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April 17, 2006
The Paradoxes of Public WiFi
My apologies for my short absence from this blog. I have spent most of the past two weeks “in the field” as it were, first at the International Security Conference (ISC)-West in Las Vegas, then at a policy forum at Microsoft in Seattle. Entries on both will come over the course on the coming days and weeks.
For starters, however, the two trips marked the first time since last fall I’ve had a chance to get out on the road and experience the dubious wonders of near-ubiquitous Wi-Fi the tech elite can’t stop gushing about. For me, however, the experience brought to mind two popular epigrams.
The first is an observation attributed to Yogi Berra, who, asked to comment on a popular New York night spot, said, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
The second is an old Borscht Belt joke about an exchange between two disappointed restaurant patrons: “The food is so bad here,” says one. “And in such small portions,” replies the other.
As a technology, WiFi is simply ill-designed for wide area, large-scale Internet connectivity. I have always wondered why so many cities were intent on pursuing it as a broadband solution. Now having experienced both municipal and commercial services, I’m still left scratching my head.
I’ve already blogged about the problems of logging onto free municipal Wi-Fi in my own town. But that was local example. This time I’ve hit oft-cited two hotbeds of WiFi – Vegas and Seattle.
Public Wi-Fi in general is becoming oversaturated. The free and low-cost services only moreso. Vegas is said to have free Wi-Fi service at the airport and downtown. Low-cost service is said to be available at the major hotel convention centers. Yet good luck finding an open channel.
Wi-Fi is coverage is inherently tight with limited channels. Place a relatively small number of laptops and PDAs in a single hotspot and it rapidly reaches capacity. This problem occurs with pay services; free just exacerbates the problem
Recalling Yogi Berra, it’s getting pointless to even attempt to make a Wi-Fi connection in an airport, hotel lobby or convention center, let alone a park or plaza boasting “free” WiFi because so many devices are on-line—some like WiFi-enabled PDAs, connected but idle. A commons problem is rapidly developing. I have come to regret choosing a WiFi PDA rather than a cellular or a BlackBerry device.
Conversely, however, at random times of day, you can suddenly find a free connection. You just never know when.
Out in Vegas, while warming up for some late night poker action by running a few hands of Turbo Texas Hold ’Em on my laptop, my WiFi icon., a steady red for the past 18 hours, suddenly went turned green. I opened my browser and was immediately taken to my pre-set homepage (www.reason.org, of course!) with no intervening redirect page. Where was this signal coming from? A quick check of the SSID settings showed I was riding the hotel’s hard-wired Ethernet-based pay service that otherwise should have been costing me $9.95 an hour. In a short time I was able to get all accumulated emailing done on what was, I would later surmise, an Internet connection from a neighboring room whose occupant at set up a makeshift hotspot, connecting an unsecured portable wireless router instead of his laptop, to the wired connection.
This connection was gone the following day, illustrating the emphermal nature of WiFi Internet. In Seattle it was more of the same. My PDA connections would waver between green and amber in any large public area where WiFi was allegedly available, resulting in dropped connections and repeated attempts at logging in. Bad service, small portions. Adding insult to injury in Seattle was a worm or spyware that got into my PDA RAM that slowed down processing to a crawl. In the end, I had to reboot the device, losing some files in the process.
I’m at a loss to find a snappy epigram for the final WiFi paradox, other than to say you only find a connection when you’re not looking for one. WiMax is supposed to solve all this by replacing hundreds of low-power hotspots with broader umbrellas of coverage. Still, the WiMax standard is not complete and the technology is substantially immature compared to cellular data formats such as EDGE and EV-DO. Most cities are rushing headlong into WiFi anyway. And given that in addition to supporting thousands of users, these networks will also bear bandwidth intensive applications, such as video surveillance, for the city itself, one wonders how much of a hit they will be with the public.
Just keep old Yogi in mind.
Posted by steve.titch at April 17, 2006 10:55 AM
I just don't have much to say recently. Such is life. I've basically been doing nothing. Basically nothing seems worth bothering with. Oh well.
Comment by: Sten30511 at January 26, 2007 08:21 AM
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Not much on my mind these days, but what can I say? It's not important. I just don't have much to say lately. I've just been letting everything pass me by recently, but eh.
Comment by: Sten52237 at January 26, 2007 03:44 PM
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I've more or less been doing nothing worth mentioning, but eh. My life's been really bland today. I don't care. I've just been letting everything happen without me these days. That's how it is.
Comment by: Sten10920 at January 27, 2007 06:38 AM
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I feel like an empty room, but eh. Nothing seems worth doing. I haven't gotten much done today.
Comment by: Sten77133 at January 27, 2007 11:34 PM
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I haven't been up to much these days. Today was a loss. Nothing seems important. I've just been letting everything happen without me these days.
Comment by: Sten58966 at January 28, 2007 01:26 AM
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I haven't been up to anything these days. So it goes. I can't be bothered with anything these days.
Comment by: Sten27592 at January 28, 2007 04:39 AM
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I haven't been up to anything these days. So it goes. I can't be bothered with anything these days.
Comment by: Sten74125 at January 28, 2007 08:01 PM
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I haven't been up to much these days. Today was a loss. Nothing seems important. I've just been letting everything happen without me these days.
Comment by: Sten25582 at January 28, 2007 10:51 PM
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My life's been basically bland today. More or less nothing seems worth thinking about. My mind is like an empty room. I've more or less been doing nothing to speak of. Not much on my mind recently.
