It's not April 1 again, is it?

Kansas City Business Journal
KCI offers free Wi-Fi

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2006/06/26/daily22.html?from_rss=1

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would make KCI the biggest airport in the country that isn't play-for-pay, woudn't it?

The last domino falls

Two days before they promised, the Kansas City Public Library has proudly announced that the Great Unwiring is finished, and all of its locations now have wireless Internet access.

Since I visited the Sugar Creek branch only a week ago, I'll take their word for it. Make sure you charge your laptop's battery before paying them a visit. I don't recall seeing a single power outlet anywhere.

Gentlemen, start your...

Now that we finally have at least a couple of hotspots in the most underserved of Kansas City, Missouri's neighborhoods-even if they're only available part of the time and provide only partial Internet access at that-I felt it was time once more for us to cast our eyes westward and see how things are coming along in that other void-Wyandotte County. Sadly, at least in the eastern part, they aren't coming along too well. I stopped in at both the main and West Wyandotte branches of the KCK Public Library to see if the Wi-Fi bug had perhaps bitten yet. At the main location my finder was greeted by only a few encryption-secured access points. (Memo to the library and school district IT departments: If you don't want someone a little less conscientious than me coming around to try and break into these networks, you might start thinking about upgrading your encryption and for heaven's sake, hiding those SSIDs!) West Wyandotte, however, was as cold as a tomb as far as detectable wireless activity was concerned. (Another memo to the aforementioned IT departments: If you do have a wireless network at West Wyandotte for staff use only, that's how it should look to an outsider.)

As I've mentioned before, I think the best thing that could happen to jumpstart public Wi-Fi throughout Wyandotte County would be for the library to take the lead, unwiring at least West Wyandotte if not the main location as well. The West Wyandotte building is only two decades old; one is tempted to ask why it isn't lit up already. Frankly, though, the library system is so far behind the Wi-Fi curve and the need in its community so great, that I feel they really ought to just go whole hog and unwire all three of their locations. A city as big as Kansas City, Kansas with no wireless access in its libraries is rapidly becoming an anachronism.

And I'm sorry to report that upon venturing further west, I was able to confirm that the McDonald's restaurant in the Legends Shopping Center at 106th and Parallel has indeed thrown in the towel on its free access and become a Wayport/AT&T play-for-pay outlet. So...since I was already in the neighborhood, I decided to check out the other reports of this strange phenomenon called free and open Wi-Fi in the vicinity of the Kansas Speedway, and do you know what? They're true-or at least two of them are.

Yard House Restaurant
1863 Village West Parkway (Suite 101)

802.11g
SSID: 101

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I have to admit that I didn't access this network from here. I did perform a walk-through of the building and asked a staff member to verify that this was their access point, and then moved on in search of other signals. I managed to find one emanating from a nearby establishment, but it wasn't free and open as those terms have been defined here (more on that later). Anyway, ol' 101 came banging through over there just fine-in fact, my finder also detected it at the nearby Cold Stone Creamery, which may have been the impetus for reports of Wi-Fi there.

As for the restaurant itself, it didn't look too laptop-friendly, but hey, what do you expect? It is a restaurant, after all. They do have an outdoor patio that may be a bit more conducive to your online experience, unless it's as hot out as it was today.

Scooter's Coffeehouse
Suite 103

802.11g
SSID: NETGEAR

From whence the erroneous reports of Wi-Fi at the nearby Planet Sub came. And upon looking around to spot the access point once I arrived at Scooter's it became obvious why. It's apparently mounted high up over a ceiling beam maybe fifteen feet off the floor. There's a blue wire that looks suspiciously like an Ethernet cable that comes out of a wall and snakes up above the beam, where it disappears. Fortunately, the height doesn't seem to adversely affect reception at floor level.

Power outlets? Look to the left as you come in and hope there's no one sitting by the pair on the wall where one of the refrigerators is plugged in-and that there's nothing plugged into the other outlet. And at least this outfit appears to have been in business long enough to know that pulling the shades on those big front windows can sometimes be an act of kindness to a laptop user.

