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.