Cradle on hotel Wi-Fi

Hotel Wi-Fi, conference Wi-Fi, cafe Wi-Fi, and most public networks are designed for browsing and email. They're not designed for voice calls. If Cradle is misbehaving on one of them, this article explains why and what to try. If you have a critical call coming up, tethering to your phone is usually the safest fallback.

Quick checks (try these first)

Make sure you've completed the captive portal sign-in fully. If you can browse a normal website (try cradle.io), you're past the portal. If you can't, finish the portal first.
Test on your phone hotspot. If Cradle works on the hotspot but not the hotel Wi-Fi, the hotel Wi-Fi is the cause. That's useful information, no need to keep fighting the network.
Disconnect VPN. Hotel Wi-Fi plus VPN can compound the latency. Try without VPN first, and only turn the VPN back on if your IT policy requires it.

Why hotel and public Wi-Fi breaks Cradle

A few things go wrong specifically on these networks:

Captive portals. The pop-up sign-in page that asks for a room number or email. Until you complete it, your connection works for some things and not others. Cradle is often one of the things it doesn't work for, until you've signed in fully.
Asymmetric routing. Public Wi-Fi gateways sometimes route outgoing and incoming traffic on different paths. Voice calls don't like that; audio can come and go.
Port blocking. Some hotel networks block the traffic types real-time voice uses, to discourage anything other than browsing.
Aggressive Quality of Service. Hotels prioritise web traffic over real-time voice. Calls get deprioritised and chopped.
Oversubscription. A hotel network sized for "everyone reads email in the evening" struggles when half the floor is on video calls during the day.

Cradle can be working perfectly fine while a hotel network strangles it. None of the above is something Cradle controls.

What to try

In rough order of "most likely to help":

1. Finish the captive portal

If the network has a captive portal, complete it from a browser before opening Cradle. The portal might be a name + room number, an email + accept-terms, or a paid voucher.

If you've already accepted but you're not sure it stuck, the test is "can I open a normal web page now?" If yes, the portal is done. If no, open a fresh browser tab and try a different site, sometimes the redirect lands on a page that doesn't trigger the portal.

2. Sign out, reconnect, sign in to Cradle again

After completing the portal, restart your Wi-Fi connection so Cradle gets the route fresh.

Windows: click the network icon in the system tray, click the Wi-Fi name, click Disconnect, then click it again to Connect.
macOS: click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar, click Wi-Fi: Off, wait a few seconds, click Wi-Fi: On and reconnect.
Linux: use your panel's network indicator, or run nmcli connection down <name>; nmcli connection up <name> in a terminal.

Then reopen Cradle. If it was stuck on Offline, it should reconnect.

3. Switch the VPN off (if you can)

Hotel Wi-Fi plus VPN often produces one-way audio or call drops. Test a call without the VPN. If your IT policy lets you sign in to Cradle outside the VPN for calls, that's the simplest fix.

If you must keep the VPN on, see Cradle with a VPN for the deeper options.

4. Tether to your phone

This is the reliable fallback. Mobile data, on a modern phone in a city with reasonable coverage, is more predictable than hotel Wi-Fi.

iOS: Settings → Personal Hotspot → Allow Others to Join, then connect your laptop.
Android: Settings → Network & internet → Hotspot & tethering, then connect your laptop.

Hotspot eats your data allowance and may not be allowed under your mobile plan, check before you rely on it for long calls. But for a single critical call from a hotel, it's the path of least pain.

5. Switch from Wi-Fi to ethernet (if available)

Some hotels offer wired ethernet at the desk. If yours does, plug in. Ethernet doesn't fix oversubscription, but it removes the Wi-Fi-specific issues.

What to do for the call itself

If you're stuck on hotel Wi-Fi and the call is happening anyway:

Warn the person you're calling, "I'm on hotel Wi-Fi, the connection's not great, let me know if I cut out." Sets expectations.
Stick to audio, not video.
Keep other apps closed during the call.
If audio drops repeatedly, hang up and try again. A fresh connection sometimes lands on a better route.

Still stuck?

If you've tried everything above and Cradle still won't work on a network you need to use:

Note the network name, the symptoms, and what you've already tried.
Email help@cradle.io.
For an upcoming critical call, tether to your phone or move to a different network. Public Wi-Fi configurations are out of Cradle's control.
Cradle support is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm New Zealand time.