Bringing your own equipment with you while on the road often requires some planning ahead. If you plan to use an AppleTV while traveling you might want to bring some ethernet cables or a WiFi router along with you:
Since I travel a great deal, I have been wondering if there is a way I can use AppleTV and the hotel’s WiFi network to stream video from my laptop to their television. In looking at the Apple Support Discussions, it appears that a similar question has been raised by those in college dorms.
I realize that this requires a HDMI cord and port on the television. But is there a way that the Mac can then “talk” to the AppleTV?
Thanks, Bill
Hi Bill,
My initial thought is that this should work fine. As long as the Mac and AppleTV are on the same WiFi network, you should be able to use the Home Sharing to enable AirPlay from the laptop to the ATV and stream away. Have you tried this and found that it doesn’t work? What is the gist of the Apple Support Forums discussion?
Adam — That was my supposition as well, but not what I experienced. Here is an example of the Apple Discussions:
I live in a college apartment and am thinking about getting an Apple TV so we can watch all of the movies/tv shows that are in my iTunes on our tv. Our campus wireless network is not password [protected], but requires a login page be filled out (much like a hotel, or panera bread). https://discussions.apple.com/message/9855093
Ah, I see what’s happening. The setups you reference require a username/password login to the network. Unfortunately there’s no way to enter login info from the AppleTV directly.
This might change with a future software update, a similar feature is promised for iOS 5. Here’s one possible workaround: connect the laptop to hotel WiFi, then share the connection to the Ethernet port and connect the AppleTV and Mac via Ethernet cable. Or use the hotel’s wired network (if available) and bring your own WiFi router with you, like an Airport Express, which you can use to create a separate network your AppleTV and laptop can connect to.
Adam Rosen is an Apple certified IT consultant specializing in Macintosh systems new and old. He lives in Boston with two cats and too many possessions. In addition to membership in the Cult of Mac, Adam has written for Low End Mac and is curator of the Vintage Mac Museum. He also enjoys a good libation.
14 responses to “Can I Use an AppleTV in a Hotel Room? [Ask MacRx]”
Just get a small wireless router to use in your room
In a well setup guest network, client computers are prevented from establishing connections to one another. This is done for obvious security reasons. Even if you are able to get the ATV on the network, this security layer will prevent the ATV from connecting to your laptop.
As suggested though, a small wireless router, such as the Airport Express, will solve the problem.
or take your own airport Extreme with you (isn’t that big)
I do this all the time…it is sometimes okay depending on the wifi of the hotel. I take an Airport Express and plug it into the hotel rooms ethernet. I then connect to that via my laptop and authenticate through the Airport Express. After that the ATV2 is free to connect to the Airport Express and even use the internet to stream youtube.com and the like. Again this all depends on how the hotel’s network is, but at least you could stream your movies to the ATV2.
Alternatively use the iPhone 4 or 4S’ personal hotspot feature to create a wireless network, connect the Apple TV and Airplay and Mac to the network. Presto chango, no router required.
Or bring an HDMI adapter cable and plug the Mac in directly. (note: wires aren’t cool)
If you own a MacBook, they can create wireless networks of their own, under WiFi in the menubar. As long as you don’t need Internet on your Apple TV, then that should work fine just about anywhere!
I haven’t tested it yet though…
I travel quite a bit and carry my MBP, iPad, iPhone and an AppleTV with me as well as a full connection kit that can get me in and out of just about any TV or networking layout in most countries I visit. Additionally, as a programmer for over 35 years I am no slouch to this sort of thing.
What I tried for the longest time was an Apple TV and an ad hoc network created by my MBP, as described below. Unfortunately, I am often blocked, and as the AppleTV is powering up, it sticks on Setting Date And Time and cannot seem to hook up with the store/net, which makes in inoperable. I’ve tried setting up a VPN and routing all traffic through my cloud as well, no dice. There’s something in the way that it looks to the world that doesn’t play well with certain hotel networks. And oh: if I’m sharing the network, of course the “login page” is handled by the MBP and nothing is necessary for other devices. This is confirmed by iPad and iPhone operations, as well as my wires MBP (this keeps us down to only a single per-day charge at hotels, rather than multiple charges for all our devices).
