AKL Villas - wireless internet?

[goingbackagain]

DO the AKL Villas have wireless internet or do I have to bring a cable?

 

[RobDoc]

None of the WDW resorts have wireless access in the villas at this time. You will need a cable - but there should be one available in the room if you forget or one can be provided at no cost. You'll still need your laptop though - that won't be provided.

 

[goingbackagain]

Thanks a lot. I can't seem to find my cable, so I needed to know if I should buy one. I'll just use one there. Thanks again. I leave late tonight!!!

 

[wildernessDad]

You might be able to setup a closed Airport Express wireless network there. Anybody have experience doing this there?

 

[AKV707]

You might be able to setup a closed Airport Express wireless network there. Anybody have experience doing this there?

OK, I'll admit it. What is a closed Airport Express network?

 

[drusba]

Be aware that at AKV the 1BRs (and the 1BR portion of the 2BR) have the ethernet wall hook-up only in the bedroom. Thus, you cannot hook-up in the living room (my personal preference).

Whether you call it Airport Express (which I think refers to a Mac) or a wireless router, it means bringing your own wireless router and closed means (a) you can turn off the broadcast of your wireless identity so others don't know it is there if they have a computer with wireless but your own computer will still receive it, and (b) having encryption security which you can also turn on and set up at home with your wireless. As to (a) if you have ever been in an area where there are multiple wireless sytems on, you may have noticed when you go to your computer it will show the identity of wireless sytems that are not yours but they are somewhere nearby and your computer can pick up their signal. On your own wireless system, you can set it up at home so you can use the wireless but the wireless will not broadcast its identity and thus your neighbors' computers won't see your wireless system on thier computers.

 

[snowbunny]

Be aware that at AKV the 1BRs (and the 1BR portion of the 2BR) have the ethernet wall hook-up only in the bedroom. Thus, you cannot hook-up in the living room (my personal preference).

Same here and we are headed to AKV in a couple of months...any recommendations on an inexpensive travel router that can be used in the LR?

 

[AKV707]

Be aware that at AKV the 1BRs (and the 1BR portion of the 2BR) have the ethernet wall hook-up only in the bedroom. Thus, you cannot hook-up in the living room (my personal preference).

Whether you call it Airport Express (which I think refers to a Mac) or a wireless router, it means bringing your own wireless router and closed means (a) you can turn off the broadcast of your wireless identity so others don't know it is there if they have a computer with wireless but your own computer will still receive it, and (b) having encryption security which you can also turn on and set up at home with your wireless. As to (a) if you have ever been in an area where there are multiple wireless sytems on, you may have noticed when you go to your computer it will show the identity of wireless sytems that are not yours but they are somewhere nearby and your computer can pick up their signal. On your own wireless system, you can set it up at home so you can use the wireless but the wireless will not broadcast its identity and thus your neighbors' computers won't see your wireless system on thier computers.

Is there a good site that I can go to learn how to do this? Should I look for the info on my wireless router?

 

[drusba]

This is one of those things where I learned everything I could about my own wireless system, a Linksys, but cannot say it overlaps to others. Linksys provides a website, with a numerical site name, where, after you have connected the wireless, you go in and set everything up. And they take you through somewhat well. From the intial set-up page you go the wireless set-up page and there is a basic setting page and a wireless security setting page. On the basic setting page is an entry that says "Wireless SSID Broadcast" and you can enter enable or disable. (You also enter the wireless channel you want to use on that page.) Enable means your wireless will broadcast its identity, disable means it won't.

However, you don't want to do that "disable" until after you have set up your security on the wireless security page which has WEP (easy to set-up and decent) or WPA (more difficult but tight security) and have all the computers you want to be recognized sign in with the password you have set up for the system. You set up WEP, for example, give it a password in "Key 1" and, amazingly, not in the "passphrase" box you will see on that page which you leave blank (the computer geniuses who make these things apparently like to play jokes), Then when you are done, you go to all computers you want to use the wireless; they will recognize the wireless and insist on a password for the computer to enter, and you put the one in that you set up (and it needs to be something others in the house can remember because they will need it whenever, as computers occassionally do, the Bill Gates masterpeice of a system decides it is not going to do anything anymore and you have to go in and re-enter the password to get wireless. Once you have them all set up, you can then go back to the set-up site and disable "Wireless SSID Broadcast." Your computers will still get wireless but the identity of your wireless will not show up anywhere. Disabling broadcast assures your neighbors won't see your wireless idenitfied and setting up WEP or WPA security assures they won't use your wireless. Note, if you have the ipod Touch (which came out late last year) and use it around the house to go on the internet, you have to leave your SSID broadcast on. The Touch is, as far as I am aware, the first computerized device to be sold generally to the public that was specifically designed to provide internet access only by the user's stealing any wireless signals nearby and as long as someone's system is broadcasting identity and has no security (the Touch recognizes your secured sytem at home and gets in once you have you have sync'd the ipod with your home computer), you can use the Touch to get on the internet by using their wireless.

 

[hellerjw]

I don't know about the other resorts, but the AKV 1BR SV we stayed in last August had a 6' Cat5 Ethernet (network) cable hanging in the wardrobe in a special little bag. The only network jack was built into the desk in the bedroom. I believe they charge something like $10 per 24 hour period of use.