But if they catch you looking at something they deem you shouldn't...

...I would imagine the penalty would be too horrendous to contemplate.

Interesting tidbit that Wi-Fi Networking News' Glenn Fleishman found about the haj-the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia's holy sites-unwiring for free.

I've never been over there-and from what I've heard about the place, I'm not particularly eager to book a trip anytime soon-but it just struck me as ironic that a nation seen by many as reactionary, to say the least, would embrace a technology often held up as one of this era's potent tools against repression.

Start the presses again...

Not only is the KCK Public Library's Wi-Fi network closed (and thus beyond this blog's scope, meaning we won't be reviewing it), but even if you have a library card there I'm going to recommend you not attempt to use it, at least until they fix their insecure login page.

Memo to the library IT department: There's a reason browsers warn users about improperly configured SSL installations, you know. Google "man in the middle attack" and you might get a clue-before one of your unsuspecting patrons gets rousted out of bed in the middle of the night by the police wanting to find out why he or she checked out those umpteen DVDs and never returned them. Of course, it will be because the patron didn't check them out. Rather, it will have been the identity thief who cloned a phony library card with the patron's number and then absconded to eBay or a pawn shop with the stolen discs. Don't think so? It's happening elsewhere.

And memo to the rest of you. Don't ever-ever-EVER!!!-proceed with entering any sensitive information of any type on an encrypted page once your browser has given you any warning about the site's certificate. Your browser is grabbing you by the lapels and shaking you while shouting "Hey, buddy, I don't know if this really is the library (or your bank or credit card issuer) you're connected to; it could be someone in a cave in Afghanistan for all I know. You want to go ahead, I can't stop you, but if you end up living on bread and water in a cage at Gitmo, don't say I didn't warn you."

Be smart. DON'T go ahead.

Stop the presses! KCK Public Library unwires!

http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/WifiAccessAtKCKPL.html

Before we pop the champagne corks, perhaps some caution is in order. Although the announcement looks pretty much like the same boilerplate most libraries put on their websites to trumpet their Wi-Fi, the declaration that only "web access" is available is a bit troubling. Of course that may be boilerplate as well, and only a visit to one of the branches will tell for sure. Look for a full report later this week.

Wouldn't it be nice...

...if we could say that the announcement in this morning's Kansas City Star that Starbucks is bailing out of its Westport location-where it went head-to-head against a local cafe right next door and not only lost, but saw its competitor open a second location a block away!-was the result of free trouncing fee? Perhaps, but I can't conclude for certain that was the case. I sort of "war-walked" both the "David" locations this afternoon, starting with the one adjacent to the vanquished Goliath. While I did see several laptop users there, what I didn't see at either site were any open access points, so if either or both locations are unwired, they're either play-for-pay or otherwise restricted-and thus beyond the scope of this blog.

However, the Westport Coffee House a couple of blocks away isn't-or at least wasn't when I reviewed it a year and a half ago. Neither were TeaDrops around the corner nor Panera Bread down the street the last time I was there. So it's not like Starbucks and T-Mobile didn't have to compete against the free world for supremacy in Westport.

By Jove, I think they GET it!

JP Wine Bar Coffee House
1526 Walnut, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: jpwine

From the shaded windows to the convenient power outlets installed along the front of the bar (there are others serving the seats along the north wall), it's apparent this is a place set up by 21st century thinkers for like-minded customers. The only quibble I have is with signal strength; my AirPort is only showing three bars, and iStumbler, my new toy, is showing the percentage varying between 30 and 50, but it's not having any noticeable effect on connectivity or speed.

Now that I think about it though, it may be due to interference more than anything else. There are perhaps five other laptoppers here at the moment. After all, when you're doing something right, word gets around.

Bank-Fi?

No, more like "Gee, this access point is open so I guess it's okay to use...right?"

Sorry, folks, but that's not how it works. And you'd think anyone submitting locations to JiWire and WiFiFreeSpot to add to their listings would know better, but it appears one local contributor doesn't-and it also looks as if neither site bothered with verifying the submission before posting it, which is simply frightening.

Anyway, here's the straight dope with regard to the Northland bank branch currently listed on both sites. According to a staff member I spoke with there, they DO NOT offer wireless Internet access. Therefore, any open networks you may see while on those premises are owned by someone else, and if you connect to them you will be using them without authorization unless you took the time to obtain permission beforehand.

Besides, why would a bank offer Wi-Fi anyway? It's not really a place customers are inclined to hang around, is it?

In case you've ever wondered...

...what we think of the belief in some circles that Wi-Fi may affect people's health, here's someone who agrees with us.

Anyone else remember the good old days when adding fluoride to drinking water was the only thing that stirred those types up?

You're a mean one, Mrs. Grinch...

Just noticed that Ma Bell apparently isn't repeating last year's free-with-a-coupon Wi-Fi offer for the holidays. Wonder why?

Wonder what took them so long?

Late flash from the Denver Post, tipped to us by Glenn Fleishman over at Wi-Fi Networking News: Denver International Airport has liberated its Wi-Fi. Too bad they hadn't done it six months ago, when I passed through a couple of times.

I mention this here not only because, as you recall, I made note of DIA being play-for-pay back then, but it seems some details in the story back up my assertion that large-scale installations like this are really untenable these days unless they're free. Consider: DIA claimed that as many as 20,000 users per month were willing to pony up $8 to use the network. All right then, let's do the math. That comes out to just under $2 million in annual revenue. Plainly and simply, unwiring the airport and maintaining the network couldn't possibly cost anywhere near that much-meaning that someone in Denver has either been hitting the Christmas spirit(s) a little too hard, or isn't being exactly truthful about how popular the service actually was. There's no way a cash cow that productive would have been sent to slaughter.

