Data Doctors Tech Tip | Public Hotspots & Hotel WiFi

Ever wonder why you have to enter a password or room number to use the hotel WiFi? It's really not there to annoy you, it's to protect you.

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[threedaisies]

Thank you, it relieves much anxiety.

[melissaksmith]

To threedaises: In my experience using Hilton's WiFi, you need the room number and last name of the person who booked that room; and you have to re-enter that combination on a daily basis through the hotel's portal to continue using the connection. Since the last name changes however frequently a room is booked, that wouldn't be the easiest combination to guess at; unless of course you worked their and had access to that information.

[datadoctors_official]

No, it's generally a room number and a key phrase. The room number is essentially the user name, the password would be generated by the hotel and is unique to each user. For example, to use hotel WiFi at one hotel, we were given a unique ID for the day. That ID expired 24 hours after we used it.

That said, public WiFi that creates individual sessions, protects each session like a capsule. It's not open for the world to see.

[threedaisies]

How is the room number a protected connection? Can't someone pick random room numbers until they find an active user?

[datadoctors_official]

It's not the room number, it's the individual sessions. You are not using a giant, open to everyone, WiFi. You have your own little box.