Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

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fyfin
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Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby fyfin » Fri Dec 13, 2019 7:54 pm

A friend has rented an apartment for 5 months in a managed apartment block. You rent from the management company and can have wifi if you pay extra. It appears to be controlled by logging in on a web page and if you want more than one connection you obviously pay extra. However, he would like to have British TV as there is only French and Spanish on the TV in the apartment so I have a spare android box with VPN pre-loaded as well as BBc iPlayer etc.
However, I'm not sure if this will work or how it work, maybe when you try to connect to the wifi you will be redirected to a log in page and then all will be as normal.
Has anyone had experience of this?
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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby fyfin » Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:11 pm

Well, he's tried it but no success. None of the apps work and even though it shows connected, it's obviously not getting an internet connection.
Here is what the connection shows :-

Image

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xr7dcspgckfwv ... i.jpg?dl=0
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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby Mcphailan » Sat Dec 14, 2019 10:28 am

Does phone or laptop pick up the wifi? If so you can run the apps from there instead.

Tvmucho is really cheap and gets all uk freeview

Laptop preferable as can take hd lead to tv...as im sure Chromecast would not work given what you report.

Apologies in advance as im sure you tried this....

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fyfin
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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby fyfin » Sat Dec 14, 2019 10:47 am

Thank you. Yes the laptop works fine, I don't think he's tried the phone yet. I suppose he could install the vpn on the laptop and then iPlayer etc would work. It's not a Smart tv so he's need an Hdmi cable but a bit messy.
I have an idea that maybe because, at the moment, he has only paid for one connection, it might be linked to his laptop somehow, and so when he tried to log in with the android box, it wouldn't pick up the internet. I think I might need to visit him and have a look myself, but on Wednesday he'll have 4 connections so I'll leave it til then.
It's probably not something that people come across as they're mostly only short stay holidays, but he's there until May so they'd like some UK TV. At the moment it's only French and Spanish lol
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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby northandsouth » Sat Dec 14, 2019 10:55 am

Whilst he's trying various stuff to get UK TV it may be worth doing a check on the speed and ping on that connection too, shared wifi may not be enough to watch tv especially once a VPN is used.
In my experience in hotels etc shared wifi can be iffy

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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby Wicksey » Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:12 am

I've got SmartDNSProxy on my laptop which doesn't slow things down. When I'm away I take my laptop and can use an HDi cable to plug into the TV to watch, although I realise that's not ideal long term. It's basically what we did when we first lost the UK TV channels but it's fiddly, I agree.

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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby northandsouth » Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:08 pm

Wicksey wrote:I've got SmartDNSProxy on my laptop which doesn't slow things down. When I'm away I take my laptop and can use an HDi cable to plug into the TV to watch, although I realise that's not ideal long term. It's basically what we did when we first lost the UK TV channels but it's fiddly, I agree.
Yep same here with smartdnsproxy, the last hotel I stayed at in Madrid advertised 10mb/s in reality it was less than half a meg, and I paid extra for the 10 :cry: But they refunded me saying that it was all dependent on "many many factors outside of their control and there were lots of guests at the time".

I wonder how hotels transmit wifi, via repeaters I presume, smaller ones probably a router tucked under the desk in an office behind reception!? :lolno:

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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby Mcphailan » Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:36 pm

fyfin wrote:Thank you. Yes the laptop works fine, I don't think he's tried the phone yet. I suppose he could install the vpn on the laptop and then iPlayer etc would work. It's not a Smart tv so he's need an Hdmi cable but a bit messy.
I have an idea that maybe because, at the moment, he has only paid for one connection, it might be linked to his laptop somehow, and so when he tried to log in with the android box, it wouldn't pick up the internet. I think I might need to visit him and have a look myself, but on Wednesday he'll have 4 connections so I'll leave it til then.
It's probably not something that people come across as they're mostly only short stay holidays, but he's there until May so they'd like some UK TV. At the moment it's only French and Spanish lol
Well a HD cable is oK as last resort. Good to know. In meantime set tv to play original audio sound track as Spanish always broadcast this for English movies hooray! Even my 10 year old LG had this feature

And tvmucho is only 45 quid a year with no vpn needed
.it just streams what a uk pointing satellite (somewhere remote not your mates) is showing...it only needs steady 3 Mbps

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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby fyfin » Sat Dec 14, 2019 5:02 pm

It's more to do with getting BBC etc. Changing the language, now the signals are digital, is fairly easy for sure. Normally it wouldn't matter if it was only for a couple of weeks but they're staying at a holiday complex for 5 months. A very good deal actually on a 3 bed apartment in a sea front apartment block, there's not much occupancy at the moment and I've no idea how they work their wifi as the block is well spread out, probably repeaters of some sort. There is fibre optic there so I guess they have that. It's showing download speed of 65 mbps which is pretty good.
With regard to TV Mucho, I actually tried that at one time and it worked fine. Lots of other options too but I have Freedome vpn whch costs about £3 per year (£15 for 5 devices on Ebay), one of the easiest vpns to use that I have come across, so BBC etc is no problem and you get all the catch up and box sets.
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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby Mcphailan » Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:08 pm

I am pleased your VPN works first time with bbc iplayer. I chose nordvpn and have to keep trying maybe 4 or 5 times before I get something not geo blocked. Got fed up with that so just went for tvmucho straight onto bbc in hd

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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby fyfin » Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:19 pm

So far so good with Freedome. You can get the app from playstore and a free trial. No card details or anything like that needed.
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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby Mcphailan » Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:54 pm

Hahahaha yes thats the worry those bar stewards at beeb blocking new stuff

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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby peteroldracer » Sat Dec 14, 2019 8:11 pm

“ And tvmucho is only 45 quid a year with no vpn needed ”
€62.99 if you want HD & SD channels, and on 2 devices. Working really well so far, only twitches if internet drops but auto restart.
I used to cough to disguise a [email protected] I f@rt to disguise a cough.

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Re: Android box connecting to "Hotel" wifi

Postby Mcphailan » Sat Dec 14, 2019 8:43 pm

Agree! Hope they go on and on and stay cheap!


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