How to Use a Hotel's WiFi for Xbox Live

Being away on a business trip this week, I brought my Xbox One along to play in the evenings to keep myself occupied. However, the hotel's internet is set up so that you are directed to a web proxy to accept the hotel's internet usage policies before being able to access the web. Since my Xbox doesn't have this capability, a workaround was required.

I figured that once a computer is authenticated to the network, the only thing that would be checked for consistency would be the computer's MAC address. Since Xbox One has the capability to change its MAC address, I pulled the MAC address from my computer onto my Xbox. In order to keep my computer working properly, I changed its MAC address as well so that two machines weren't simultaneously attempting to authenticate to the web proxy. To learn how to do this, follow these steps next time you're at a hotel or another location using an authenticated web proxy.

1. Connect to the WiFi network through the web proxy on your laptop.
2. Find your MAC Address: Hit the Windows button + R. This should bring up a "Run" dialog. Type cmd and hit enter. This should bring up a black command prompt. Type "/macaddress" without the quotations and hit enter. This should display 12 hexadecimal values from 0-F. Example: 0C:1B:F5:7B:2A:BF
3. Change your MAC address: Go to your Xbox network settings > advanced > change MAC address > type the same MAC address into your Xbox that was on your computer.
4. Restart your Xbox
5. Disconnect WiFi on Laptop: Before your Xbox restarts, put your laptop onto Airplane mode or disconnect from the network.
6. Change the MAC address on your laptop. Click here to learn how. This step is OPTIONAL, but will be the only way that you can connect on both the laptop and the Xbox simultaneously. Otherwise, just keep your laptop off of the network and the Xbox should stay connected.

Leave a comment if you have any questions!