McDonald's restaurants with free wireless:
4600 West 119th Street, Leawood
802.11g
SSID: mcdleawood
9401 Foster, Overland Park
802.11g
SSID: 9401_Foster_McDonalds
If you've followed the blog up to this point, you've no doubt noticed that we haven't talked much about commercial locations offering free Wi-Fi. Well, I hope to start rectifying that by spotlighting a couple of rugged individualists bravely swimming against the tide in a manner I hope richly rewards them. You may not have known this up until now, but metro KC has a couple of McDonald's restaurants whose owners are bucking the corporate trend of going play-for-pay and offering their wireless Internet for free. I guess maybe being a little closer to the action than the suits in Oak Park-or wherever the McDonald's headquarters is located-has sort of opened their eyes to the fact that if you partner with a vendor whom you let pick the customer's pocket before you stick your hand into it, there (ahem, ahem) won't be as much money in it as there would have been otherwise. Also, having to jump through the hoop of paying before what may be only a fifteen to thirty minute session (when was the last time you spent more time than that in a McDonald's, huh?) doesn't exactly make for the most pleasant customer experience.
I certainly hope this catches on, and not just in Johnson County. In fact, if the fast-food industry as a whole wants to do something to polish its image as a good corporate citizen, it could start an initiative to help narrow the digital divide by unwiring every restaurant it operates in currently underserved areas. With prices for laptops and other wireless devices dropping, more and more of the population living near these locations will be looking for hotspots in perhaps the next couple of years. What forward-looking business wouldn't want to cater to such an upwardly mobile (pun not intended-really!) clientele?
As for laptop-friendliness...well, these are restaurants, remember? If they aren't crowded you may luck out and find a table by a wall next to a power outlet, but I wouldn't count on it. The Leawood location does have an "island" table in the middle, each side of which provides seating for five and a pair of outlets at each end. Frankly, though, I think staying any longer than it takes to finish your meal and catch up on your e-mail is something you probably shouldn't do at either of these hotspots, especially considering that their owners are kind of going out onto a limb by offering free access. If too many of us repay their hospitality by "camping" and taking up revenue-generating table space for inordinate amounts of time, don't be surprised if one day you boot up and get redirected to the dreaded please-enter-your-credit-card-number page, or find that the network is gone altogether. Let's endeavor to prevent that from happening, and answer these owners' kindness with kindness of our own.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
KCKCC Library, An Oasis in the Wireless Desert
Kansas City Kansas Community College Library
7250 State Avenue, KCK
802.11b
SSIDs: lower library A, lower library B
802.11g
SSID: Upper Library B
Well, there is at least one free open hotspot in Wyandotte County. Kudos to whomever is responsible for setting it up and keeping it open. It's rare that an educational institution-particularly a post-secondary one-offers Internet access to the public at large like this. Good job, KCKCC! Atta way to tackle that digital divide!
I imagine the different SSIDs are meant to facilitate connecting on different levels and in varying locations, however I didn't have any trouble getting an adequate signal from each of them on the ground floor. There's a loveseat against the north wall straight towards the back from the entrance on the lower level with a couple of power outlets next to it. The second floor is quite a bit more laptop-friendly, with maybe a dozen carrels along its north wall. Those that aren't broken have a fluorescent light fixture incorporating a power outlet that's rather inconveniently placed; it's actually part of the fixture itself and you have to either feel for it or stick your head under the fixture to see it.
7250 State Avenue, KCK
802.11b
SSIDs: lower library A, lower library B
802.11g
SSID: Upper Library B
Well, there is at least one free open hotspot in Wyandotte County. Kudos to whomever is responsible for setting it up and keeping it open. It's rare that an educational institution-particularly a post-secondary one-offers Internet access to the public at large like this. Good job, KCKCC! Atta way to tackle that digital divide!
I imagine the different SSIDs are meant to facilitate connecting on different levels and in varying locations, however I didn't have any trouble getting an adequate signal from each of them on the ground floor. There's a loveseat against the north wall straight towards the back from the entrance on the lower level with a couple of power outlets next to it. The second floor is quite a bit more laptop-friendly, with maybe a dozen carrels along its north wall. Those that aren't broken have a fluorescent light fixture incorporating a power outlet that's rather inconveniently placed; it's actually part of the fixture itself and you have to either feel for it or stick your head under the fixture to see it.
Tonganoxie, the Little Library that Could (An Example for Some who Haven't but Ought To)
To call Tonganoxie in Leavenworth County part of metropolitan Kansas City is really stretching things, even though it's certainly grown quite a bit in the three decades since I used to pass through on old two-lane U.S. 24-40 on my way to KU (the turnpike toll would buy a couple of gallons of gas in those days). Anyway, I'm posting this from their public library, which now has Wi-Fi courtesy of Lawrence-based Sunflower Broadband, which has also unwired the public libraries in Lawrence and nearby Eudora in Douglas County. I happened across this momentous news on Google a few weeks ago and made a note to check it out when I got a chance.
