Since there seems to be a lull in the thrilling debate on whether
disabling SSID broadcast REALLY is a security enhancement, I thought I
would share some experiences that I had trying to find wireless access
on a recent trip to Austria.
Background: I was there to cheer on a friend in an ironman triathlon
competition in the southern part of the country. The idea was that I
would update my web-site in "real time" with photos for the folks back
home. I did a little research on hotspots in the area, and here is
what I encountered:
* T-Mobile - T-Mobile US advertises that you can use your login in
several European countries. However, I found that the list of
t-mobile hotspots that you could acutally use in Austria was a subset
of the total number of t-mobile hotspots there. T-mobile took over an
operation called Metronet a year ago or so, and for a reason that
escapes me has not yet completely integrated the two systems. So
while some of the locations are branded T-mobile, you have to buy a
day pass to get access at former Metronet locations. This aside, I
had mixed results connecting - snail-like connection, or inability to
connect to the login page at all. A couple of times it was great. God
bless the long-suffering souls at t-mobile hotspot tech support who
handled my frustrations like pros.
* McDonalds - McDonalds in Austria announced last year with great
fanfare (ok, maybe I exaggerate) that they would be equipping about
150 restaurants with wireless access. I had them in mind as a backup,
but when I went to a restaurant to get a connection, I was informed by
the manager, usually to his amusement, that the restaurant was not
hooked up yet. This despite having advertising for the service all
over the store. Interesting.
* Munich Airport, Lufthansa Lounge - I thought that I would be able
to use my t-mobile account, but could only get a Vodafone signal here.
Worked fine after complaining to desk staff about inability to
connect (not user error!). Not cheap, though.
* Lufthansa flight to San Francisco - Lufthansa is actually equipping
some of its flights with wifi (for $30 for the whole flight!) but mine
was not one of them (yet). When it happens, I will be interested to
see what sort of speed one can get - in plugging into the ethernet
plug that was at my seat I only got a 10mb connection to the
hub/switch/whatever instead of the usual 100mb. Unfortunately, that
hub/switch/whatever was not connected to anything (like a satellite
antenna), so I didn't have either wired or wireless access. Better
for sleeping.
From trip in March to Norway:
* Oslo - very few public hotspots in the city, but I did find a bar
downtown that had free (I think) access. If you could endure the
smoke, then you were all set. The owners encouraged me to leave when
the happy hour crowd started arriving. Apparently nerds are not good
for business.
* Lillehammer - unquestionably the slam-dunk, hat trick, grand slam so
far this year. There is this arty-farty restaurant/gallery place in
downtown where you can get good food and free access. Spent hours
there im'ing with wife and basically wasting time when I should have
been doing other stuff. Only problem is that Lillehammer is in the
middle of nowhere.
bt
|
Similar Threads
Linear Mode
