How to get around censored wifi at Best Western hotel?

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Oleg Volk

These retards are running some sort of “webnanny” and blocking sites I need. Any suggestions how to get around this? I will complain to the management in the morning, but I doubt it would help much. Could change hotels, I suppose…

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30 Responses to How to get around censored wifi at Best Western hotel?

  1. WB says:
    February 24, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    Need to login in to a VPN provider.
    One example is proXPN.com

    • Oleg Volk says:
      February 24, 2014 at 8:56 pm

      Tried proXPN — now it works and quickly enough.

      I am curious: since when are hotels in the business of annoying their own customers?

      • Sigivald says:
        February 27, 2014 at 1:27 pm

        I suspect some corporate lawyer said something like “if we don’t do this, some hyperventilating mom is going to sue us because Junior Google-searched some porn at our hotel”.

        The worst part is, he’s probably right about that.

    • anonymous says:
      February 26, 2014 at 10:27 am

      “These retards are running some sort of ‘webnanny’ and blocking sites I need… since when are hotels in the business of annoying their own customers?”

      Maybe the hotel company was responding to a market demand?

      “Best Western International, Inc., operator of the Best Western Hotel brand, is the world’s largest hotel chain, with over 4,195 hotels in over 100 countries. The chain, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, operates more than 2,000 hotels in North America alone. Best Western has a marketing program involving placement of free Wi-Fi access hotspots in its hotels.”

      Hooray for multi-national corporations!

      If you don’t like it:

      (1) complain
      (2) stop complaining and go to another hotel
      (3) stop complaining and start your own hotel company

  2. Leo C says:
    February 24, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    Hey Oleg. I used to use Coral Cache to get around this sort of nonsense in my high school computing class. Getting done with the bullshit powerpoint/word assignments in 3 minutes left a lot of time for flash/mud games that often got netnannied. All you need to do is add .nyud.net at the end of the URL (but before the forward slashes). For example: http://networkedblogs.com.nyud.net/U6VcO

    Hope that works!

    • BLADE says:
      February 28, 2014 at 8:34 am

      Thanks MAN! Now I can view my Knife Supply and Bang Stick sites that are blocked by Big Bro here at work. Maybe even sites that were prevously bocked for “Religion” like my name Churchman.

      • anonymous says:
        March 1, 2014 at 1:46 pm

        “Now I can view my Knife Supply and Bang Stick sites that are blocked by Big Bro here at work.”

        So it’s OK to use somebody else’s network for unauthorized purposes? I guess as long as you’re not one of those people who believe in property rights, you’re not being hypocritical.

        • CarlS says:
          March 1, 2014 at 2:32 pm

          Paraphrasing here: “So it’s okay to use some other place’s public library to read a book that some people think you shouldn’t read?”

          • anonymous says:
            March 5, 2014 at 11:02 am

            I realize that no argument by analogy is perfect, but yours is full of fail.

            Who owns the public library, and what are the terms of use of the public library? Contrast with who owns the private network, and what are the terms of use (a contract) of the private network.

            I really don’t care of conservatives and libertarians want to steal Best Western’s network bandwidth. But stop preaching about “property rights” and the “sanctity of contract” and all that other morality crap that makes you as smug and self-righteous as the most insufferable of left-wing liberals. Yeah, you guys like capitalism, until it inconveniences you.

        • BLADE says:
          March 3, 2014 at 8:06 am

          I’ll agree, “it’s OK”.

  3. Patrick Vadnais says:
    February 24, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    I try to leave Team Viewer running on my Linux box and Remote Desktop on a Windows machine at home so I can just remote into a home computer. I believe Team Viewer is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and is free for personal use. http://www.download.com (CNET) is where I got it.

    Is anyone at home who could install it on a computer for you so you can then remote into it?

  4. Dave says:
    February 24, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    We use privateinternetaccess as our VPN. It works all over the world and it’s pretty cheap.

  5. rd says:
    February 24, 2014 at 11:54 pm

    Definitely ask to speak to the manager directly and lodge your complaint. Ask him for the contact info for the district manager too.

  6. Trent Harris says:
    February 25, 2014 at 12:15 am

    Oleg, I work with the two largest hospitality orgs in the US and I can tell you, their bandwidth is very limited. I mean VERY. They filter content to conserve bandwidth. They are moving to a more premium type of paid offering but until then, I wouldn’t expect content filtering to go away quickly. That doesn’t help your current situation, but I would suggest you consider using your mobile phone as a Wifi hotspot. As much as a travel and having VZW 4G, the monthly cost is well worth the price. I rarely will pay for Wifi access in any hotel.

    • anonymous says:
      February 26, 2014 at 10:40 am

      “I work with the two largest hospitality orgs in the US and I can tell you, their bandwidth is very limited. I mean VERY. They filter content to conserve bandwidth.”

      You mean this is about – gasp! – profit?

      Use of VPN or other technical solutions may be a violation of the contract that Oleg agreed to when he connected to Best Western’s network. Since so many people here claim to believe in the sanctity of contracts, check first.

