Just last night I took my TiPB [apple.com] (Apple Titanium Powerbook) to Washington Square Park (NYU Campus [nyu.edu]) and hooked into the NYCWireless free 802.11b network (link [nycwireless.net]) at the northeast end of the park using my AirPort card [apple.com]. This was the first time I tried out one of these "Parasitic Grids". I was quite impressed. Sitting out on the grass (ignoring the guys selling grass [marijuana.com]), I was surfing Slashdot, downloading updates to Fink [sourceforge.net] and chattin' with my friends on IRC. I was quite impressed with the speed of my connection (about 36kps) and my ability to roam from spot to spot in the grass in order to hear the guy playing violin better. Being able to take my computer into the great outdoors, tuning into a free wireless network and getting work/fun done to me has to be one of the best advancements in computers yet. Now the computer does not dictate the environment it works in, I do.
On a side note, any coffee shop that wants to kick Starbuck's ass ought to buy a cheap DSL line/Cable modem and hang a 802.11b base station and give away free bandwidth for the cost of a $4.95 mocha carmel frappa latte skim half-caf double-decaf cappachino.
Only 36K? I suppose that's reasonable for a free service. Indeed, if that were available where I live, and I thought it was likely to be a permanent service, I'd order my 802.11 card right now -- and ask the operators if they are accepting donations.
But it'll never compete with DSL. And if you're getting that little bandwidth out of an 11 megabit connection, the system must be close to saturation -- and being totally unusable.
there is no system, it is a public network. 36k isn't bad for sitting at a park reading slashdot.
can't cary your dsl to park. if you want global 802.11 11mbit then your going to have to pay for it.. otherwise shuddup and thank them for setting up free access.
Can't be 36K - there's no support in the protocol for that. It's possible that you were hanging off a node that had a "56K" modem connecting it to the Net, or something like that. The protocol supports 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps (raw, not throughput), but you're, of course, relying on the broadband (or not) connection.
I am guessing he didnt mean the link speed, but the actual throughput. The connection could have been saturated by downloads or other users at the time.
Ok, so this must have been a typo. It must have been a 36kbytes/sec download not a 36kbits/sec download.
I have used the Washington Square Park connection many times, and depending on the site I can get up to a 400kbytes/sec download. Better than most DSL and cable modems.
Washington Square Park/NYCWIRELESS.NET (Score:5, Interesting)
On a side note, any coffee shop that wants to kick Starbuck's ass ought to buy a cheap DSL line/Cable modem and hang a 802.11b base station and give away free bandwidth for the cost of a $4.95 mocha carmel frappa latte skim half-caf double-decaf cappachino.
Re:Washington Square Park/NYCWIRELESS.NET (Score:2)
But it'll never compete with DSL. And if you're getting that little bandwidth out of an 11 megabit connection, the system must be close to saturation -- and being totally unusable.
Re:Washington Square Park/NYCWIRELESS.NET (Score:1)
can't cary your dsl to park. if you want global 802.11 11mbit then your going to have to pay for it.. otherwise shuddup and thank them for setting up free access.
Re:Washington Square Park/NYCWIRELESS.NET (Score:1)
Re:Washington Square Park/NYCWIRELESS.NET (Score:1)
Re:Washington Square Park/NYCWIRELESS.NET (Score:2)
It may have been, but there are other possibilities:
Plus all the other reasons an IP connection may suck one day, and not another.
Re:Washington Square Park/NYCWIRELESS.NET (Score:1)
I have used the Washington Square Park connection many times, and depending on the site I can get up to a 400kbytes/sec download. Better than most DSL and cable modems.
Node Owner of NYCwireless Node #1 www.nycwireless.net [nycwireless.net]