And why mention this, you ask? Because there are still a few much bigger metro library systems closer in to KC that could take a lesson from what Tonganoxie and Eudora have done. For instance, what on earth is Kansas City, Kansas waiting for? They're now the biggest city in the metro without it. Come to think of it, I don't believe that, unless you count the networks in the motels out by the speedway-which like all lodging amenities are really intended for use only by paying guests even though they may not authenticate users-there are any free open hotspots in Wyandotte County except the library at KCK Community College (it's open according to the library's website; I'll try to verify that soon).
And what could be keeping the Mid-Continent Public Library system, that has branches not only in Kansas City but in practically every suburb on the Missouri side of the metro as well as outlying communities like Platte City and Smithville, from unwiring? If Kansas City, with its fiscal problems, could do it in four locations, surely Mid-Continent could at least make a start by going wireless at a branch where it would do the most good in taking pressure off their workstation usage, or would bring Wi-Fi to a community where no one else has yet.
What's that? Money, you say? Well, it didn't stop little Tonganoxie or even smaller Eudora, and it shouldn't stop any bigger community. It's all in how they approach the problem. If either of the library systems I've mentioned here genuinely feel they can't afford to unwire by themselves even with wireless networking's significant drop in costs over the last couple of years, I have a hard time believing that if they went hat-in-hand to their patrons or local businesses-particularly those from whom they purchase technology services presently-their entreaties would not meet with a favorable response.
By the way, in case you are out this way and want to try Tonganoxie's network yourself, the library is at Third and Bury Streets (look for a blue "Library" sign on the highway that will tell you where to turn). The SSID is "sbhsd" and there's no authentication or filtering, but there is a big sign by the door reminding you that their acceptable use policy applies to everyone, so it looks like they've been having some of those problems, unfortunately. I saw good signal strength at a table in back near the windows and-hallelujah!-a couple of power outlets.
And why mention this, you ask? Because there are still a few much bigger metro library systems closer in to KC that could take a lesson from what Tonganoxie and Eudora have done. For instance, what on earth is Kansas City, Kansas waiting for? They're now the biggest city in the metro without it. Come to think of it, I don't believe that, unless you count the networks in the motels out by the speedway-which like all lodging amenities are really intended for use only by paying guests even though they may not authenticate users-there are any free open hotspots in Wyandotte County except the library at KCK Community College (it's open according to the library's website; I'll try to verify that soon).
And what could be keeping the Mid-Continent Public Library system, that has branches not only in Kansas City but in practically every suburb on the Missouri side of the metro as well as outlying communities like Platte City and Smithville, from unwiring? If Kansas City, with its fiscal problems, could do it in four locations, surely Mid-Continent could at least make a start by going wireless at a branch where it would do the most good in taking pressure off their workstation usage, or would bring Wi-Fi to a community where no one else has yet.
What's that? Money, you say? Well, it didn't stop little Tonganoxie or even smaller Eudora, and it shouldn't stop any bigger community. It's all in how they approach the problem. If either of the library systems I've mentioned here genuinely feel they can't afford to unwire by themselves even with wireless networking's significant drop in costs over the last couple of years, I have a hard time believing that if they went hat-in-hand to their patrons or local businesses-particularly those from whom they purchase technology services presently-their entreaties would not meet with a favorable response.
By the way, in case you are out this way and want to try Tonganoxie's network yourself, the library is at Third and Bury Streets (look for a blue "Library" sign on the highway that will tell you where to turn). The SSID is "sbhsd" and there's no authentication or filtering, but there is a big sign by the door reminding you that their acceptable use policy applies to everyone, so it looks like they've been having some of those problems, unfortunately. I saw good signal strength at a table in back near the windows and-hallelujah!-a couple of power outlets.
Monday, November 07, 2005
A cautionary note...
...to those of you who may visit the Kansas City Public Library's Waldo Community Branch at 201 West 75th Street in Kansas City.
They do not have a wireless network there, and as far as anyone on the staff there knows, the library system has no plans to implement one despite what they describe as numerous requests for it from patrons. However, if you're in the habit of occasionally dropping in with your laptop just in case, you may have noticed a weak signal from an open 802.11b network with an SSID that is different from the library's other locations. Whose network it is, neither I nor anyone at the library knows, but the important point I want to leave you with is that it is not the library's, and if you use it you are doing so without authorization-unless, of course, it's yours or you have permission from whoever does own it.
So should you fail to heed this warning and end up like our friend down in Florida whom I mentioned in my introductory post, don't blame me.
They do not have a wireless network there, and as far as anyone on the staff there knows, the library system has no plans to implement one despite what they describe as numerous requests for it from patrons. However, if you're in the habit of occasionally dropping in with your laptop just in case, you may have noticed a weak signal from an open 802.11b network with an SSID that is different from the library's other locations. Whose network it is, neither I nor anyone at the library knows, but the important point I want to leave you with is that it is not the library's, and if you use it you are doing so without authorization-unless, of course, it's yours or you have permission from whoever does own it.
So should you fail to heed this warning and end up like our friend down in Florida whom I mentioned in my introductory post, don't blame me.
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