Comment by: Sten89221 at January 29, 2007 05:12 AM
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I can't be bothered with anything these days, but such is life. I don't care. So it goes. More or less nothing seems worth thinking about. I've just been hanging out waiting for something to happen, but that's how it is.
Comment by: Sten43514 at January 29, 2007 05:49 AM
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I just don't have anything to say right now. I haven't been up to anything recently, but it's not important. I've just been sitting around waiting for something to happen, but shrug.
Comment by: Sten15253 at January 29, 2007 08:35 AM
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I haven't been up to much lately. I've basically been doing nothing , but it's not important. I can't be bothered with anything recently. I've just been letting everything happen without me lately.
Comment by: Sten20117 at January 29, 2007 12:40 PM
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I haven't been up to much today. I've just been letting everything happen without me. Basically nothing seems worth bothering with. I've just been hanging out doing nothing. I just don't have anything to say right now. More or less nothing happening.
Comment by: Sten93894 at January 29, 2007 04:12 PM
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I feel like a complete blank, but I don't care. Pfft. I've pretty much been doing nothing worth mentioning.
Comment by: Sten35580 at January 30, 2007 12:41 AM
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Not much on my mind lately. My life's been completely boring these days. I've just been hanging out not getting anything done. So it goes.
Comment by: Sten83966 at January 30, 2007 07:46 AM
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My life's been pretty dull recently. Shrug. My mind is like a void. I haven't gotten anything done lately. I can't be bothered with anything recently.
Comment by: Sten99684 at January 30, 2007 01:47 PM
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I haven't been up to anything today. I can't be bothered with anything recently. Nothing seems worth thinking about. I haven't gotten anything done recently, but oh well. Not much noteworthy going on worth mentioning.
Comment by: Sten2894 at January 30, 2007 09:42 PM
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I just don't have much to say these days, but so it goes. Today was a total loss. I guess it doesn't bother me.
Comment by: Sten98229 at January 30, 2007 10:03 PM
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I just don't have much to say these days, but so it goes. Today was a total loss. I guess it doesn't bother me.
Comment by: Sten66420 at January 31, 2007 03:54 AM
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I haven't gotten anything done today. I feel like a fog, but what can I say? I've just been letting everything wash over me lately, not that it matters. Shrug.
Comment by: Sten43698 at January 31, 2007 09:46 AM
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I just don't have much to say these days, but so it goes. Today was a total loss. I guess it doesn't bother me.
Comment by: Sten88860 at January 31, 2007 04:04 PM
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Not much on my mind lately. My life's been completely boring these days. I've just been hanging out not getting anything done. So it goes.
Comment by: Sten94530 at February 1, 2007 08:20 AM
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I just don't have anything to say , but shrug. So it goes. Not much on my mind recently. I can't be bothered with anything recently.
Comment by: Sten90098 at February 1, 2007 10:19 AM
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Not much on my mind lately. My life's been completely boring these days. I've just been hanging out not getting anything done. So it goes.
Comment by: Sten8191 at February 1, 2007 12:31 PM
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Not much on my mind lately. My life's been completely boring these days. I've just been hanging out not getting anything done. So it goes.
Comment by: Sten7081 at February 1, 2007 04:03 PM
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retty much nothing seems worth thinking about. My life's been completely dull , not that it matters. I've just been staying at home waiting for something to happen.
Comment by: Sten63239 at February 1, 2007 05:19 PM
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Basically nothing seems worth thinking about. I haven't been up to much these days. I just don't have much to say right now. I can't be bothered with anything , but whatever.
Comment by: Sten9016 at February 2, 2007 02:06 AM
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I haven't been up to anything recently, but so it goes. Such is life. What can I say? Pretty much not much exciting going on to speak of. I haven't gotten much done lately, but I don't care.
Comment by: Sten61164 at February 3, 2007 12:29 AM
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Not much on my mind lately. My life's been completely boring these days. I've just been hanging out not getting anything done. So it goes.
Comment by: Sten71874 at February 3, 2007 01:16 AM
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Basically nothing seems worth thinking about. I haven't been up to much these days. I just don't have much to say right now. I can't be bothered with anything , but whatever.
Comment by: Sten80919 at February 3, 2007 05:46 AM
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Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or
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your request.
Please contact the server administrator,
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caused the error.
More information about this error may be available
in the server error log.
Comment by: Sten89450 at February 3, 2007 07:38 AM
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My life's been pretty dull recently. Shrug. My mind is like a void. I haven't gotten anything done lately. I can't be bothered with anything recently.
Comment by: Sten8941 at February 3, 2007 05:02 PM
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My life's been basically bland today. More or less nothing seems worth thinking about. My mind is like an empty room. I've more or less been doing nothing to speak of. Not much on my mind recently.
Comment by: Sten55277 at February 4, 2007 03:25 AM
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I've just been staying at home not getting anything done. I've basically been doing nothing worth mentioning. My life's been pretty unremarkable these days. Eh.
Comment by: Sten26245 at February 5, 2007 10:45 PM
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I've just been staying at home waiting for something to happen. Whatever. Not much on my mind lately. I guess it doesn't bother me.
Comment by: Sten36982 at February 6, 2007 12:05 AM
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I haven't been up to much today. I've just been letting everything happen without me. Basically nothing seems worth bothering with. I've just been hanging out doing nothing. I just don't have anything to say right now. More or less nothing happening.
Comment by: Sten34567 at February 6, 2007 03:30 AM
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I can't be bothered with anything these days, but shrug. I just don't have anything to say recently. I haven't gotten much done recently. Nothing seems worth thinking about.
Comment by: Sten78382 at February 6, 2007 08:01 AM
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