Bad WLAN in the hotel - what to do?

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A bad WLAN in the hotel, what to do? This question is less of a concern for holidaymakers than for those who often travel on business and are dependent on the WLAN service in hotels.

Why is the Wi-Fi in hotels often not very efficient?

Whether the 5-star resort or the simple accommodation, what they all have in common is that they all have a DSL line, which ultimately does not offer outstanding bandwidth. After all, savings are made wherever possible, including on Internet contracts.

Wi-Fi hotspots are not always found on all floors, sometimes only in the lobby, which is more or less inviting to linger. Often less so, as guests should not block the few seats there for too long to give others the chance to use the Internet while seated.

The finite bandwidth is initially reserved for hotel operations. What is "left over" is given to guests, often for a fee. It should be seen as an additional service that gives guests rudimentary access to Internet content and e-mail.
To ensure that an online games fan, for example, does not use up the entire bandwidth, the quota is divided between the number of guests with average occupancy. This leaves only a fraction of the "remainder" available to all guests for the respective guest, just enough to satisfy the basic online needs mentioned above.

Some hotels offer "premium" access for an additional charge. Here, the quota is simply increased. Nevertheless, a share of the "rest" remains, even if it is now larger. It is irrelevant whether the hotel provides the guest with Wi-Fi or their own router.
If you are dependent on downloading and uploading cloud content, your patience will be put to the test here at the latest, and Zoom meetings, for example, are rarely seamless.

The way out

The cell phone as a hotspot or a battery-powered pocket router with its own SIM card.

Cell phone as hotspot

The cell phone as a hotspot is, with good network coverage, the most frequently used lifeline in such situations, even if it is only used temporarily as a makeshift, because the WLAN of the cell phone that is made available as a hotspot only serves low bandwidths and therefore the speed is rarely sufficient for professional purposes.

Pocket router

Mobile routers, which have built-in rechargeable batteries that can last a working day, are operated with their own SIM card and provide WLAN with the maximum possible bandwidth.

The advantage of using it abroad is that you buy a local prepaid data card, which is generally much cheaper than the costs of a WLAN in a hotel, not to mention the comparatively modest performance.

The mobile router usually offers external antenna sockets (this is more of interest for motorhome drivers or at home) to minimize the radiation in the room / hotel room. However, the router can also simply be placed on the windowsill (even outside), which ensures maximum reception performance and minimum radiation on the one hand, and the window pane does not cause any noticeable loss of WLAN on the other.

Such devices are not only suitable for the simultaneous connection of several end devices (cell phone, tablet, laptop, etc.), but also for excessive cloud access, teleconferencing, etc.

5G - yes or no?

This is where opinions differ. Anyone who suffers from EHS (electro-hyper-sensitivity) will want to steer well clear of 5G. But it makes a difference whether you are in the direct radiation field of a 5G transmitting antenna (which has a significantly higher transmission power/radiation density than a cell phone or mobile router).

Unfortunately, you can't avoid holding your cell phone to your ear, except when talking hands-free. The wired headset is not a good alternative either, as the cable acts as a conductor for the transmitting power emitted by the cell phone. An alternative is to use a Bluetooth headset, but this also exposes you to radiation, albeit much lower and less harmful, while the cell phone is ideally placed by the window and you move to the other end of the room.

5G offers a - theoretically - up to ten times higher data rate and only a hundredth of the latency of 4G (LTE). The significantly faster connection setup is almost more important than the - practical - increase in bandwidth. The development was based on real-time communication, e.g. for control purposes.

Moreover, not all 5G is the same. This is because 5G transmitters operating in the 700 MHz band are only slightly higher than the private transmitters in the UHF TV band at the time and pose no health risks. On the other hand, they have a greater range, as lower frequencies are less attenuated by foliage, buildings, etc.
However, if the 5G system transmits in the range from 6 GHz upwards, the range decreases significantly with increasing frequency, which is why the transmission masts have to be erected at much smaller distances from each other in order to be able to maintain a reliable connection even in snow or heavy rain, which means that the radiation exposure is much higher and, due to the frequency, more harmful to health.

A mobile 5G router, like a cell phone, is not a stationary 5G transmitter and is therefore not comparable in terms of health aspects.
The WLAN router has a clear advantage over the cell phone because the antennas can be installed outside the room. Thanks to the powerful WLAN, there is also the pleasant alternative of using VoIP providers for telephony and thus also eliminating cell phone radiation.

Which mobile router is the best?

This is an understandable question to ask yourself, as you want to make an investment that will not only meet your current requirements, but will also be able to do so in the future.

Such devices are available in the range of around 100 ... 900 euros.
In memory of the guiding principle, whoever buys cheap buys twice; and whoever has the money for it is also in a position to buy something better for a little more money ... is usually right with the golden mean.

Accordingly, the TP-Link M8550 special attention:

• 5G - up to 3.4 GBit/s down / 900 MBit/s upload
• 4G - up to 1.6 GBit/s down / 200 MBit/s upload
• WiFi - up to 3.6 GBit/s (2.4 GHz up to 688 MBit/s, 5 & 6 GHz 2.88 GBit/s)
• MicroSD up to 2 TB
• 4680 mAh rechargeable battery, operating time up to 15 hours, USB-C charging socket
• 1.44″ touch screen
• TS-9 ext. antenna connections
  All commercially available 5G antennas can be used via TS-9 to SMA adapter
• up to 32 clients
• Nano SIM
• Weight 273 g
• approx. 340 Euro

External antennas

The shorter the antenna cable, the lower the losses. It doesn't help if a long cable compensates for the antenna gain.

Plug-in or screw connections must always be tightened firmly to ensure that the HF connections make good contact.

Antenna cables must not be kinked or even pinched between the window and the window frame, as this would adversely affect the RF properties of the cable.

Below are two antennas designed or particularly suitable for this mobile router:

Poynting XPOL-2-5G

• Stationary application
• 5G MIMO antenna (omnidirectional, pole-mounted)
• Gain 3 dBi (horizontal), 5 dBi (vertical)
• 698 - 3,800 MHz
• SMA connection
• Dimensions 287 x 262 x 151 mm (incl. holder)
• Weight 1,860 g
• link

Netgear 6000451-10000S

• Mobile application (omnidirectional MIMO)
• Gain 2.5 dBi
• 1710 - 5.925 MHz
• TS-9 connection
• Dimensions 160 x 120 x 5.5 mm
• Weight 200 g
• link

Conclusion

The TP-Link M8550 in conjunction with the external antenna from Netgear is ideal for the use case mentioned at the beginning, all components are compact, lightweight, can be connected without an adapter and are extremely powerful.