Of course, all I know is what I read in the papers-except for not having seen anyone actually using the network back in May during either of my two stops. I'd think I would have if they were really selling 600 connections per day, don't you?

In the beginning...

...God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without wireless Internet access, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And God said, "Let there be the 802.11 standard, and let it be implemented..."

Or something like that. Anyway, sorry we're late in commemorating the second anniversary of this blog. Here's hoping our efforts in the year to come make up for it.

Memo to whomever is running McDonald's these days

Dear Sir, Madam, or Whatever the Case May Be:

Stopped in at one of your midtown Kansas City locations for breakfast this morning and was gratified to see that the doors were actually unlocked at 6 a. m. Sometimes they aren't at this particular restaurant for some reason. Anyway, upon entering to order my Big Breakfast, I noticed your huge wall poster hawking "Wi-Fi @ McDonald's." What I'm writing to suggest is that you left off one big adjective that I think you really ought to consider adding-"FREE!"

Now why would I be inclined to stop in again for dinner after work and stay a while to use your play-for-pay hotspot when I could just hit the drive-through, then go home and hook up with the connection I'm already paying for? In fact, why wouldn't I just go home and cook dinner under those circumstances? Getting my drift here? "Amenities" I have to pay extra for really aren't amenities when you stop and think about it. If you want me to come in rather than drive through-or drive past on my way home-you've got to offer me something I can't get otherwise. You can pick my pocket perfectly well in the drive-through lane, thank you very much. I don't need to come in and sit down for that.

Besides, I think it's only going to be a matter of time before your competitors force your hand. More and more Burger Kings are showing up in the free hotspot listings all over. This blog, in fact, reviewed a Mr. Goodcents location not long ago that's within a few blocks of your restaurant, as well as a local Dairy Queen a few months back. Why not beat them to the punch and bring all of your locations-not just those few run by forward looking 21st-century thinkers-into the free world?

And by the way, when did you start putting only one sausage patty in the Big Breakfast instead of two?

So Thursday night they're gonna party like it's 1999

This morning's Kansas City Star reports that the KCK Public Library-the last big library system in the metro that hasn't unwired-will celebrate the remodeling of its main downtown branch this coming Thursday evening.

Interesting, their plans for accommodating the coming wave of high schoolers with district-supplied laptops. They're apparently looking to shoehorn them into three "study rooms" instead of doing what simple logic dictates would be the right way to deliver services to students equipped with modern wireless-capable mobile devices. Don't inconvenience them by making them choose between your online and printed resources-instead, light up the building so they can take their computers into the stacks and then access both from there. Why spend all that money buying laptops if you're not going to leverage them to their fullest extent?

This kind of twentieth-century thinking speaks volumes about why KCK has fallen so far behind, and why the digital divide yawns wider in Wyandotte County than just about everywhere else in the metro. Did it occur to anyone with the library or school district that besides fake trees and a fish tank-among all the other things you bought with the $3.4 million you spent on this makeover-that a wireless network, at least for the school laptops if not for everyone else, might be a useful addition?

What on earth do you think is going to happen when all those laptop users show up at once? Here's a hint. It'll be the same thing that happened at UMKC after they remodeled their main library's reference department into a cramped, outmoded "information commons" along the same lines as what you're planning, in order to placate a big donor. It simply became a woeful, underutilized bottleneck that hastened the necessity of the library's subsequent unwiring.

And since you'll obviously have to provide wireless access to the high schoolers eventually, what possible reason could there be not to provide it for the public at large? By all rights, you should already be doing that now. As I said at the beginning, you are now the only large public library system in metropolitan Kansas City that doesn't offer at least some kind of access for patron-owned laptops.

It's not still 1999, you know. That's why Prince doesn't sing that song any more.

Not so bad news after all-unless you're a kid

Stopped in again at the Mid-Continent Public Library's Blue Ridge branch this evening, and despite the fact that, as I previously reported, MCPL's locations don't show up as free hotspots in JiWire's listings any more, this branch at least is still offering free coupon access. I asked a librarian why MCPL doesn't just open up the network and she didn't have an answer. Maybe if someone from central administration could come here and look at all the desktop workstations occupied-and people waiting to get onto one-do you suppose that they just might get a clue? I can see three or four out of maybe a dozen users who look old enough to responsibly handle a laptop. There are also a couple of kids who obviously aren't that old having to sit and wait.

I ask you-what's wrong with this picture that a free, open and well-publicized wireless network wouldn't help fix?

Believe it, Ripley!

North Kansas City Public Library
2251 Howell, North Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: NKC library

Good news: It's here, it's free and open (for the most part-see below), and the tables in the center of the building sit next to columns with power outlets. Not so good news: They're using Zone CD for some ridiculous reason, meaning not only that you have to click through their acceptable use policy (a document that, just as an aside, I think they really need to run by a lawyer before it gets them into trouble) and be delivered to their homepage, but that every so often, you have to click back through it and go once again to the homepage, a la the mindlessness ath64 ran into out at the Johnson County Library a while back. (There's a simple workaround; have two tabs open in your browser, using one as a dummy and the other for your real work. Navigate to your homepage or some other site on the dummy and use it to perform the initial AUP clickthrough, then proceed with your work in the other tab. When going back to the homepage would wipe out something important, bring up the dummy tab and refresh it, performing the repeat clickthrough there. That's how I managed to post this.)

As far as I can tell, the connection is unfiltered, thus explaining the AUP's warning that use is restricted to persons 18 or over. Whether they could really enforce this on an open network unless a user was clearly accessing illegal content is questionable, in my view. Why not just close the network and require library card authentication if you don't trust your patrons? That's the question that would come to my mind if I were a juror hearing a case stemming from this issue.