      For a group of people who claim to believe in the sanctity of contracts, make sure that you have paid for unrestricted internet service.

      • Oleg Volk says:
        March 5, 2014 at 11:04 am

        When I contracted for the room, it included “free wifi” and there was nothing about restrictions until I actually arrived. So Best Western engaged in false advertising.

    • Sigivald says:
      February 27, 2014 at 1:28 pm

      That, too – hotel networks are almost always slow.

      People streaming porn both a) cuts the Hotel out of money for pay-per-view but possibly more importantly b) makes the internet access unusable.

      I would not be surprised if many hotels shared a single 50mbit business cable link between every room on the site.

      Or worse.

  7. Stephen Carville says:
    February 25, 2014 at 2:04 am

    I use ssh to set up a SOCKS proxy to one of my servers.

  8. Jeff says:
    February 25, 2014 at 2:08 am

    I use BolehVPN. Its good for that but it still doesn’t help the abysmal speeds that are usually available… Its really a shame that Hotels don’t provide decent internet service in this day and age.

    Don’t even get me started on paid internet access. I recently found out that the Vegas hotel I work at charges something like $30/24 hours for really crappy access. I know they have good network connections, we have really good connectivity at work.

  9. Dan O'Brien says:
    February 25, 2014 at 6:50 am

    Sometimes they use DNS nanny that blocks resolving certain sites. Reset your DNS server to use google at 8.8.8.8, instead.

  10. anonymous says:
    February 26, 2014 at 10:48 am

    “censored wifi”

    Is it censorship if a private entity does it?

    The reason I’m asking is that I have often heard conservatives (especially “cultural conservatives”) and libertarians object to the term “censorship” when applied to a non-government entity. ie, “It’s not censorship when a company does it, only when the government does it”.

    • Kristophr says:
      February 26, 2014 at 7:23 pm

      It isn’t.

      But then you should make a reservation at a new hotel if you can, haul your stuff out, and demand a refund, since they didn’t actually provide you with real internet access.

      If you can’t afford a proper T1, then don’t try to pawn off a wifi tethered cellphone or POTs modem as “internet access”.

    • anonymous says:
      February 27, 2014 at 9:03 am

      “you should make a reservation at a new hotel if you can, haul your stuff out, and demand a refund”

      Why? Is Best Western in breach of contract?

      Or are you suggesting that Oleg should break the contract he has with Best Western — he (probably) agreed to pay $X for a room for Y days — and demand compensation for doing so?

    • Sigivald says:
      February 27, 2014 at 1:30 pm

      Yes, but it’s not a free speechi issue.

      The problem libertarians and conservatives usually have with “calling it censorship” is that the people doing that calling then categorize it as a free speech violation and demand the State “fix it”.

      At least that’s my experience re. others, and the only context in which I’ve argued against such claims (and I do so not by denying the word applies, but by pointing out the same thing I did here).

  11. Jacob says:
    February 26, 2014 at 7:20 pm

    I believe you could even just use Tor browser. It’s not fast though.

  12. Brant says:
    February 26, 2014 at 11:31 pm

    I know its not much help in your present situation, but I use a wifi hotspot from my cell phone provider. Keeps me from having to worry about what a hotel or other guest might have on their network. Also doesnt have any nanny restrictions. Its pretty ideal for travel.

  13. Ed says:
    February 27, 2014 at 3:31 am

    Check out VPN Gate. http://www.vpngate.net it is a free VPN service. The hotel’s ISP can not block what they can not see.

  14. Paul Koning says:
    February 28, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    I’ve used proxies from a list on http://www.hidemyass.com in the past, not for the reason you ran into, but to be able to access foreign TV network web content that was restricted by country. It’s much easier to see speed skating video when you go to the Dutch TV website…

  15. anonymous says:
    March 6, 2014 at 2:49 pm

    When I contracted for the room, it included “free wifi”

    Did you get “free wifi”? It sounds like you did. (Although only a liberal would believe it was “free”. Somebody had to pay for it).

    Did Best Western promise unlimited and unrestricted internet access? If not, stop complaining just because you failed to do due dilligence.

    Next thing I know, you’re going to be advocating for “net neutrality“, instead of letting corporations decide what packets can go over their privately-owned networks. Jeez! If you want socialism, go back to Russia.

    Best Western engaged in false advertising.

    If Best Western is so deceptive, how do they stay in business? Shouldn’t the market have corrected this behavior years ago?

    You sound like those whiny liberals who think that corporations are out to screw consumers with fine print in adhesion contracts. If Best Western was in breach of contract, take them to court and sue them for damages. Isn’t that the libertarian solution? Instead, everyone here is advocating that you steal bandwidth from a corporation’s privately-owned network. I’m sure the ghost of Ayn Rand would be proud of you thieves and moochers.

    The next time I’m at your house and ask to borrow your phone, I’m sure you won’t mind if I use it to make long-distance calls or call 900 numbers.

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