Incidentally, Scooter's has other locations in Shawnee and Overland Park. The chain's website is mum on Wi-Fi issues, so finding out whether they're lit up as well is, for now, left to the reader as an exercise.

Now, about those other signals. There are at least a couple of restaurants in and around the Legends/Village West development with unencrypted access points, but connecting to them and trying to get onto the 'Net brings you to a page requesting a login and password. Whether these are play-for-pay, restricted to paying customers or not intended for public use at all I can't say since I didn't pursue the matter once I was challenged for credentials. Such locations are beyond the scope of this blog, so you're on your own if you want to find out more. Be forewarned, however, that both of these I saw are apparently trying to protect their login pages with self-signed certificates. Personally, I wouldn't touch a network set up like that with gloves on, because by accepting a self-signed certificate you could be setting yourself up for a man-in-the-middle attack.

And if I can have the attention of the management at Books-a-Million in Suite 135 at the Legends for a moment: Want to know how you can differentiate yourself from Those Other Two Giant Discount Bookstore Chains? Easy-light your dadburned stores up with Wi-Fi, only do Borders and Barnes & Noble one better and GIVE YOURS AWAY! You've got all the amenities the other guys have-a coffee bar, plush chairs all around conveniently next to power outlets, the whole nine yards. Why not set yourselves apart and give people a reason to spurn your competitors' more convenient Plaza and Johnson County locations and come out of their way to patronize yours? It's not like they don't need one. Have you checked out the price of gasoline lately?

This is the kind of forward-looking thinking needed to make what's going on in western Wyandotte County pay off in the end. Let's all hope it catches on and continues to spread-especially towards the east, where it is still so sorely lacking.

And then there was one...

Kansas City Public Library, Lucile H. Bluford Branch
3050 Prospect, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: library

Looks like I'm going to lose the bet that the KCMO Library wouldn't make its self-imposed deadline to finish unwiring. I just came here from Sugar Creek, and it appears that all they have left to do there is hook up the backhaul (if they haven't already) and rename the access point. (After all my warnings to others not to do it, I just couldn't bring myself to boot up and see if the wide-open AP showing a default SSID was connected to anything; with my luck, the darn thing would have turned out to belong to someone else.)

And I'm not the only one glad that I lost. Upon arriving here at Bluford and discovering to my joy that it was finally lit up, I immediately began a frantic search for available power outlets, and found the most available one already spoken for by an iBook user. See, I told you they needed to do this place first!

As for that most available power outlet-a pair of them, actually-they're under a table with a magazine rack on it towards the back under the skylight and near the back windows. If you're the paranoid sort, there's a surge-protected outlet built into the table's upper left corner (you'll have to crawl underneath and plug the extension cord running from it into the wall outlet if you want to use it). There's another dual wall outlet to the right of the windows between a pair of paperback racks, but you'll have to be adventurous enough to move a chair over to it. I don't see any floor outlets anywhere, so charging up beforehand is definitely advisable. And I'm really not sure I'd want to try this location at midday with a high sun streaming down through that skylight unless I had enough battery power to sit somewhere darker for maybe an hour or two.

Which brings me to my next topic. Now that we've got (or soon will have) all the library locations unwired, let's get to work on making the outlying branches a bit more laptop-friendly. I think that for starters there ought to be at least one table at each of the neighborhood branches with enough power outlets to accomodate four users at a time. If saving floor space at some of these locations is a concern, someone might go take a look at the Information Commons in the Miller Nichols Library on the UMKC campus and see if the kind of furniture they employed is still available anywhere. Granted, they had the additional problem of providing hardwired network access along with power, but I think a table such as theirs in each branch, placed in an area where daytime lighting is conducive to LCD readability, would fill the bill nicely.

I guess someone downtown IS reading this!

Kansas City Public Library, Southeast Branch
6242 Swope Parkway, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: library

Well, what do you know? No sooner do I carp on the KCMO Library leaving its two neediest locations for last than I drop in at one of them and find it lit up.

