Wifi - Prospects and Problems
written by Stuart on January 12th, 2006
With the news last week that Cloud and British Telecom would be teaming up to provide wifi access to eight urban centres in the UK this year, including liverpool, I let out a little yelp of excitment. Living, as I do in Liverpool, and within spitting distance of the city centre, I am therefore hopeful that come March this wifi network will be available in my flat. That being the case, and depending on the speed and reliability of the network, I would happily ditch my current broadband connection in favour of this service.
Just before Christmas I got a new iBook, and have already made use of its wireless functionality, my university offer open access in a lot of locations around campus, including the student union - a touch of genius. Also, the pub two floors below my flat have a boingo access point, though that service depends on your subscription to one of its partner services, unless you have a nintendo DS, access with which is free.
2006 is well set to be the year of wireless, and with my iBook, and my playstation portable both having that functionality, I’m more eager than most for more hotspots, more networks, and more unsecured access points! Until now wireless access has been the reserve of public spaces and hotels, but with affordable consumer level products, and services from all of the major internet providers, we should see people getting onboard in their droves, and that doesn’t just mean the business users.
In other wireless news, over the festive period, whilst at my parents house in Coventry I attempted to set-up a wireless network using a linksys router. It was all going beautifully until I burnt the damn thing out by using the wrong power adaptor. I then fought for days with a D-link router, only to concede defeat when I couldn’t even manage to log into the admin settings for the thing. If wireless is going to make it into more and more homes, then it needs to get easier, I am pretty savvy, and I was waving the white flag, so for the novice user, getting a wireless home network is still a daunting process.
I shall be investigating further the likliehood of being able to access this citywide network from my flat, and I’ll keep you informed, but in the meantime, I guess I will have to go and battle through a pint and for the wireless access at the union.
Popularity: 5%
Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit there, but I actually don’t like WiFi. Dunno, the cable era got too much into my blood, maybe.
Good luck though, I’m sure that WiFi will be soon available at your home.
Sexy iBook, btw.
I haven’t really had all that much experience with it (hence my problems!) but it just affords you so much freedom.
Being able to park your ass anywhere you like with your laptop in hand, and check your email, keep an eye on your webstats etc, is really appealing to me.
WiFi is brilliant I just got into it and the flexibilty it brings is really great. I can be making a snack and talking to someone via IM or I can be lying in bed reading my blogroll. I don’t know how anyone can not love wirefree computing… Really I don’t…