Anyway, it's good to see NKC finally come into this century with the rest of us. Now if a certain library system to the west would wake up and take the hint...

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

You know, I really thought i'd never have to write another post like this, given that it's been maybe a year since the last one. And this one really gets to me because it's for a type of location I've been waiting to see unwire locally. The only other Wi-Fi laundromat I've seen listed anywhere is down in Lawrence.

So I was eager to give the Westport Laundromat at 1409 Westport Road in Kansas City a good review. Besides, I have a certain affinity for the place, having frequented it for its intended purpose back in my pre-homeowner days. But alas, it was not to be. No IP address from the access point's DHCP server. Too bad. I was thinking about bringing in a load or two on my way home from work every now and then, just for old time's sake.

Well, if any of you happen by and notice it's fixed, let everyone here know.

Good news (maybe) and bad news (for sure)

Looks like the Mid-Continent Public Library's dalliance with free and almost-open Wi-Fi has ended. None of their locations show up as free hotspots in JiWire's listings any more.

I think, however, that it's only a matter of time before MCPL joins the free world. They can't be making enough money for AT&T to justify carrying on their current arrangement much longer. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see AT&T follow Verizon's lead and get out of the play-for-pay Wi-Fi game altogether. Most of their other remaining locations nationwide are McDonald's restaurants, and I can't recall the last time I saw anyone boot up in a McDonald's that wasn't an independently-operated free hotspot. And as providers of cellular broadband as well, AT&T is essentially competing with itself anyway. How much sense does that make?

The potentially good news is that there's a rumor making the rounds that the North Kansas City Public Library has finally unwired, given that they're listed as such on wififfreespot's Missouri page. This can only be categorized as a rumor at this point, since the library's website makes no mention of it at present. We'll try to check it out sometime this week, but if anyone out there has any relevant information already, feel free to share it here.

Coming soon to a hotspot near you

Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Networking News has the scoop on Apple's new Wi-Fi-enabled iPod Touch, as well as a couple of things I personally find even more intriguing-a Wi-Fi-only version of the iTunes Music Store, and a somewhat curious marketing arrangement with Starbucks. Bring your wiPod (or laptop with iTunes installed) into one of their stores once this is up and running and you can not only connect to their T-Mobile network for free, but you can buy whatever song they happen to be playing at the moment, or browse through the last ten they've played, as well as make a regular iTunes purchase.

It isn't clear if the free access will extend beyond iTunes, but my guess is it won't. I'm baffled as to how Starbucks has survived this long-let alone been so successful-as play-for-pay. I can't imagine anything worse they could do to alienate their obviously loyal customers than to give something away for free to Johnny-come-latelies that their more established clientele is still asked to pay for.

The best hope, of course, is that this could prod Starbucks' management to finally turn the page on the calendar, say "sayonara" to T-Mobile (or, perhaps more appropriately, "auf Wiedersehen," since they're a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom) and join the "free" world.

And it'll be interesting to see whether the wiPod, if it really takes off, will have any social effects on wireless Internet and how we use it. Since you won't need a computer to load content onto a wiPod, how will the issue of parental control be addressed? Will there be pressure on operators of open hotspots-like public libraries-to block access to iTunes, or will this fall on Apple? And since five will get you ten that the porn peddlers are already gearing up to shovel smut at those few wiPodders who'll be in the market for it, could we eventually see a push for age restrictions on the sale of this and other wireless devices, or mandates that content control mechanisms be incorporated into them?

I also see the potential for some hotspot operators, somewhere down the line, to put the kibosh on filling up your wiPod on their networks should video overtake audio as the preferred content, owing to bandwidth concerns, at least until networking technology catches up.

Then again, this thing could go the way of the Newton. Anyone else out there remember the Newton?

By the way, Fleishman is one of the most insightful writers covering wireless networking technology. Bookmark his site or pick up his RSS feed. He's well worth a daily read.

Subs for breakfast, maybe?

Mr. Goodcents Subs and Pasta
3037 Main, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: linksys

The sign hanging in front of the window speaks the truth; this place is indeed unwired. However, it would be nice if the sign did a better job of blocking the awful glare coming in through those big, unshaded, westward-facing windows at around 6 p. m.-especially from the pavement. I'm finding a bit of relief from sitting at a right angle to the windows by moving my chair around to the south side of the table so I'm facing north as I view the display. It's only a moderate improvement, however. The sun reflecting off an adjacent table and even the floor here brings me to the conclusion that this is a place to hit early in the day or not at all (it closes at 7 p. m. weekdays and at 4 on Saturday). That is, unless you've got a way to shade your screen to help your eyes adapt.

There are a couple of tables next to power outlets along the north wall, and another pair of outlets at the south end of the seating area-but that one is so close to the windows I'm not sure I'd bother with it past midday without that aforementioned sunshield.

A good idea migrates north, and spawns another one.

Stopped in at the main KCMO Library downtown this afternoon and was gratified to see that the laptop lending program which started at the Plaza branch has made its way there. I saw at least a half-dozen users-mostly people who apparently would have had to wait in line for a desktop workstation otherwise. And that got me thinking.

Why doesn't KCPL expand this service to all of its locations? Not only that, but publicize it so patrons who'd benefit most from it will know it's an option. And here's another suggestion while I'm at it. To help with costs, why not get the manufacturers involved? Many of the young people who'd likely make up most of the users will eventually be in the market for a laptop themselves-and the more successfully we help close the digital divide for them, the more likely it'll be sooner rather than later that they'll be making that purchase. What better way for a maker to get its brand name in front of such hot prospects' eyes than a free "test drive" at their neighborhood library branch?

