Oh, independent coffee shops, enticing me with your locally roasted organic, fair-trade, free range coffee, thrift store furnishings, heavily tattooed baristas, piles of weekly alternative newspapers, and offers of free wi-fi. Sure, you’ll get a signal, but what’s going to be at the other end? More likely than not, nothing, because the wireless router isn’t connected to the Internet, and either nobody knows how to reboot it, or when they do, it still can’t connect. Better yet, there’s password protection, but nobody knows the password.
“I think it might be the owner’s last name.”
“Well, what is it?”
“Trzetrzelewska. I don’t know how to spell it, though, or if it’s case sensitive. I think there might be a 5 for the S. Good luck!”
Indie coffeeehop owners, fix your goddamn fucking wi-fi. Thanks.
I concur. I went into a NYU coffee shop and was fooled because all the students had their little MacBooks out, but there was no internet!!! I guess they were all typing papers.
I’ve never been to an indie coffee shop where the internet doesn’t work, and as a grad student, I’ve spent time in a LOT of coffee shops recently. I suggest you find a better coffee shop. I don’t have anything against Starbucks, but the indie coffee shops where I live are a lot more comfortable and convenient so that’s what I stick with.
I’ve not had this problem in indie coffee shops. The worst offenders by far are hotels, indie more than chain (though I’ve had trouble with both). It seems like hotel wi-fi is about as likely to work as not, and when it does the coverage is such that you have to be perched on the sink in the bathroom to use it, if it’s strong enough to reach the room at all. They don’t respond to internet problems with a tenth of the urgency they would if, say, the cable went out. If it goes out anytime after noon on Friday, you’re out of luck for the weekend.
I knew someone who made her living online who liked to travel but needed hotel internet to do her job. She got so frustrated by this problem that when she planned a trip she would call the hotel manager in advance and quiz them on what they did when the internet went down. If they couldn’t guarantee her a reasonable uptime, she went elsewhere.
OP I was finna say. Maybe you should consider investing in something like this. It’s a type of device that features a mobile wireless router combined with wireless internet access. Then you can have internet anywhere on all your portable devices.
If you just need it for your laptop an aircard would be perfect. You can find em with $40 prepaid unlimited internet plans if you look around.
My only complaint with “internet cafes” and the like is that they seem to equate “internet” with “web browser”. Without saying so or providing written instructions they ASSUME everyone who is going to ever attempt to use their service is going to start off by opening a freaking WEB BROWSER in which you have to agree to an end user agreement (commonly) and enter an access code (typically) before your internet connection will work. If the first “internet thing” you do is open your email app, there’s no mechanism to sign on. If the first “internet thing” you do is FTP or open up a networked app of some other sort, same problem. You have to launch a web browser and pretent you want to go to Google or some such thing to invoke the agreement page. And if you didn’t already know that from prior experience you might never get on.
Point taken, but if they’re going to advertise a service in addition to their coffee, it’s not too much to ask that they, y’know, actually provide that service.
It still needs to have coverage. Last year I lived on campus, the uni’s ISP sucked so badly they ended up giving us a refund on it and there was no coverage for the cards. AHunter3, I’ve been in hotels where “internet” meant web exclusively. Anything else was blocked. Ehm… dude, I need the VPN to, like, work. And of course it was a hotel chosen by Corporate (but that, as they say, is another rant).
I’ve seen this problem a lot in the indie cafes. And that’s not counting the ones that never had wi-fi, or restrict it to weekday working hours, or are planning to drop it, which is something of a trend these days, at least according to a recent L.A. Times article.
When they finally get 4G with a bit more widespread coverage, that will solve that issue. (Seriously who has initiated 4G coverage in about 30 metro areas ahead of Phoenix in the US. WTF?)
Correct, because the upper class doesn’t mind the cost of maintaining an air card, or a tethering data contract with their mobile. The monthly bills for those things are expensive.
[Mod hat on] GuanoLad, you know this thread isn’t a debate about of what Americans might consider a necessity versus what a farmer in Darfur might consider a luxury. Talk about that in another thread if you want; don’t do it here.
