I used to travel abroad from France with my family, particularly in Belgium and Nederland Centerparcs. We like them, and the prices are not expensive.
In 2017, roaming will be free in Europa, but for now, I don’t have any option to connect freely to abroad Cellular Network, that means, no Internet, no mail and no long call to friends and family, a little bit annoying.
You can get Wifi access in parcs but not free, in fact, it depends on the parc. Some of them offer completely free access, or VIP cottage includes Wifi access, conditions are listed here (french text).
Prices aren’t so expensive, but I consider Wifi access must stay free for everyone specially after you paid for a weak connexion in your cottage.
Happily, you may stay connected only 30 minutes a day. Maybe enough, maybe not, I am going to teach you how to extend this time.
How does it work ?
Talking about Internet privacy, people consider Ip address as the way to identify and recognize them. It’s true when connected at home, not on free networks. The technology used to know how you are and if you had been connected 30 minutes a day is the MAC address. Quiet simple, it’s a kind of serial attached to your hardware (wifi or Ethernet).
So if you want to be connected more than 30 minutes, you just need another MAC address ! Giddy up :
How to do it ?
If you are using a smartphone, you must be root on Android, or jailbreak on iPhone. Using a computer, it’s easy to manage on Linux or Apple systems.
Most of people uses Windows system and this time, it’s really simple. You can managed it by yourself using command line, or with a tool, easier and quicker way.
First at all, download that free and no nag tool Technitium MAC Address Changer
Once installed and running, look after Wifi or not Wired operational connexion, I recommend to check “Use 02 option…” to avoid issues.
Just click on Random Mac Address, and you are right for 30 more minutes !
Want more ?
You may run tMac on a command line, for instance :
tmac -n Wi-Fi -nr02 –s
Or save your presets on a file and run this file with a shortcut.
Want much more ?
The finest way is to share this network to your family but it depends on your hardware, all network adapter’s are not enabled to work like this. On my laptop, Qualcomm Atheros AR956x Wifi adapter driver isn’t able to connect to a network and to share it at the same time .
For that, I used and excellent TP-LINK adapter, TL-WN7200ND, in place of internal hardware deactivated.
It’s possible to manage this share by command line, but for easiest way, here is a good tool to share the Wifi connexion around you, MyPublicWifi.
In conclusion..
Maybe good to stay out of-the-grid for a while, enjoy your journey and the pool, leaving your laptop in its bag.