After being just frustrated as hell that it was on-again-off-again I conceded. Now I carry 20-25 movies on my iPad and simply use the HDMI adapter (or HDMI->DVI, or iPad->VGA) to get into the TV and I’m all good. Carrying a couple hundred movies on the MBP (sometimes I’ll even bring a couple TB drive with lots of content if I’m going to be gone for a long time) and then just move movies that way.
My wife has moved to a MBA and we have the mini-display to HDMI adapter so we often use that as well now, whenever she’s with me.
But the hotel room AppleTV rig frustrated me enough times that it’s been relegated to the Nice Try bin. : /
Need to connect your Apple TV 2 or other devices to the
Internet using wifi from a hotel that requires a login screen but alas no web browser
to provide credentials? You know when you connect to your hotel’s wifi
network and the first time you try to access a webpage you are redirected to an
internal page asking you to present credentials such as a code provided by the
front desk or the name the room is registered under and the room number. Once
presented and you accept the terms your machine is registered and allowed
access to the Internet. So how do you accomplish this when your Apple TV does not have a web browser?
The authentication method is usually very simple such as
MAC/IP validation. When you connect to
the wifi network your MAC address is fetched from the ARP table and the
corresponding IP address that was assigned to you during the DHCP negotiation. When the 1st request for access to
an external site hits your gateway a lookup is done to see if the MAC/IP has
been authenticated if not then a redirect to the logon page is initiated. Here is where the simple non cryptic URL
comes into play. It will usually look
something like this:
http://ExampleISP.com/index.ad……
If it does you are in luck!
The construct of the URL string is done based on the IP associated with the NIC originating the request
but the fetch comes from an external db and is not directly queried from the PC.
In other words the webpage typically does not validate that the PC currently
displaying the URL actually has that specific MAC/IP combo it is just
assumed. So no MAC spoofing etc. is
required
This writeup is not meant to help gain unauthorized access
to the Internet or any other resources or to usurp any controls. It is assumed you have legitimate credentials
and have been granted the privilege of use from the provider. Check the terms and condition to ensure you
are not violating any conditions before proceeding.
Here is what is required to gain access:
Connect
your Apple TV to the WiFi network as usual. Go to
Settings>General>Network You
should see a valid IP address and MAC address (WiFi Address i.e. b8:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx) Keep this info handyConnect
to the same WiFi network from a device with web browser functionality such
as a PC/MAC/IPAD/IPHONE. Once
connected open a web browser and select an external site so that you are
redirected to the URL requesting credentials. Copy and Paste the URL to a text editor. Note:
Authentication is usually granted for extended period such as
24hrs so if you have already accessed the internet from the device you
may not be presented with the URL again till said time has lapsed so you
might have to check your history to obtain.Obtain
the MAC and IP address from the device you connected with in step 2. For PC
go to command line and type ipconfig /all
For
MAC go to a terminal session and type ifconfig
IPAD/IPHONE
go to Settings>General>About
(WiFi Address)Now
find the pattern in the URL that you copied to your text editor that matches
the MAC and IP address you obtained in step 3. Note for the MAC address you will see a “%3a”
pattern between 2 characters. This
is Hex for the “:” portion of the MAC address and should be left in place
instead of typing a “:”. If you
see a bunch of %3a strings you are probably in the correct place. Replace the two characters that are separated
by the %3a with the ones you obtained from your Apple TV in step 1 For example replace the first XX with b8 and so on. There are a total of 6 two character sets
in a MAC address that will need to be replaced.
XX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX%3aXX where XX is the replacement
Replace
the IP address portion of the URL with the IP address from your Apple TV
(step 1)Copy
the modified URL back into the web
browser and select enter. This in
essence is allowing you to use your PC as a proxy for accepting any terms
on behalf of your Apple TV. You
will then provide your legitimate credentials and accept the terms and
services agreement on behalf your Apple TV. Note: You must ensure your AppleTV is still actively
connected to the WiFi network with the IP address in the URL prior to
selecting the connect/ok/accept button if not then an error will most
likely be returned from the website indicating that MAC/IP combination is
not found.
Once you receive the confirmation page that access has been
granted that should be it and you will be able to access Netflix etc… from your
Apple TV for the duration of the validation period set forth by the
provider.
Note: If afterwords
you attempt to access an external site from the device utilized in step 2 you
will most likely be issued the authentication url once again. This time with the actual devices MAC/IP
address you will need to provide the
appropriate credentials and accept the terms for it as well.