Hotel Room Net Access

Problems Getting On-Line at the Westin in Boston

At the end of August 2002, I stayed at the Westin hotel in Copley Square in Boston, MA. One of the features of the hotel is broadband Internet access, for free, in all the rooms. Eventually, I got on-line from my room, but it was a heck of struggle, mostly due to totally inaccurate documentation.

Getting On-Line

Environment: Windows 98, Internet Explorer v5.5 SP2 with the home page set to "about:blank", no firewall running.

After hooking up to the Ethernet port in the room (using the conveniently provided CAT5 cable) I booted my computer. The instructions in the room said to open my web browser and it would automatically go to the GlobalNet log-in page. It did not.

I tried to ping some popular web sites, none worked. Network neighborhood showed no computers, not even mine. There is a light on my network card (NIC) and it was lit, indicating that it was connected to a network. As usual, this was a software problem.

My first guess was DHCP. The computer in question normally dials a modem to get on the Internet and connects to a LAN for peer to peer networking. On the LAN, it has a hard coded IP address in the 10.x.x.x range. The command "ipconfig /all" and confirmed that my computer never got an IP address from the Westin hotel. I changed the properties of the TCP/IP protocol bound to the NIC card to enable DHCP and remove the hard coded IP address. Then I re-booted. The documentation should have said to change hard coded IP addresses to DHCP, but it did not.

After re-booting, another "ipconfig /all" command showed that my NIC card was assigned an IP address of 192.168.1.51. This is a pretty standard IP address as it falls in the range of designated non-routable addresses. The default gateway was 192.168.1.1 and this was also the DHCP server. Pretty normal looking.

Then I start Internet Explorer and get a blank page. No log-in as the, dependably wrong, documentation promised.

Thinking that IE was not properly configured for use with the Westin hotel, I checked Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections. It was set to never dial a connection, which is what the instructions said. Quoting them: "Ensure your options are set so that your computer does not dial for an Internet connection."

The LAN settings however were not set to automatically detect settings. Thinking this might be the problem, I turned on this option and re-booted again.

I can now ping the default gateway of 192.168.1.1. However, starting IE again results in a blank page. No login-in prompts.

It is late at night and my wife is sleeping. Calling GlobalNet for help is a possibility, but since they wrote the consistently wrong documentation in the first place, I opt to hack away on my own rather than wake her up with a long phone conversation.

Even if I can get at the GlobalNet log-in page, it's not clear what to do there. The instructions say to "enter the appropriate details". What details? It doesn't say. And, of course, there is no picture of what the log-in page looks like. After all the time and money Westin spent wiring each room in a large hotel, it seems like they had nothing left for the user documentation.

Then, inspiration. If I can ping the default gateway, maybe I can get at a web server on it. I enter http://192.168.1.1 into my web browser. Bingo! A new window opens up asking for my room number, then my name and company name. Oh, those details.

But alas, I'm confused again. The log-in window says that Internet access is "complimentary". But at the same time it also says that "charges plus taxes will be billed to your room." Which is it? Doesn't any human being read this stuff?
FYI: It turned out that Internet access was, in fact, free.

After logging in with my room number and name, the browser went to www.westin.com/copleyplace. The web page was not found. However, not trusting anything at this point, I reload the web page and it works.

My guess is that the GlobalNet login will kick in the first time you go to any web page. The fact that my browser was set for a blank home page may have been why I never got it earlier. Just a guess.

According to speed tests at www.pcpitstop.com the net connection is about 678K (I ran four tests, this is the average speed). Fast enough for me.

Any computer nerd reading this is no doubt thinking firewall at this point. I knew enough not to bother with a firewall until I had all the other bugs worked out. Needless to say, the documentation said nothing about using a firewall. No surprise there.

Running ZoneAlarm v2.6.232 blocked all Internet access. Interestingly, there were no pop-up windows from ZoneAlarm, it silently blocked everything. At this point the fight was out of me, I shut down ZA and used the net without protection. A very dangerous thing to do.

I am a member of the Westin (really Starwood) frequent flyer club. They are running a promotion that if you use the high speed internet access you get bonus points. Click here for the web page that describes this. There are instructions on this page for connecting to their broadband network. As of September 19, 2002, the instructions read:
1. Shut down your computer
2. Connect the high speed Internet access cord on the desk to the adapter or
internal Ethernet port
3. Turn on your computer and launch an internet browser (IE or Netscape).
4. The hotel welcome page will appear. Follow the instructions to complete the connection.

If only it were that easy.

GlobalNet 24 hour help is available at 877-755-0550. Their web site is www.guest-tek.com.

Best WiFi Hotels 2004 from HotelChatter.com which also offers the Worst WiFi Hotels 2004 April 11, 2005

Page last updated: April 11, 2005