Is there some dastardly reason hotels and airports like to keep their wireless network names a big secret?
How many times have you seen this in an airport recently....
Several people in a waiting area... laptops open...
"Excuse me...are you getting a signal?"
"Yeah, I'm pickup up a few but none of them seem to be working."
"Is there real service here, or are these other people's laptop network's?"
"Beats me."
I've seen this scene played out many times at Washington's Reagan National (DCA) US Air terminal... at Newark (EWR)... and lots of other places too.
C'mon guys... Would it be too tough to post a few signs with the available wireless network name???
And now, I just checked into my hotel here in Austin. It's a nice Marriott, I get up to my room, and good news: Free Wireless! OK, that's a bonus, a lot of hotels charge $10 or more (Paradox: At cheap hotels it's free, at exclusive luxury hotels, it's a fortune).
So I fire up the laptop, and here's which neworks show up from my 11th floor room:
988A
atomic
stayonline
COA_MESH
Magahoc
There's a nice brochure announcing the free wireless but no Network name - argh!
Hmmm. I guess it would be too hard to make one called "Marriott Wireless".
I ended up taking a chance on stayonline, and it turned out to be the right one.
Tell me your war stories of annoying practices with computer access on the road...
How many times have you seen this in an airport recently....
Several people in a waiting area... laptops open...
"Excuse me...are you getting a signal?"
"Yeah, I'm pickup up a few but none of them seem to be working."
"Is there real service here, or are these other people's laptop network's?"
"Beats me."
I've seen this scene played out many times at Washington's Reagan National (DCA) US Air terminal... at Newark (EWR)... and lots of other places too.
C'mon guys... Would it be too tough to post a few signs with the available wireless network name???
And now, I just checked into my hotel here in Austin. It's a nice Marriott, I get up to my room, and good news: Free Wireless! OK, that's a bonus, a lot of hotels charge $10 or more (Paradox: At cheap hotels it's free, at exclusive luxury hotels, it's a fortune).
So I fire up the laptop, and here's which neworks show up from my 11th floor room:
988A
atomic
stayonline
COA_MESH
Magahoc
There's a nice brochure announcing the free wireless but no Network name - argh!
Hmmm. I guess it would be too hard to make one called "Marriott Wireless".
I ended up taking a chance on stayonline, and it turned out to be the right one.
Tell me your war stories of annoying practices with computer access on the road...
2 comments:
Charlie,
"on the road: the good, the bad & the ugly"
THE BAD
In France, MC DONALD'S is supposed to provide computer access
...which never works!...
"access denied!"
Hmmm...Must be the "French Fries"
interfering with the signal...
Once, in the city of Lyon at the Hotel IBIS ACCORD I had to pay 10 euros for connection costs and an hourly rate for "use of wireless service"
(didn't know IBIS ACCORD had become: IBIS WIRELESS LUXURY)...
THE UGLY
Of course on my way back home traveling South in my non luxury Peugeot (Lyon -> Marseille: 3 hours south)...
I got a wireless connection...
yea!
MESSAGE every 30 mns:
"FREE WIFI = COMPUTER ACCESS HERE"!
...on the highway...duration: 30 sec, before loosing signal...
@/^,,!! #...Did I say the word "frustration"?...spelled the same way in English and French lol
THE GOOD
P.S: The good news: maybe it's my "non wireless"-"non luxury peugeot" which has got too much horsepower!
Faster than wireless signal, you can't beat that! Get on the road, buy a french car!:-)
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