Why, if you approached him just right, I'd bet even Steve Jobs would sign on to help, which-in my unbiased opinion, of course-would be the icing on the cake.

And to that big-city library system on the west end of the viaduct, along with the smaller one north of the river that also hasn't unwired, here's another good reason to leave the last millennium behind. How many more are you going to need?

Then again, I guess you COULD come after dark...

Legends Shopping Center, KCK

802.11g
SSID: RoadRunnerSpeedzone

Well, it's here, it's free and open and it works. Unfortunately, that's about all the new outdoor hotzone has going for it at the moment. I'm at a table just outside Pride of Kansas City at Suite 107, and after nearly twenty minutes my eyes still haven't adjusted enough to see my screen well enough for me to type any faster than at a crawl. I think I'd just as soon slip into the nearby Scooter's Coffeehouse and catch up on my e-mail there. Either that or rig up a sunshield from cardboard or something-you know, like the hoods that NFL replay officials stick their heads under to study television monitors to make their calls. That might help. So, perhaps, would waiting a few years for these sapling trees to grow into real shade-throwers.

And with that, I'm going to have to stop. The sun just popped out from behind a cloud, and the situation has gone from bad to hopeless. Nonetheless, kudos to the Legends' management and Time Warner for taking a swing at this. It may not get much use-at least during daylight hours-but it's free, open, and in Wyandotte County. The more such locations, the better. And let's hope Time Warner pays very close attention to how well this location does as compared to the Country Club Plaza.

Since I was headed out west today anyway...

...I figured it wouldn't hurt to take a brief look at the latest outlying location to light itself up-the Basehor Community Library at 14500-R Parallel in Leavenworth County, a few miles past the speedway and the new open-air hotzone at the Legends Shopping Center which I'll be checking out later this evening. Like the library in Tonganoxie, which I mentioned back during this blog's early days, they're unwired courtesy of Sunflower Broadband of Lawrence. This is a temporary location without a lot of space, so seating and power outlets are at a premium. I managed to luck out and find both in a room at the back. Don't go downstairs, however, in search of them unless you're either a kid or an adult accompanying one. That's the children's library, and they're serious about that out here.

Basehor has a new library building under construction, so it'll be interesting to see if Sunflower Broadband's largesse follows them there-or if they unwire the new location themselves if not.

Anyway, while Sunflower's still in a giving mood, it would sure be nice if a certain big-city public library system across the county line to the east could be prodded to try and take advantage. I've asked here before, and I'll ask again: What's the problem, KCK?

Oh, I almost forgot-the access point's 802.11g and the SSID is "sbhsd Basehor Library."

And now, it's on to the Legends.

Well, speak of the devil!

Not exactly enclosed-mall-Fi, but the Kansas City Star reports today that both the Country Club Plaza and the Legends shopping center across from the Kansas Speedway in western Wyandotte County are now hotzones.

That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that only the latter offering is free and-let us hope-open. What on earth are Highwoods and Time Warner thinking? It's bad enough that whatever you buy on the Plaza carries an extra one-percent sales tax lug (which is why the new MacBook Pro that a certain contributor to this blog recently acquired was ordered online rather than picked up at the local Apple Store). Do they really think that enough Plaza shoppers are going to plunk down an outrageous $9 for the dubious privilege of using an outdoor hotspot for a day-or an equally outrageous $35 for a month's access-to make this worth doing? Why wouldn't they just stroll over to the Plaza Library-or perhaps take up an impromptu seat near that aforementioned Apple Store-and use all the free Wi-Fi they want?

Dollars to doughnuts says Time Warner makes like Sprint did up at the airport and bails out of this location within a year.

Or...maybe they and Highwoods will come to their senses and start looking forward like their West Wyandotte counterparts. The Legends' owners understand that in an era of cell phones, you can't attract shoppers to a venue by building more pay-phone booths, and you can't entice them to tote their laptops along and stick around once they get there by announcing up front that you'll pick their pockets while they do.

It'll be a while, but unless one of you would care to head out there now and check it out for us, look for a full review of the Legends network as soon as one of us can get away for a visit.

What, no Mall-Fi in KC?

After bidding farewell to the Johnson County Library and its shortcomings, I stopped in briefly at the Oak Park Mall just out of curiosity. There is a Panera Bread restaurant there that's lit up like all the rest of their area locations, but I didn't see any evidence of other open access points that were clearly provided by either the mall management or another tenant for customer use.

I wonder why. Of the KC metro's remaining enclosed malls, Oak Park is probably the most viable. Is the absence of mallwide Wi-Fi-or at the very least an unwired food court, which would seem to be a natural, at least to me-because it hasn't occured to local mall managers, or an indication that the era of big enclosed shopping malls is really passing, as some have opined recently?

(Incidentally, I'm deliberately excluding Crown Center here, despite the fact that its atrium-one of the first hotspots this blog reviewed-is lit up. As those of you my age or older remember, Crown Center was built as a combination hotel/shopping center/entertainment venue to redevelop urban blight (anyone else remember Signboard Hill?) and was designed in a manner to distinguish it from the bigger outlying standalone malls that were then in their heyday. As I recall, it's a rough contemporary of the Indian Springs and Independence centers, and predated Metro North and Oak Park by maybe a couple of years.)

What's your take? And if I'm wrong and there is a local mall that's unwired, wholly or partially, where is it and what are the particulars?

I've changed my mind...

...about reviewing the new Johnson County Library locations.

