Considerations

  While internet speed is important to you, you should also be concerned with privacy (safety) and possible cost. Below are some suggestions for things you can do to make your hotel internet experiences a little better.

Speed

  A wired connection will almost always be faster than a wireless one. Calling ahead to inquire if an ethernet jack is available may or may not assure you get one. Also, a wired connection is definitely more secure than a wireless one. If your device has no ethernet jack, you can purchase a USB to ethernet converter from Amazon for $13.99. As and alternative, you can consider traveling with an inexpensive wireless router that you can plug into the hotel's ethernet jack and broadcast to your device. Although this might seem counterintuitive, your "private" wireless network, properly configured, will be invisible from others, immune from hacking and you will be the sole user which will maximize the bandwidth.

  Since all hotel internet service is basically shared, logging on at off peak times can dramatically increase your speed. If you must have access at peak times, you should consider using your phone's hotspot/tether feature to see if it's faster.

  Finally, you can try your hotels "business center" to see if it has a higher priority, faster connection.

Cost

   Well, as usual you get what you pay for. A connection at Ed's beds is unlikely to outperform one at the Ritz Carelton. Here's a few links from selected hotel chains describing their technology:

    

Sheraton   Marriott   Fairmont

Safety

  Here's a few ideas on how to lessen your risks of being hacked: If just accessing sites with no login required and no personal info will be entered...

• If asked during access if you want others to see your stuff, say NO
• · Make SURE you change any file shares you have from "everyone" to "authorized users"
• Make SURE you don't have a file named "passwords", or better still any file with passwords in clear

If you must access anything using any of your passwords, do the following in addition to the steps above:

• If available, use any VPN connection or Remote Desktop connection immediately.
• If not, consider using your mobile data instead of the hotel wifi
• If all your passwords are the same, assign separate complicated ones to all your "money" sites using your mobile data immediately before proceeding and use different ones for sites that can't rob you.
• If using windows "home", upgrade to "pro" version ASAP, then encrypt all the directories with sensitive data. This will also be helpful if your machine is lost or stolen.