Just plug in the portable router to the Ethernet jack in your room (you may have to steal the port from the cable box or other networked device in the media center, but we won’t tell), fire up the router, and connect to the router with your smartphone, tablet, or computer to configure the Chromecast just like you would at home. All you need is a compact travel router like the HooToo Tripmate (a great little router we reviewed earlier this year and gave solid marks ), an Ethernet cable, and you’re ready to rock. How does this benefit you in your quest to get the very Wi-Fi only Chromecast online? It benefits you because you can bridge the Wi-Fi gap on your own terms by using a travel router.
In our experience the Ethernet jacks in hotel rooms are very rarely secured in any fashion and you can simply plug in a device and go.
In an age when everyone is connecting wireless and the bulk of a hotel’s security efforts are focused on the wireless network, Ethernet jacks represent a sort of portal to Narnia where the data flows free and fast. Most modern hotel rooms have Ethernet jacks.
Let’s take a look at several ways you can get the Chromecast online in your hotel room and you can select the fit that’s best for your budget and patience. This bit is a pain but you can, in fact, work around it with a little creativity. The second problem is the issue of authentication splash screens wherein you can log into the Wi-Fi freely but you need to first stop off at a splash page and accept terms of service, plug in your room number, or otherwise authenticate yourself as a valid user of the Wi-Fi system. There’s no way to work around that limitation without bringing in additional hardware. Unfortunately AP isolation completely breaks the Chromecast as it needs to talk to other devices on the network (specifically to the smartphone, tablet, or computer you’re controlling it with).
This is a good security measure that prevents other hotel guests from gaining access to your devices (if you, for example, mistakenly turned on network sharing for the Wi-Fi network and left your shared folders wide open). First, the network may have AP/client isolation turned out wherein any client on the Wi-Fi network is isolated from any other client. There are two fundamental problems inherent in setting up a Chromecast on a hotel Wi-Fi network. While you might be able to recreate the simple at-home setup if you happen to be staying in a bed and breakfast or a small non-chain hotel with simple Wi-Fi configurations, the simple setup process falls apart in large hotel chains with managed infrastructures. What you’d like to do, transport this setup away from your home to a hotel room, is in fact doable but not by setting up the Chromecast in the traditional fashion. From that point forward as long as you are also on that network (and can access the Chromecast across the network) you can control it. You plug in the credentials for the Wi-Fi network you want it to use, and it connects to that network.
Upon first configuration, the Chromecast itself acts like a micro hotspot for the express purpose of you connecting to the Chromecast to configure it and tell it how to connect to a larger and more functional network. The basic setup of the Chromecast system is simple. How the Chromecast Works and Away-from-Home Networking Woes