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Why Hotel Wi-Fi Isn’t What it Used to Be

April 10th, 2012 FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Except for guests older than 60, travelers now see free Wi-Fi as a bigger priority than free continental breakfasts: A Hotels.com infographic shows that 38 percent of travelers call it “a must,” compared to 25 percent for free breakfast (and 18 percent for free parking).

Despite that, many hotels place restrictions on their Wi-Fi usage … some understandable, others bizarre, and others simply the product of advancing technology. Here’s a look at some of the things that might be keeping you from your free Wi-Fi.

Hotel Wi-Fi use fees

These are most common at metropolitan hotels like the Sheraton and the Marriott, where they’re desirable to stay at because of their central location and their status as event hosting venues moreso than anything else. For instance, the Sheraton in downtown Atlanta, Georgia not only charges guests to use the in-room Wi-Fi, but limits them to only two hours of use time on the Wi-Fi connection in the lobby.

Ads placed on the websites you visit

Not only do these hotels often charge extra for Wi-Fi (or for opening any of the food and drink items placed in the room), but as technology expert Justin Watt discovered, at least one hotel — the Marriott on Times Square — has a device that can put its own ads on the web pages you visit. The technology used, which is actually called “Revenue eXtraction Gateway,” not only broke at least one feature of a website Watt visited but did so with no explanation or warning.

Watt had to do a lot of digging and asking for friends’ help to interpret the code he was looking at to find out what “rxg” meant, and that it was a hidden antifeature of the Marriott’s $16.95 per night Wi-Fi. It’s designed to place ads on websites that guests visit, which could then “eXtract” revenue for the Marriott.

Marco Arment, Instapaper developer and web programmer, notes that this technology is “a potentially huge security hole if the code is poorly written or the systems are poorly guarded, both of which are likely on products like this.”

Slow browsing speeds

Some of today’s tablets are able to stream video over a 3G or 4G connection. But as Cnet’s Jessica Dolcourt explains, that video can eat through your monthly megabytes fast. Thank goodness for hotel Wi-Fi, right?

Not so fast. You’re not the only one turning to Netflix instead of your hotel’s cable; Tecca’s Mariella Moon shows how people watching videos and browsing the web on their iPads, which are especially travel-friendly gadgets, are turning free Wi-Fi connections into the slow lane. Which is one reason some hotels have tiered Internet service, relegating everyone who doesn’t pay extra to the slow shared connection.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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