I'm posting this from the Oak Park Library just east of Oak Park Mall on 95th Street in Overland Park, and frankly I just don't see any point in continuing to hope that things will get any better with this network. Apparently I'm not alone in that assessment because mine is the only laptop I see. I also don't recall seeing any at the Central Resource Library earlier this evening.

I can see having newly-connected users click through your acceptable use policy-but what's the point of then redirecting them to the library's homepage? What makes you think that was where they wanted to go in the first place? Gee, I don't know-maybe we're just too dumb to find if if we need to.

And did it occur to anyone that forcing a user to do this MORE THAN ONCE IN A SESSION just MIGHT prove a tad inconvenient? For instance, try this: Go to Google or a specialized search site like the Internet Movie Database. Now, let your computer sit for a bit (like you might do while scrolling through a roll of microfilm or leafing through a reference volume or the like-you know, the kind of work that people bring laptops into libraries to help them with these days). Okay, now you're ready to enter another query. Type it in and throw it. Oops-why am I being asked to click through the AUP again? Well, all right-HEY, WHAT THE (BLANK) AM I DOING BACK AT THE LIBRARY'S HOMEPAGE? AND WHY DO I HAVE TO GO BACK AND ENTER THE (BLANK) QUERY AGAIN?


Mark my words-do that to someone more than once and you'd better hope he or she isn't a registered voter when the next library tax increase goes on the ballot.

Oh, and with regard to the incoming ports you're still blocking: Can anyone give me ONE GOOD REASON you feel that you CAN'T unblock port 995? Don't bother looking it up-it's the SSL port for incoming POP e-mail, which more and more ISPs are REQUIRING customers to use to help prevent interception of login credentials and other information on open wireless networks-like YOURS, for instance. If you want to continue keeping the corresponding outgoing SMTP port blocked to deter spammers, I really can't argue, but going BACK to preventing people form RECEIVING their mail smacks of cluelessness.

I'm not even going to revisit the filtering issue-there's really no need to since we all know this isn't really an "issue" anymore for knowledgeable users-but given that fact, why are you still discriminating-yes, that's the word, discriminating-against persons who use their laptops in the course of their employment or business? Is their tax money worth less for some reason? You know, they usually don't have a choice as to whether to connect their laptops to the Internet via a VPN. Bear in mind that in most cases the data on the laptop-and in many cases, the laptop itself-doesn't belong to them. It's their employer's property and as employees, they share the company's responsibility to protect it-a responsibility that in the case of a publicly-traded corporation or government agency could possibly be mandated by federal laws such as FISMA or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Also, you really aren't helping to make Johnson County a business-friendly locale by doing this. People performing research for their employers aren't as productive as they would otherwise be while having to shuffle back and forth between the location of the resource they're using and a library workstation-or having to wait in line to use one, since they can't use their laptops. And once again, neither they nor their employers-who pay plenty in taxes, don't you think?-are likely to become particularly enamored of the library because of this, or supportive of future tax increases.

I know I've ranted here, but this network has been such a source of frustration for such a long time-and I really hoped that with the expansion and the appointment of a new library director not long ago, things would start looking up. Sadly, that doesn't appear to be the case, so unless I hear things have changed I don't think I'll be back. And I'm guessing that I'm one of many former users who've given up hoping that someone here would see that you simply cannot deliver 21st century services while you are still hobbled by 20th century thinking.

The Electric MacBook Acid Test

Well, having set down the challenge for myself in my inaugural post here, I guess today was as good a time as any to head downtown to the Town Pavilion and see if I'd fare any better there than ath64 did. Sadly, I have to say no. My AirPort's indicator is down to a single bar of signal strength. I'm not losing the signal and getting bucked off like ath64 did last summer, but whether that's due to my using a newer computer or something else, I can't say. I should point out that I'm located on the first floor just inside the Main Street entrance.

Anyway, the place is undergoing a rather extensive renovation (the food court upstairs where ath64 managed to find power outlets is gone) so perhaps they'll add a few more access points in the process.

And yes, they've still got that silly and superfluous Windows-only login page. Click the left button showing above the login and password prompts to bypass it.

A small step for the Mid-Continent Public Library...

...but at least it's in the right direction.

Some of you may have noticed that all their branches are now listed as free hotspots on JiWire. Curious, I dropped in at the Blue Ridge branch to check it out. No, Ma Bell isn't gone, but by asking at the desk you'll be handed a card with a coupon code to keep her at bay. Whether the expiration date on the card (the one I'm currently using is supposedly good through August) is truly valid, or whether it'll work at any other AT&T location, I have no idea. Nor do I know if the code will work for more than one user (as did the single one AT&T gave everyone for use at all their non-McDonald's locations over the holidays last year).

I don't frequent play-for-pay hotspots, so it may be a while before I can provide definitive answers to the above. I can tell you, however, that at 6 p. m. mine is the only laptop in evidence here, despite all the public workstations being occupied (in fact, there's a waiting list for them).

Take the hint, MCPL. You've acknowledged now that you need free wireless access. The next logical step would obviously be to eliminate the barriers to usage, so the queue waiting for your desktops starts shrinking. You really should take this network over yourself and get rid of the hoop-jumping required to get on it. Remember-the easier you make something to use, the more people will use it. At the very least, post the coupon code with the signs (if it's universal) and make some mention on your webpage that your Wi-Fi is now free, even if it isn't entirely open.

If your hotspot's ever been hit up here for connectivity problems...

...or if you're getting complaints of no backhaul from your customers now, here's a hint as to a possible cause.

