wifi hotspots
Back in Swarthmore since the weekend, and happily back in house-husband mode, but we're having terrible DSL problems.
When we first moved into this apartment, last June, and hadn't even ordered DSL yet, I discovered that there were already a couple of wifi hotspots here, one that required a password, called upotheke (?) and one that did not, called Apple Network 7d83f2 -- probably an Apple Airport.
Upotheke can be picked up throughout the apartment, but doesn't do me any good. Apple Network 7d83f2 can be picked up only in the front of the apartment. I carried my powerbook out into the stairwell where I discovered I had a full signal. So I guess our neighbors across the hall have an unsecured Airport. I knocked on their door in June to mention it, but nobody was home and I haven't tried again since.
I wondered how many other hotspots were in this little village, so I carried my powerbook outside and walked down the block. There are public benches in a tiny little town square. That's a hotspot. There's a lunch place down the block from there where the missus and I have enjoyed several meals. There's a hotspot there with full signal. I haven't yet tried the public library.
It was the first time I've felt like reality was starting to catch up with my high-tech fantasies.
So DSL has been flaky every evening for a week and now it's completely down. Verizon is doing a line check, with an "estimated" downtime of 24-to-48 hours! And I'd just submitted a piece, and am still waiting to hear back. Not a good time to be offline. But then -- I'm not. I'm at the dining table, updating my blog, riding the wireless internet from the neighbors across the hall ...
This is not the world I grew up in.
When we first moved into this apartment, last June, and hadn't even ordered DSL yet, I discovered that there were already a couple of wifi hotspots here, one that required a password, called upotheke (?) and one that did not, called Apple Network 7d83f2 -- probably an Apple Airport.
Upotheke can be picked up throughout the apartment, but doesn't do me any good. Apple Network 7d83f2 can be picked up only in the front of the apartment. I carried my powerbook out into the stairwell where I discovered I had a full signal. So I guess our neighbors across the hall have an unsecured Airport. I knocked on their door in June to mention it, but nobody was home and I haven't tried again since.
I wondered how many other hotspots were in this little village, so I carried my powerbook outside and walked down the block. There are public benches in a tiny little town square. That's a hotspot. There's a lunch place down the block from there where the missus and I have enjoyed several meals. There's a hotspot there with full signal. I haven't yet tried the public library.
It was the first time I've felt like reality was starting to catch up with my high-tech fantasies.
So DSL has been flaky every evening for a week and now it's completely down. Verizon is doing a line check, with an "estimated" downtime of 24-to-48 hours! And I'd just submitted a piece, and am still waiting to hear back. Not a good time to be offline. But then -- I'm not. I'm at the dining table, updating my blog, riding the wireless internet from the neighbors across the hall ...
This is not the world I grew up in.
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