High Speed Internet: LodgeNet

If you travel often on business, it's likely you take a laptop to check e-mail, do research or keep up on projects while you're out of the office. To work productively in your hotel room, you need a high-speed Internet connection like you can get with LodgeNet.

Description Of Service & Benefits

LodgeNet provides a high-speed Internet service that enables you to connect to the Internet from a hotel room with your own laptop and software. If your laptop is set up to access your company's Virtual Private Network (VPN), you can also use it to reach your corporate e-mail, databases and other centralized resources.

LodgeNet's HSIA service offers:

• High speed. Up to 50 times faster than a modem, for efficient file downloads and data transfers.
• Wireless connectivity. Sheraton SFO provides wireless high-speed Internet access throughout the hotel including the guestrooms, meeting and event spaces, restaurant, lounge and lobby.
• "Plug and play" simplicity. The ultimate in convenience; no additional software installation or reconfiguration may be necessary.
• An instant, "always on" connection. Go online immediately, with no dropped connections.
• Maximum productivity. You can make or receive calls and faxes while you're online, because this service does not require a phone connection.
• Secure access. With internal and external firewall security, you can access the Internet knowing your laptop and data are safe.

Laptop Requirements

LodgeNet's HSIA service supports Windows®, Macintosh® and UNIX® platforms.

Your laptop is equipped to use this service if it has:

• An installed 10BaseT Ethernet card and adapter with RJ-45 connection. The Ethernet card enables your laptop to communicate over the hotel's high-speed network. The adapter allows you to connect your laptop to the network with a common cable (similar to plugging in a telephone).
• Configured TCP/IP protocol. The TCP/IP protocol allows your laptop to connect with, and be recognized by, the servers that enable Internet access and mediate its content. If you can access the Internet from your home or office, your TCP/IP protocol has already been configured and you should be able to use the service with no further adjustments.
• Web browser. The Web browser translates data from Internet sites into pages of text and graphics. Microsoft&#reg; Internet Explorer 3.0+ or Netscape Navigator&#reg; 3.0+ are supported.

For detailed information about these components, consult your IS/IT department or your company's computer services provider.

How To Connect

1. Connect your laptop (with the power OFF) to the Desktop Communications Center^SM or Ethernet cable in the room.
   
   
2. Turn on your laptop.
3. Launch your Web browser (Netscape Navigator&#reg; 3.0+ or Microsoft&#reg; Internet Explorer 3.0+ required), and follow the easy ordering instructions.

For properly equipped laptops, no additional software or reconfiguration is necessary.

Technical Support

As a LodgeNet HSIA user, you can get 24x7, toll-free technical support by calling 1-800-829-0128.

Meeting Room Internet Access

Experts have envisioned a future where business is freed from the constraints of space, time and travel through the power of the Internet.

That future is now, at hotels with meeting room HSIA from LodgeNet. This service enhances group activities with the same speed, security and simplicity as our guest room Internet service.

How can your group use meeting room Internet access?

• Product demonstrations. Use the Web to bring your products to your prospects – and sell them on the spot!
• Conferencing. Your managers are meeting in Los Angeles, but your CEO is closing a deal in Miami. Bring them together through a Web-enabled conference in which everyone can participate from wherever they are.
• Seminars. What "works" on the Web? What doesn't? Demonstrate the power of the Internet to groups of clients, with a high-speed connection that brings all the nuances of any Web site to their computers.
• Special project research. In today's competitive business world, information is power – and there's no better place to get it than the Internet. If your office is too small for team research, or if you don't have a high-speed Internet connection, rent a LodgeNet- served meeting room as a temporary "branch office."
• Remote collaboration. With a Web-based electronic whiteboard, "connected" team members from across the country or around the world can review, edit and update text and graphics documents in real time, without traveling.
• Event management. Add even more value to your event by posting last-minute agenda changes for attendees, uploading meeting minutes for review, and providing e-mail and/or "chat rooms" for post-session feedback and follow-up.

Best of all, you can book Internet access through the hotel at the same time you reserve your rooms and catering – saving time, effort and often money over contracting with a third-party vendor.

Sending & Receiving E-Mail

LodgeNet offers you a way to send and retrieve e-mail from your designated e-mail server via POP or other e-mail protocols.

NOTE: If you aren't able to send e-mail, it's probably because your e-mail system administrator has set up your e-mail server to prevent relaying of e-mail from anonymous or unknown locations (which would include hotel rooms). This keeps unauthorized users from misusing your e-mail server to send unsolicited bulk e-mail ("spam"). We are unable to override this protective measure or any others implemented by system administrators.

If you are having trouble sending or receiving e-mail through our service, please contact your e-mail system administrator for assistance.