Over the past weekend I experienced here at home what that great Occidental philosopher Yogi Berra would probably describe as "deja vu all over again." My DSL connection, which in a year and a half of operation had never failed due to anything wrong that wasn't on my side of the modem, suddenly reminded me of a couple of hotspot visits I've described here. You know the drill-perfect connection to the access point, textbook handoff of a good IP address from the DHCP server, so on and so forth-but nothing beyond that. Try to hit Google and Firefox grinds and grinds before timing out; open up Thunderbird and it's the same story with your mail and news servers and RSS feeds. I reset the router-no change. Plugged my laptop directly into one of the Ethernet ports on the switch-same thing. Well, so much for the AP or the switch being the problem.

And one by one, I eliminated all the other possible causes between me and the wall, except one-the dual-input DSL filter that the ISP provided with its self-install kit to go between the wall jack and modem, so the jack could simultaneously be used by the modem and a phone. Removing it and plugging the modem in directly brought Google and my incoming spam back in their full glory.

The filter's demise really wasn't a great loss, given that I only plugged it in so I could continue to have my ancient desktop computer's dialup modem connected to the phone line, but I haven't used it since I got DSL anyway. And besides, I still have a spare filter if I need it. But I relate this tale just to remind everyone of what I shouldn't have forgotten myself, after a decade of supporting end users: It's the simplest things that are the most likely to be the source of the problem.

So...if your hotspot's been dished here for anything that sounds like what I've described, or if your customers are doing the dishing because they can't get YouTube with their yogurt-or whatever-try removing your DSL filters one at a time, especially if you've got your modem plugged into one. You might get lucky.

And by the way, if you're an operator or patron of a location that has been cited here in the past for issues since corrected and you think it deserves a second chance to impress, so do we. Just drop a comment or e-mail any of the contributors. We'll come by and check it out when we can.

We'd like to beg a favor...

...of our friends in the blogging community.

Over the past few months, I have at least twice noticed posts lifted from this blog showing up in their entirety elsewhere. While I'm flattered that anyone feels my writing worth copying, I would deeply appreciate being afforded the same common courtesy I have made a point of showing everyone else here. You have never seen me or any contributor to this blog do anything more than briefly summarize an article elsewhere and then provide a link to the original so that not only is that author's intellectual property respected, but you are able to read what they have written in context with the rest of their site. Better than simply cutting and pasting it here, wouldn't you agree?

I'm sure these instances were simply oversights by someone who knows better, and this brief mention will be enough to resolve the matter. Or at least I hope so.

First impressions

I've been making the rounds with a new MacBook Pro for about two weeks now, and I've got to tell you that either Macs are intrinsically better at Wi-Fi or the manufacturers have all gotten their act together since I last bought a laptop. I have yet to run into any of the low-signal-strength problems previously reported here. In fact, I'm posting this from the Plaza Library-a place that has taken its share of licks from ath64-and my AirPort indicator is showing four solid bars. Come to think of it, I haven't been anywhere it hasn't yet. (I guess the acid test would be the Town Pavilion, right?)

Anyway, is what I'm observing indicative of what the rest of you Mac toters are finding? And how about the rest of you who've bought new Windows machines in, say, the past year or eighteen months? Ath64's recently deceased primary laptop was nearly three years old when it bought the farm; its backup, the poor radio performance of which has been mentioned here more than once, is a year older than that. Will bringing a new computer into the mix bring this blog's evaluations more up to date with regard to how easy it is to stay connected out there nowadays?

Also, are there locations anyone's visited where Macs-or Linux machines, for that matter-are at a disadvantage due to the way the network is set up? There have been at least two documented here-the Johnson County Library and KCI Airport-whose apparently Internet Explorer-only splash pages don't seem to be fully functional in non-Windows browsers. Although neither network denied a connection outright on this basis, I sincerely hope there aren't any hotspot operators cheating themselves-perhaps unknowingly-out of customers this way. If there are and I come across them, you'll be forewarned here.

Enjoy it now, while you still can

Muddy's Coffee House
318 East 51st Street, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: Muddys Wireless

Again, charge your battery first. There's a two-outlet box on the wall at the front corner opposite the door, but I don't think I'd try using it even if management were approving, given that you'd be a bit close to the south-facing windows for comfort-especially at midday.

Also, unless you're a student, faculty or staff member at UMKC, watch out that you don't inadvertently attempt to hook into their wireless network, the signal from which bangs in here sufficiently to allow that to happen.

Which is somewhat ironic, since UMKC's expansion plans have put the future of the retail strip this establishment is part of in question, according to news reports.

I guess I ought to get back to doing hotspot reviews sometime, don't you?

The Coffee Girls
310 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: Coffee Girls

Two choices: Come with a fully charged battery or come after dark with an adventurous spirit, because the only power outlets I see anywhere in the place are in a power strip on the floor by the front table closest to the door-and closest to those big, unshaded front windows that are still giving me fits at past 5:30 in the evening as I sit with the back of my display toward them from perhaps ten feet farther away. On second thought, forget about the power strip, since they've got one of their window signs plugged into it.

Well, they do have a nice signal at least. My finder indicates you wouldn't have any problem connecting at one of the sidewalk tables outside, were you so inclined.

Notes from off the road

Well, the trip home proved to be a bit more leisurely than the outbound leg, so in addition to being able to grab a scandalously overpriced lunch at that Denver airport restaurant I missed on Monday, I was able to delve a little more deeply into the Wi-Fi situation there and in Salt Lake City. Both airports have it, but both are play-for-pay.

SLC, strangely, is unwired by Sprint, who abandoned their network at KCI to the city, which now runs it as a free offering. I can't help but wonder if they're faring any better out there than they did here, given that I didn't see anyone out there using them. The newly resurrected Ma Bell-you just can't keep a bad woman down, can you?-has Denver lit up, and I also saw a SSID there for an unencrypted network labled "Qwest Business Center" or something like that. Neither had any more customers in evidence than Sprint had back in Salt Lake. I did happen to see someone with a laptop in Denver, but he was using a Verizon cellular card.

