Engineering on the fly

I am spending more time out of the office these days and I often am looking for Internet access while I have a meal. I have found a number of sites for locating WiFi hotspots, but none of them seem to be complete and most are actually pretty poor. I guess part of the problem is that they seem to require users or providers to list the hotspots rather than their being some way for the sites to seek them out. So a hotspot get listed when someone cares enough to enter it. Since there are so many listing sites it seems like none have the critical mass to attract the majority of entries. It's sort of like trying to find a restaurant listing site, it's not that you can't find one good site, instead you find so many crappy ones.

Is there a WiFi hotspot locator site that is the dominate one? I have not found it yet if there is.

Rick

Reply to
rickman
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Wouldn't a 3G connection be a better option ? Most GSM phones these days can connect to the internet, and with a USB cable or bluetooth it is not to difficult to setup a laptop to use the phone as a modem. As long as you have cell phone coverage, you should have at least some sort of internet connection. If you have 3G coverage, the speed is actually quite good. Up to 7.2Mb/s.

Regards Anton Erasmus

Reply to
Anton Erasmus

I had an aircard for almost a month. But I spent the last two weeks worrying about saying under the 5 GB/month data limit. I guess it's not a bad plan if you never need to transfer files of any size.

What's wrong with using WiFi hotspots? They are becoming more and more available.

Rick

Reply to
rickman

Maybe coming your way someday?

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This article on public wi-fi was from our local (Norfolk, VA) newspaper:

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Reply to
Richard Seriani

If you don't try to watch streaming multimedis, let your system auto-update via 3G, grab ISOs of DVDs, run PTP filesharing or chat clients that use your machine as a relay, or do too much remote login at high resolutions or VPN stuff, I doubt you'll go over 2-3 GB/month which leaves 2GB in hand for FTP etc. You should be able to set up firewall rules that block that lot on the 3G adaptor but permit them on a wired or wireless connection. For updates, you ideally need to be on a

*trusted*, but for everything else, e.g. grabbing a couple of Linux distros with source, cue them up in a download manager and grab them whenever you've got a WiFi connection, or let it run overnight at the office.

Finding individual free hotspots at least in the UK is a mugs game.

*many* free hotspots are failed commercial ones. If you cant make it reliable enough to charge for, make it free and push Ads down it :-( If you *do* find a free one, a month later its probably down, gone or been taken over by a pay one. I'm not talking about using unintentionally unsecured networks either. Many chains over here advertise free internet and are *much* more reliable as the size of the operation means they can afford to employ someone with a clue to spec it, set it up and maintain it, so IMHO I'd start by searching for WiFi info for chains you can stand the food from. I doubt anywhere gourmet is going to offer WiFi except if they are part of a hotel, conference centre, sports club etc. as it is going to seriously detract from the dining experience.
Reply to
IanM

That is a long list of things I can't do with an aircard!!! I wanted to use the aircard to *enable* Internet access, not hinder it! As to the aspects of using WiFi for large downloads... that is what this thread was supposed to be about, finding a good resource for locating WiFi hotspots!!!

We don't have those problems here. All of the WiFi I have found use provider services. No one does it themselves. I expect they get a very reasonable price since some very small coffee shops provide free Internet. I have found about six reliable hotspots around here and often use them at lunch. But I'm getting tired of the same fare... ;^) Funny that some of the larger chain seem to use access limiting services which can get in the way of accessing legitimate sites. I wanted to download something from a site that included hardware info and it was blocked with a category of "weapons". I forget what might have triggered that, but it was something innocuous like "BOM" or whatever. The non-chain restaurants here don't bother with this sort of software and don't get in the way. I also had problems accessing my email servers from Panera. They are blocked by SpamCop for being used to send SPAM.

Actually, I am planning a trip out West and was looking for places where I could check email and download maps while I feed and fuel. A problem is finding a hotspot when you don't have one. I did find one program you can download witch presents you with selections out of a data base. I have added several entries to their web site and have not seen an update in a month. If they can't provide updates to their data base, this is pretty worthless. So I am going to have to find hotspots in various cities ahead of time. But that is just part of the planning just like booking a hotel (with WiFi of course).

Rick

Reply to
rickman

"Someday is today at Honeywell". Too bad I'm not at Honeywell!

Rick

Reply to
rickman

I think that almost all the major truck stops on the interstates provide WiFi. If you visit for lunch, you will almost always find truckers with laptops in the booths. I suppose they are doing the same things you want to do: Checking email, weather and road conditions, and looking at maps.

I don't know if the WiFi services are free or require a subscription.

Mark Borgerson

Reply to
Mark Borgerson

Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm surprised that this forum doesn't have more people who do the same thing. I guess most engineers actually don't work on the road much. I am currently working for myself and I get tired of working alone in my office. So I have been going out to lunch and spending some 3 hours or so before I return. Even though I am not really interacting a lot with the people there, at least it is better than keeping the TV on for background noise.

I guess I thought that at this point there would be at least one good data base of available WiFi hotspots. So far the best ones I have found are

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and
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Rick

Reply to
rickman

Actually, a lot of us do, including myself. But before the trip I spool all the datasheets I might possibly need onto the laptop, anticipating that WLAN access may be spotty or non-existent. Now I got myself a Samsung NC-10 netbook, see how that fares on the road. First run, around

8h battery runtime. Sweet!

Then self-employment may not be the perfect setting for you. Got to get used to loneliness. If it's any comfort I also miss not having colleagues around. But I got used to it, and the shepherd mix usually likes to hang out with me in the office. The rottie prefers his basket in the living area. Oh, here he comes, just got a wet nose nudge ...

TV? I could not work well with a TV droning on in the background. Poeple, chatter, phones, machines, yeah, but not TV.

Best is to ask the locals. Hotel clerks might also know. They are also in a better position to say things like "Yeah, they've got WLAN but the food is awful".

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
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Reply to
Joerg

I spend about 8 to 10 weeks a year on the road---generally for about a week at a time. During those periods, I rely on the hotel wifi or wifi in the field office.

I work at home the rest of the time and I have enough computers in the office so that I can dedicate one to internet radio. I usually tune in to XLNC1.org---a classical station with the top 400 hits of the last 400 years. There's only about 6 hours between the time the last teenager leaves for school and the first one comes home, so I don't get cabin fever most days.

Mark Borgerson

Reply to
Mark Borgerson

When I do I am on the road for short times and often busy on sites or busy travelling, not normally on site for more than one day. If at site for several days, I rarely have enough time to check emails!

Having spent several days on site where either the days are taken up working or evenings entertaining/being entertained....

Until recently I had various cats, worst things were cat walking across keyboard when back was turned, try fathoming out the compile errors from that! One time had to explain to customer. please hang on, I have to extricate cat from my desk drawer!

Everyone has their own methods of blanking out other things when concentrating.

--
Paul Carpenter          | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk
    PC Services
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Reply to
Paul Carpenter

That's sounds familiar.

I can listen to music while actually coding but otherwise, I prefer silence.

That sounds familiar. However, after two days at home, I need to drive somewhere, sometimes just in a circle. When I do drive, I frequently resolve problems where I would otherwise beat my head against the wall for longer :) Not the most eco-friendly mechanism perhaps ;)

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Michael N. Moran           (h) 770 516 7918
5009 Old Field Ct.         (c) 678 521 5460
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Michael N. Moran

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