motel networking need help

Hi everyone new to the forum,hope someone can help me solve this one. I do alot of traveling and i like to have my laptop close. In most hotels,motels they have highspeed wireless but some only have cat5 with one port on the wall,most of the time i share a room so we have to share the cat5. I tryed to set up a router on the line but could not get it to work no how. i beleave the cat5 plug is coming from a router and i tried to hookup my router to it with no luck, Is this possible to do without getting to the hotels router. please help:confused

 

yeah you need to use a switch or a hub instead of a router. if the hotel has a port to hook up to, plug a cat 5 to that and into a switch. then plug another cat5 from a port on the switch to your laptop and the other laptop

 

or you could use a router, that works just the same way.

 

No, it doesn't. And, he's already tried a router. In fact, the unique features of routers is the reason a router won't work in this case. KingSteve has the right idea here.

 

Unless the hotel is tying the laptop's MAC to the line; which is still easy enough to work around, why wouldn't a router work?

People double NAT all the time.

I think instead of suggesting this poster BUY more hardware, we work with what we have. Worse case scenario, you turn the router INTO a switch to avoid more costs.

So hooked up to the router, we have no IP address? Or...?

While hooked to the router:

What is your IP address?
What is the result of you pinging google.com?
What router model/brand is it?
Does the hotel require authentication?

 

On your router, you need to enter the settings and disable DHCP. Then plug a cat5 cable from the wall into a REGULAR port on the router, NOT the WAN port.

 

That might work, assuming that the hotel is going to hand out multiple IPs.

Assuming.

 

Well, here's what I was thinking. AFAIK, people who "double NAT" generally need control or access to both routers. Am I right on that point? That's my understanding from various references such as Connecting two Routers together (joining two networks). At a hotel, he's not likely to have that. So, from a practical standpoint, connecting his router to the hotel's and doing what's necessary to get them setup is not feasible. And, since he's a frequent traveler and, presumably, stays at various hotels, that makes it even more impractical. Therefore, a switch seemed the most practical option.

 

No.

The only time one would need access to both routers would be when file sharing, gaming, or opening ports (aside from 80). The hotel gives a private IP.

That private IP becomes the Def. Gateway for the router. The router then hands out its own IPs to the LAN side.

 

thanks guy for all your help,sold my bro the wireless router i bought for this hotel motel internet thing. he gave me his old 5 port switch,works good had it up and running in 5 mins. running two laptops right now without a hitch. thanks again ( can't live without my internet)

 

Thanks much for the feedback. I've been thinking about this discussion and feeling a bit bewildered by some differing comments about routers. Glad to hear you've found the switch to be a solution.