And here's some more information about those payphone kiosks I mentioned in passing the other day. They're apparently dialup as opposed to Ethernet. I can't imagine anyone would really pay to do this any more, but should any of you have pangs of nostalgia upon reading this, get thee on a plane to DIA posthaste. Just make sure your modem drivers are up to date, and don't forget to pack your telephone cord.

One final update: Once I got home I Googled "Laptop Lane" and they're still around. They were bought last summer by another company, whose website indicates they still have a location in Salt Lake City's airport. So if your cravings for wired Internet access won't be sated by dialup at Denver, just check to make sure you've got an RJ-45 cable in your bag, fly on another hour west to SLC and you can knock yourself out with all the Ethernet you can afford at a dollar a minute.

Notes from on the road

Been out of town this week for the first time since starting this blog. For one thing, it gave me another chance to try out the free Wi-Fi at KCI Airport. Unfortunately, I had to do so with my old backup laptop, which is no longer a backup since my primary machine finally succumbed earlier this month to its host of maladies (well, I got five more months out of it so all in all I'd say it was worth trying to fix it back in December even though that undoubtedly hastened its demise). As I've mentioned here, this rig has never been a shining performer when it comes to wireless networking. I really didn't have time to baby it onto KCI's network before I had to answer the boarding call. Too bad.

From there it was on to Denver. I was a bit more preoccupied with finding breakfast and making my connecting flight-if you're keeping score, I only batted .500, not locating my preferred dining venue until just before I had to be at the gate-but I did manage to notice what looked like pay-phone kiosks where you could apparently plug in your laptop. My, how archaic. Whether the airport was unwired or not, either on a free or play-for-pay basis, I can't say because I didn't take the time to pull out my finder and scan for signals. Perhaps I'll check on the return trip tomorrow, but I'm not promising anything. At any rate, Denver could take a hint from KC. Low signal strength notwithstanding, I counted at least a half-dozen other users in Terminal A at KCI at the crack of dawn. I don't recall seeing a single laptop out at DIA half an hour later (allowing for the time zone difference). The message ought to be clear: Travelers get gouged enough with passenger facility fees, overpriced meals (it's probably to my benefit that I didn't find that restaurant in time) and taxes, taxes, and more taxes. Why dig your hand even more deeply into their pockets for just a few minutes of Internet access between flights-and why offer that access in such an outmoded, inconvenient, twentieth-century kind of way? Someone making his or her way between arrival and departure gates really doesn't have time to stop at a kiosk.


The second and final air leg of your humble correspondent's journey ended in Salt Lake City, where there at least used to be a Laptop Lane location (a short-term rental workspace with outrageously priced wired broadband access, for those of you who've never heard of them). Again, I was busy with making onward connections after arrival-this time a rental car to deliver myself and my compatriots to our theater of operations-so I neither had time to see if this enterprise had gone the way of the horse and buggy (since the last I knew they were owned by Wayport, so the handwriting was certainly on the wall) nor was I able to scan for wireless access. And unless my flight tomorrow gets delayed before boarding, I likely won't have time to check then either. I did note not seeing anyone else not in as much of a hurry as me with a laptop out, though. Once more, SLC's city leaders should take heed.

And I regret to report that the low-signal-strength epidemic has spread beyond the KC metro. I'm in the same unwired hotel where I stayed two years ago and if anything, the signal strength delivered to the rooms is worse now than it was then. Staying connected with my laptop's built-in card proved hopeless-and to my horror, I discovered that I hadn't bothered to install the drivers for my newly replaced USB adapter/finder (the one for the original wouldn't work). After a couple of hours I managed to get it downloaded from ZyXEL's site; another evening's work got the adapter up and running. Then I remembered that my trusty PC Card adapter, which I had begun using again with the other laptop's Linux installation, was still ensconced in my bag. In fact, I'm posting this via that card. One wonders, however, what the hotel expects someone not as tech-savvy as me to do should he or she run into problems getting and staying connected.

What's that? You get what you pay for? Well, "free" Internet access in a lodging facility really isn't free as far as I'm concerned (it's also really not "open" either since it's obviously intended for use by paying guests; that's why I don't evaluate hotels in the normal course of this blog, and why I'm not identifying this one by name). Sort of like the "free" continental breakfast I'm going to enjoy in a few hours. There is that little jam session the clerk and I will be performing with a cash register and credit card at the end of all this, remember? In deciding where to stay again I'd mark a hotel down for a dirty room or a balky air conditioner-issues I wouldn't be expected to pay more to have taken care of. Why not expect Internet access offered at no extra charge to work as well?

I'll offer once more this universal bit of advice to hotspot operators. Try using the connection yourself. See with your own eyes what your customers experience. If there's anything there you're not as proud of as you are of any of your other products or services, FIX IT!

What could there possibly be about this that any businessperson doesn't understand?

At long last...

...the Johnson County Library has begun moving toward completely unwiring all its locations. They say that Cedar Roe, Lackman, and DeSoto are already done, and there's a report on wififreespot's Kansas page that Gardner is lit up. Plans are to be finished by the end of the year.

Since I have more convenient library access now that KCMO's fully unwired, and since it's a longer drive to JoCo from where I work today as opposed to where I did when I started this blog, I don't get out to their locations as often as I used to-and frankly, given the issues I've documented here with this network and its implementation, I haven't been particularly inclined lately to make a special trip out there to use it. Nonetheless I'll probably make a sweep of the new locations once the expansion is further along. However, anyone who'd care to beat me to the punch with a report from one now is welcome.

