I don't stay in many hotels but haven't found one with a strong wi-fi signal in the room. My USB adapter works fine in the lobby. This occurs in Days Inn, Quality Inn, Innkeeper, and The Brant(?) (the old Adams Mark in Charlotte, NC). Is it my cheap-o eHome device or is this a common experience?
I find that the USB adapters are not that great because they use a very small antenna and they are usually under powered. I would only use a USB wifi stick if you could actually see the wifi router. My 802.11b Orinoco Gold card can pick up signals very well. It does even better when I hook up an external antenna to it. I would say if you want to always get the best signal get a good PCMCIA card. They cost a little more but they are worth it. I just picked up a new Orinoco 802.11b/g card for $65 to replace my old Orinoco 802.11b card. I also picked up the Linksys WRT54GL to do some hacking with.
If you've got a way to continuously watch signal strength as you walk around with the laptop, watch it as you walk away from the lobby [where at least one of the APs likely is]. Then get a friend with a different setup to do the same... not all the interfaces have reasonable antennas, i.e. geared for the home market where it doesn't have to punch very far.. . _H*
I've had varying degrees of success with hotel/motel wi-fi. I don't need to worry about it anymore, though. I got mobile broadband about a year ago. You can't beat the portability, and I'm no longer dependent on someone else's network (other than Sprint's) when I'm traveling.
I'm not sure Wi-Fi is generally available in individual hotel/motel rooms, so I don't think your usb receiver is a problem. I don't travel often in the US, but my international experience has been that public areas like a lobby, bar or meeting room of a hotel might have free Wi-Fi, but internet service in the individual rooms is wired and cost money.
Most hotels/motels I stay at now have in-room wireless. I've never had good luck with USB adapters. If you really want range try something like this: Ultimate Range Notebook Kit || Notebook Wifi I also ask specifically for a room with a good signal when I make the reservation. They genrally know which ones are better
My wife's older laptop doesn't have built-in wireless so I bought a USB WiFi stick. Shame on me for going cheap! We live in a small condo and she can't receive a steady signal in the living room from the den where the wireless router is. My work computer with the built-in always has a very strong signal.
When we stay in hotels, we always travel with a cable so we can just directly plug in. Sometimes the WiFi works, sometimes it doesn't, but hotels are supposed to have connectors available in the rooms. It's just one less source of frustration.
Im actually in a Holiday inn epress in Kenosha wis right now and the wi fi is really good. 3rd floor in the room. Only downside is my slingbox is connecting much slower than at home it works and i can see and hear everything, but its a little grainy.
If you use a USB extension cable you can move the wifi adapter if reception is a problem, sometimes a foot or so makes a big difference....or if that fails it is easy to build a wifi wok, see http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/ I made one from a small Weber BBQ lid and it works great...
I have a wifi card for my PDA which picks up an excelent signal from one side of my home to the other. You get a better signal strength if you are away from walls especially solid walls like brick.
Some hotels have ethernet plugs in the rooms. Some do not. Hotels are not "supposed to" have anything they don't want to provide. Some have free wifi. Some have free ethernet. Some charge. Some have wifi only in the lobby. Some have it in the room. Some have free wifi in the lobby but charge for internet in the rooms! I've had mixed experience with hotel wifi. Sometimes the signal strength is inadequate, sometimes it's fine. Sometimes the wifi is incompatible with my laptop, and at some hotels I've struggled for hours, only to find that they know their wifi is incompatible with many wifi cards. I've had better luck with my Nokia N800 than with my laptop, but I've been places where the N800 did not work while other folks' laptops did, even though I had excellent signal strength. I've never had any trouble with ethernet, when it's available, but often it's not.
