hotel wi-fi

[gr8owl]

I keep hearing that some hotel chains block access via their wi-fi to certain sites - including this one.  Just curious - which ones?  More to the point everyone's thoughts on using their wi-fi to connect to certain sites anyway - leaving a record that matches your stay, etc.

[Guest]

Mountainrider33 is right, if you are worried or can't connect, use a VPN.  Probably the main reason hotel chains would want to block porn sites is to steer you towards their PAID TV offerings more than policing what you are doing.  Usually how filtering is done is by category rather than individual sites, so ToB while technically not a porn site is flagged as Adult Entertainment in filtering software and is blocked by many filtering services.  Of course some places block VPN traffic, but that's mostly nation states and not so much commercial entities.  That said Starbucks is going to block porn in 2019.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/365186/starbucks-to-block-public-wi-fi-porn-in-2019?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=whatsnewnow&utm_medium=title

Opera has a version with a VPN built into the browser.  Haven't tried it yet but it would make it a little less cumbersome because the browser would handle the VPN setup and traffic for you:  https://www.opera.com/computer/features/free-vpn

[Guest]

I tried to add this as an edit but wasn't fast enough:

To your question regarding leaving a record that matches your stay, I would only worry about it in relation to staying at a high end hotel that has the $ to have a security staff that would actually look at these things and might be incentivized to keep illicit activities on their grounds to a minimum.  Most mainstream and lower end hotels barely have enough staff to keep things rolling, while resorts in Vegas have huge security staffs monitoring a lot of stuff (granted mostly the gaming areas, but still).

I also have not stayed anywhere that has actively blocked anything.  Mostly it's just been crappy wifi and slow speeds.

[Desperado]

I was a hotel manager in the 90’s when dial up was the main way of connecting to the internet.  That said I find it hard to believe that hotels are going out of their way to block sites that aren’t blatantly illegal.  Anyone who has worked the front desk of a hotel knows the volume of requests and complaints that come in and net nanny issues would be the last thing I would want to deal with.  Generally speaking, if your bill was paid and you weren’t trashing the room or creating issues for other guests or the staff we didn’t care what you were doing and I would imagine that holds true today.  Even blocking porn sites to steer people to hotel pay per view makes little sense.  People will just switch to their cell plan and then not stay at your hotel again and repeat business is the name of the game.  We actually had a porn shoot in one of the suites in our 4 star downtown hotel that we discovered because they ordered room service and the guy who delivered it saw the lights, crew, and actors in bathrobes. He was excitedly telling everyone about it and we all had a good laugh and let it go because they tipped well and nobody was complaining.

[2Big]

I'll just throw my phone into wifi hotspot mode, and there you go, I'll watch Gianna Michaels get rambonered by 12 inch dick all night long. 

[ilovewomen]

I’ve never run into this problem 

[Audrey Astor]

I have run into this issue at a hotel as well as when using a public WiFi connection. Therefore I never connect to the hotel WiFi anymore. 

[BadBoy]

29 minutes ago, 2Big said:

I'll just throw my phone into wifi hotspot mode, and there you go.

This is what I have been doing, works great everywhere and less chance of being hacked as well.

[K2dnvrfun]

Hidemyass is another good VPN I used to use

[Milos Vesely]

Lot of hotels throttle my bandwidth, so I go back to my own plan.   Probably not censorship but most likely cost issues.

[Leena_rose]

I'm definitely too nervous to use hotel wifi for hobbying. Always use a VPN

[Guest]

Thank you for this one. I’m all set up. Now, as far as you know, I’m a horny old man from somewhere in the South Pacific. 😎

[seneca12]

No one working at a hotel gives a shit about what sites you are visiting. They don't give a shit if you have girls visiting your room every night. The only thing they give a shit about is if you are causing complaints from other guests, or creating complaints yourself in relation to your hobby. That is the only reason you will even be notable to the underpaid schlubs working at the hotel. You don't have to be deep cover, you just have to not be a problem. Maybe you'll be noticed, but as long as you aren't diddling kids no one will care.

As for chains blocking certain sites, they do if you're trying to use the public computers in the lobby. As for the general wifi, it's a free for all and if it isn't, use a VPN.

[gr8owl]

6 hours ago, seneca12 said:

No one working at a hotel gives a shit about what sites you are visiting. They don't give a shit if you have girls visiting your room every night. The only thing they give a shit about is if you are causing complaints from other guests, or creating complaints yourself in relation to your hobby. That is the only reason you will even be notable to the underpaid schlubs working at the hotel. You don't have to be deep cover, you just have to not be a problem. Maybe you'll be noticed, but as long as you aren't diddling kids no one will care.

As for chains blocking certain sites, they do if you're trying to use the public computers in the lobby. As for the general wifi, it's a free for all and if it isn't, use a VPN.

Do a google search of "hotels and human trafficking" and then tell me how your "nobody gives a shit" compares to reality. Informationally, no the complaint was not about public computers in the lobby it was a private computer in the room trying to use the hotel provided wifi. And it let generic porn sites thru while blocking tob. My point in posting was simply to see how widespread the issue was and make folks aware and hear about best work arounds. But thanks for the opinion that it isn't happening. I know it is.

[Chrissy]

14 hours ago, LightningP said:

Thank you for this one. I’m all set up. Now, as far as you know, I’m a horny old man from somewhere in the South Pacific. 😎

Ahhhh man.. Why didn't you Choose Somewhere awesome like Russia 😂😂 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Chrissy said:

Ahhhh man.. Why didn't you Choose Somewhere awesome like Russia 😂😂 

Right? WTF was I thinking?

[Audrey Astor]

11 hours ago, gr8owl said:

Do a google search of "hotels and human trafficking" and then tell me how your "nobody gives a shit" compares to reality. Informationally, no the complaint was not about public computers in the lobby it was a private computer in the room trying to use the hotel provided wifi. And it let generic porn sites thru while blocking tob. My point in posting was simply to see how widespread the issue was and make folks aware and hear about best work arounds. But thanks for the opinion that it isn't happening. I know it is.

Yes it happens, and it’s not new. When I was in TX (2012), the hires had a certain TX site blocked. That is when I started using my own hotspot. I thought “they didn’t care” as well.

I also dated one of those “schlubs” that works for a hotel. He gave me his login information to book us a room. And what did I find on their employee site? A whole “human  trafficking” training. What we do is now under the human trafficking umbrella. 

So you keep telling yourself they don’t care. I choose to be over cautious and pay attention.😉