All the standard caveats for the other KC Library locations besides Central and Plaza apply here, so if you absolutely have to plug in you'll have to be adventurous. The building, as I recall, is of the same vintage as the Trails West branch I profiled a few weeks back, so power outlets are about as scarce. There's a table towards the back under the very LCD-unfriendly skylight that has four outlets under a hinged door in the floor. I'm currently plugged into one of them and no one's taken exception as of yet. There's a row of three green chairs along the wall to the left of the windows; the middle one has a pair of outlets behind it, as does the single chair to the right of the windows. Don't bother with the carrels on the other table. They aren't wired.

And my finder detected four access points, so signal strength shouldn't be an issue.

Wireless in Westport, Chapter 2

Tea Drops
4111 Pennsylvania, Kansas City

802.11b
SSID: linksys

As I related a few weeks back, I developed a fondness for this place, its having been one of the first businesses in KC to unwire for free. Therefore I felt they deserved a second chance. On this visit they didn't disappoint, at least as far as the availability of their network is concerned. However, I've got to tell you that this is one place where you don't want to forget to bring a charged battery. Not a single usable power outlet in sight. Also, it's got those lovable big windows that can make daytime LCD reading a challenge, at least until your eyes adapt.

One more thing. Don't be a dork like I did and bring an iPod filled with Haydn along, thinking you'll sit quietly enjoying a symphony while surfing. Poor ol' Franz Joseph will lose out to their recorded music every time.

After finishing my tea, I felt it was only fair to give the other hotspot that didn't come through last month another shot, but unfortunately Mesa Wraps across the street still hadn't gotten around to restoring their Internet connectivity. And from what the counterman there told me, it doesn't seem as if they plan to, either. Looks like this one should come off the local free hotspot listings. However, if someone higher up at Mesa Wraps should read this and beg to differ, here's a tip: If you have a DSL or cable modem plugged into your access point/router to provide your backhaul, try rebooting it by cycling its power off and back on. Also go into your router's configuration and make sure it's still set up with your ISP account's username and password. If you've had an extended power outage or if someone has reset the router, these may have disappeared.

Another location that definitely should come off the local listings on which it still appears is what used to be Yummy's Market and Deli at 1610 West 39th Street. The building is currently undergoing renovation, and the business that will operate there afterward will have another name.

Finally, I took another walk past Room 39 on the other side of the street about halfway down the next block west. Once again it was closed, but this time it appears to be due to changes in the nature of the business. It looks as if it's transitioning from a coffeehouse/cafe into a full-fledged restaurant that for some reason is not open for dinner on Friday evenings. Whether free wireless Internet access will remain on the menu is still to be seen.

All right KCMO Library, what's the hangup?

Stopped in at the Bluford branch library briefly this afternoon, just to see how close the library system is to getting all its locations unwired by the end of the month, as they've promised. No SSID as of yet. I'll try to check Southeast in the next few days if I get a chance. If anyone out by the Sugar Creek branch would be so kind as to drop in and see whether they're lit up yet, your help would be deeply appreciated.

Now I can see the rationale behind leaving a small storefront location like Sugar Creek for last, but Bluford and Southeast are full-fledged central city branches-and the recent cutback in hours has put even more pressure on their workstation usage. As it is, both should have been unwired long before now.

What's the problem, folks?

Oops, how did I let THIS one slip under the radar for so long?

Dunn Bros. Coffee
Red Bridge Shopping Center, 535 East 111th Street, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: dunnbros

I think I remember catching some buzz about this location when it opened earlier this year, but things sort of caught up with me and I didn't get a chance to try it out until now. I'm using my backup laptop (the one with the anemic 802.11b card) and it's not having trouble staying connected, so you shouldn't either. If you need a power outlet, your best bet is a table along one of the walls. And therein lies one potential problem. The cafe's a storefront with big-and I mean BIG-windows, which might cause LCD readability issues on a bright sunshiny day if you have to sit up front to plug in.

And curiously, they're set up somewhat like Westport Coffee House-as a cybercafe with a couple of desktop computers at a "tech bar" with a sign declaring that their use requires a purchase. Their wireless network, however, is free and open. I guess we laptoppers are just too conscientious to abuse their hospitality. At least I hope we are.

New title as of today

Since "Wi-Fi" is a trademark, it probably wasn't the best idea to use it as I did. Not that anyone said anything about it, mind you, but why invite problems when you don't have to?