck.

JimHdk wrote:
If the internet services have a login screen then turn off the Settings > Safari > Autofill option. This has been known to cause problems with sign-on with some of these services.

Can confirm that in locations that are using Cisco WLAN controllers for their wireless (many) that turning off Setting>Safari>Autofill option DOES resolve the issue. So in these cases it's not actually a Wifi issue, per se, but a Safari issue.

My company installed a Wireless Network in a Airport Lounge and I am having a similar problem with iPad's not connecting (iPod touch, iPhone, PC's Connect with no problem). I believe the reason the iPad works fine in some hotels, but not in others depends on which authentication server they are using. We are using a Nomadix Access Gateway 3000 (Nomadix authentication servers are used in a lot of hotel wireless networks locations). I have tried toggling all the iPad network and Safari settings, but nothing so far has worked. Unfortunately, I wasn't the one who installed/setup the Nomadix so I'm still familiarizing myself with the device. I called Nomadix support, but their only suggestion was it might be connected with the Java Script being used on the Gateway 3000 login page. Through testing I determined that the iPad is making a network connection (DHCP assigns IP, Gateway, DNS, etc...) and I can ping internal and external IP's (Yahoo, Google, etc...) and make a VNC connection to PC's on the network, but since it fails at the login page it won't allow Internet access. I'll be onsite again tomorrow and I have a couple of settings changes on the Nomadix that I'm going to try so I'll let you all know the results.

Chris

MSM126 wrote:
How is it old news?

It is two months old.

Has the issue been resolved?

No. As far as I know, Princeton's network is still jacked up.

How is it bogus? Specifics please about how the iPad WiFi issue identified by Princeton is bogus.

It never was a WiFi issue at all. At Princeton, iPads never had any trouble connecting to the network. But Princeton's network isn't just unusual, it is flat-out unique in the world. Rest assured that the "Princeton issue" has absolutely nothing to do with anyone outside of Princeton.

This is probably going to vary by location, by hotel (their Wi-Fi hardware), etc. I had no problem in two hotels in Portugal/Spain last week, and got to login screens in several airports both in Europe and the US.