No, "Wi-Fi" is NOT short for "Wireless Fidelity!"

And if I ever see or hear anyone say it is again, I'll...oh, never mind.

Read the straight dope on the issue here.

Attack of the "N"

I'm afraid I have to tell on myself. A week or so ago I managed to lose the ZyXEL AG-225H USB Wi-Fi finder/adapter that I'd been using to help analyze and review hotspots since the early days of this blog. In fact some of you may recall the free publicity I gave it in a post when I bought it. Well, anyway I've just received its replacement-thanks, UPS, for getting your driver back out here a second time today so quickly; that's what I call good customer service-and there have been some changes to the design in the year and a half since this product was introduced. One that's quite welcome is that its LCD display is now backlit. Another that's a bit more intriguing is that it now can detect and display 802.11-pre N networks, although as far as I can tell from the documentation its capabilities as an adapter are still limited to 802.11a, b and g.

Which leads me to ask-are there any pre-N hotspots out there yet? Anyone know of any?

From reading this you've got to wonder...

...why the Cass County Public Library is even bothering with wireless.

http://www.casscolibrary.org/wirelessfaq.htm

First of all, what's their rationale for limiting access to cardholders? The need for a public library to do so with its own workstations is obvious-they can only have a limited number of them and need to give everyone a fair shot at a chance to use one. What's more, the demand for their use is normally so great that time limits generally have to be imposed.

A network providing wireless access for user-owned equipment suffers from neither of these limitations. There's no good reason for a public library to close it, and plenty good ones not to. After all, if you do close it, you have to:

1. Either purchase or devise an authentication solution, making the network more expensive or complicated than would otherwise be necessary.
2. Make provisions for protecting the login credentials (because they can be easily intercepted otherwise, thus negating whatever perceived benefit you hoped to realize by closing the network, as well as exposing patrons to the risk of identity theft), adding even more cost and complexity.
3. Provide support for the inevitable problems that patrons will have logging in, as opposed to issues with connecting to the network itself. You can beg off responsibility for the latter, since you can't take responsibility for touching my computer. You won't be able to get away with that, however, if you give me a username and password that don't work. In short, you'll be turning your library staff into a help desk.

And anyone who is a cardholder really needs to consider the privacy implications of using this network, particularly with regard to such things as the Patriot Act. Open networks that don't authenticate users don't keep records. Without a clear disclosure of what information is logged and for how long, how is someone supposed to make an informed decision as to whether he or she wants to be a registered user of this network? After all, should whatever mechanism employed for protecting the login credentials be compromised and someone's credentials be misused, it's possible he or she may only find out when the feds kick down his or her door in the middle of the night, after the miscreant's activities-carried out under the innocent patron's library card number and PIN-resulted in the delivery of a Section 215 subpoena or National Security Letter to the library (which the library would be prohibited by law from notifying the identity theft victim of). Granted, it's unlikely, but it's not impossible.

Also, doing this just seems to me to be at cross purposes with what a public library is supposed to be all about. Once again, I understand why public-access workstations need to be reserved for cardholders-although there are a few libraries where they aren't. Would Cass County ever dream of posting an armed guard at the door of each of its library branches, permitting only cardholders to enter? I hope not. Were I cruising through Belton and had some time to kill, would I be approached and asked to leave if I were to come into the branch and sit down to read a magazine from the rack? I don't think so. Why, then, preclude my doing essentially the same thing with my laptop?

Should the response include the words "costs" or "expenses," as I'm sure it will, I'd simply point out that public libraries get both state and federal money, and I, like most other gainfully employed persons, pay both state and federal taxes. The library really isn't doing much to endear itself to taxpayers with this dog-in-the-manger attitude.

Which brings up another issue. Cass says they're filtering this connection to comply with both Missouri statutes and the all-important CIPA, even though it's still an open question (or at least it was the last I heard) whether it applies to computers the library in question does not own or manage. The state law linked to from the library's website, however, appears to be less ambiguous; it clearly does not cover a privately owned laptop ("A public library that provides a public access computer...").

If you're authenticating users, why bother with filtering? No one is going to "porn" you if they have to identify themselves to you first. And why go to the trouble of filtering when in the section of your webpage discussing security issues, you suggest a surefire method of circumventing it?

And finally, what's the difference between Cass County and the rest of the metro? You're the fourth library system to implement free wireless after Kansas City, Olathe, and Johnson County, and you're the only one to close your network. Why?

With the coming of spring, a few changes

Actually, only one. I'm going to expand the scope of the blog a little bit to talk more about wireless Internet in general. Frankly, it's matured now to the extent that the rate of creation of new hotspots around town has really dropped off recently, so as you've seen I don't post as often as I used to.

Our principal focus, of course, will remain on free and open access locations, and rest assured that whenever another one pops up, I'll be on it as soon as I find out about it, and you'll read about what I find right here.

Your stomach can be empty, but your battery had better be full

Dairy Queen
400 SE Douglas, downtown Lee's Summit

802.11g
SSID: DQ Wireless

As a reader reported in a comment added to my last post (and once more, thanks for the heads-up, whoever you are) this place is indeed unwired. Downside: There appear to be only one pair of available power outlets; they're on the wall next to the door on the Douglas Street side. Also, I don't think the table adjacent to those outlets would be an easy place to read your LCD in broad daylight , given that you're at the mercy of some rather big, close and unshaded windows (I'm here at about 6 p. m.). Upside: Unlike several other Lee's Summit locations listed in various directories, this one still has an open and unencrypted network. Good for them.