How to turn your Macbook into a hotel wifi hotspot?

I'm in one of those most annoying hotels where they charge by the laptop, rather than by the room, and my buddy and I are aren't very happy paying $25/day for Internet! Isn't there some way we can use one of our Macs to share the connection?

Dave's Answer:

Yeah, it's amazing to me that all hotels don't just give you free Internet access as part of your room charge, but too many of 'em are run by accountants rather than people focused on the customer experience. I can't tell you the number of times I've spent more in a month on hotel Internet than on my high-speed connection in my office!

However, I suppose it's their hotel, not ours, so they get to pick their policies. That doesn't preclude us from having a bit of hacking fun and trying to circumvent things, does it?

What I really like are little wifi base unit gizmos like the Apple Airport Express or similar. For $99 it's a tiny little device that does just what you want.

If all you have are laptops, there's another cool solution, one that's super easy to set up on a Mac and super hard to set up - in my experience - on a PC: Set up a computer-to-computer network so that your computer becomes a wifi base station!

The wrinkle: the device that's going to act as a base station and let other computers piggy-back on the Internet connection has to be hard-wired into the network. That is, you can't connect to the hotel wireless via wifi and also serve as a base unit. If you have an Ethernet option and the right wire in your room, however, here's how you proceed...

The easiest way is to click on the wifi icon on your computer and choose "Create Network...":

The system them asks you to name your network. I suggest something memorable (I often have fun and name it things like "Hackers Rule" or similar, to freak out other hotel guests, but that's another story):

Check "Require Password" and enter a password: you don't *have* to do this but since anyone who connects can see the public material on your own computer, I strongly encourage even a rudimentary password.

mac os x create wifi network name password

Now you need to go and turn on Internet sharing. This is done by going to Apple --> System Preferences... --> Sharing, which looks like this:

and clicking on "Internet Sharing". When you do, it'll warn you:

It's all good. Choose "Start" and close that window.

Now your network should be up and running.

Part Two: Joining a Computer to Computer Network

Now let me show you real quickly what it looks like when you join a computer-to-computer network. In this case, the network is called "darbo". First, I click on the "airport icon on the menu bar and see my choices, including this one under "Devices":

Choose it, and like any other network you'd join that has a password, Mac OS X prompts you to enter the correct network password here:

Once you've done so, you're in! Now when you look at the airport menu, you'll see the Device network selected:

Notice the "Disconnect from darbo" option: that's the clean way to disconnect when you're done, but I'm sure you can just close your laptop and everything'll be fine.

With a little bit of practice, you'll find that you can set up impromptu wireless networks in just a minute or two, and if you're saving $10-15/day by doing so, well, that's well worth the effort.

Categorized: Mac OS X Help (Article 8803, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: apple airport, computer to computer networks, hotel wifi, wifi network, wireless networks
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Comments

Way cool, DaveTaylor! You rock!
This is news I can use.
Thanks.

Posted by: Toosinbeymen at March 25, 2009 4:20 AM

Great idea!

However if there is a need for an ethernet connection this only works in fewer settings because more and more hotels use WiFi.

My solution is the following: I use a Asus WL-330GE "pocet router/ethernet adapter/ethernet gateway". You can set this device in different modes and in one of these modes it connects to the wifi-nework and acts as a hotspot in the same time (using different subnets / NAT).

Another mode it supports is when it acts as an "wifi-to-ethernet adapter". In this mode I hook it up to my "FritzBox" (a router/Voip/telefon/DSL-modem etc. that is veeeeery popular in Germany), configure the VOIP and WiFi settings and connect the phone from the hotelroom to the box. In the "FritzBox" I put the MAC-Adress and the IP-Settings from my Laptop so the hotel-WiFi thinks this is my laptop "calling".

With this config I have my own LAN/WLAN and my telephone number from home without paying roaming for the mobile phone nor having to pay the phonebills from the hotel without loosing the comfort of using a regular phone.

You can find the WL-330GL at amazon for about 60$. It has about the size of a credit card (only a bit thicker) and an even be powersupplied through an USB cable - ideal for traveling.

Posted by: Gabriel at June 5, 2009 3:31 PM

Thank you so much, this was such a handy guide. I'm living in India as a student and have my mac and iphone here with me. My iphone is unlocked and using a prepaid sim, but can't connect to the countries data network just yet. I've been trying to find ways to use it online but with a serious lack of wifi hotspots I can't easily update it. This proved to be the most effective solution. Thanks again!

Posted by: Nick at September 6, 2009 4:31 AM

Nice to have a guide for this. For some time I have been using my iPhone to tether my laptop (countries other than US have this as standard feature). So when I got my iPad I was searching for a way to connect to the net since i don't always have a hotspot nearby. This may be a bit extreme, but I tether the iPhone to the Macbook, then share the wifi internet to the iPad. Best part is, the experience is very satisfying and I can have fun surfing the net with my iPad in a comfortable chair while all the other equipment sits on the desk doing the network work.

Cheers!

Posted by: Wayne at April 22, 2010 2:50 PM

Alright, I was able to follow the steps here and everything is working! However, I realized that my mobile phone (which is WLAN capable) and another computer in our home were able to connect to my macbook network WITHOUT prompting for a password, and were able to connect to the internet. I really find this strange as I sure put in a password to secure my network. I did it like 5 times, but the same, no password was asked when other device tried to connect to my network. It seems that even though a password was set, my network is always "unsecured" as any computer may connect to it without prompting for a password. Anyone can help me? Thanks!

Posted by: Paolo at April 29, 2010 3:31 AM

Ignore my previous post, I already got it!

Cheers!

Posted by: Paolo at April 29, 2010 9:03 PM

I think its BS that we cant use this feature while connected to wifi and can only use ethernet/aircard. its so typical apple, great ideas but fall just short of perfect. I would love to know if we can trick the macbook to thinking its on ethernet and allow the network setup. i travel and i only get one sign on for my user name/pass so when i want to connect iphone or ipad to wifi it disconnects my macbook. guess apple figures you dont need to share wifi, but they got that wrong.

Posted by: Harold at July 5, 2010 9:29 AM

Thanks a lot! How can i do this on a windows computer, if possible?
rgds,

Posted by: Kreach at January 27, 2011 12:13 AM

Nice article!
I bought the Airport Express for this purpose and more.
You can use it in a few different way's

1. Connected to your DSL modem with Ethernet cable so it acts as wireless access point.
2. Connect wireless to your wireless Router and connect a stereo audio wire to it which connects to your stereo/powered speakers so you can stream music
3. Connect its Ethernet cable to your wireless router and let it act as repeater to widen your wireless range.
4. connect with Ethernet cable to your laptop, let it connect to a hotspot/free WiFi/Hacked WiFi/Hotel WiFi and do as mentioned above, share the wireless connection of the Macbook so it acts as Hotspot for iPad, iPhone, Laptop, whatever.
5. set it up as a Wireless repeater but this will slow down the connection.

Its a really handy little tool!
I tried all the setups and they work and now I know how to do it in case I want it quickly!

Posted by: Peter at June 8, 2011 9:56 AM

This doesn't work with Lion 10.7.

Can create & join the wi-fi hotspot created by the macbook, but can't access the internet even though Internet Sharing is turned on.

Anyone got Lion to work correctly to create a hotspot?

Posted by: Ken at August 21, 2011 11:21 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!