Starbucks offering wireless LAN access (I think) (1 Viewer)

[Max Leung]

According to this article, Live Near a Starbucks? Get Wireless High-Speed Internet, you can take your laptop with an 802.11b card, and surf for $30/month, with 500MB/month restrictions. And if you're lucky enough to live close to one, you could use it at home!
Anyone try this? And is it available at all Starbucks, or is it only in the US?
This is pretty cool...we can post on our favorite forum, the HTF, with a big paper cup of coffee in one hand, while sitting in the benevolent halls of a Starbucks community drinkhole!

 

[Dave_Brown]

I don't see the attraction here if you have to pay $30 a month to use the service. I thought most wireless systems were being put in place for convenience of just sitting down and using the service while killing time?

 

[Ryan Wright]

Yeah, and in some places, Starbucks is stomping on free wifi access so they can sell their own service. That's right, some hobbists near a Starbucks in Portland have free wifi setup so anyone can use it, and Starbucks is causing them problems. Read the article for more info.

 

[Philip_G]

a lot of airports are installing wireless LAN, they charge a small fee also.
My university has a wireless LAN in some buildings (just so happens to be the department I'm majoring in )
it rrrrrreally isn't all it's cracked up to be, it has it's own issues, especially when you build it that large.

 

[Max Leung]

Ouch, Starbuck's is really "giving it to the man" aren't they? Grrrr.

I was toying with the idea of a wireless LAN...then I can leave my office PC upstairs and keep the HTPC downstairs. I've been trying to get a CAT5 cable to the basement, but I loathe the idea of punching holes in the walls. However, 10mbit/s doesn't cut it...I want at LEAST 50. But wireless modems are damn expensive at those speeds. Oh well.

 

[John Miles]

What in the world are you going to do with a 50-megabit/second connection at home?

 

[Travis Olson]

What in the world are you going to do with a 50-megabit/second connection at home?

I think the question should be what wouldn't you do with it?

 

[Philip_G]

I think the question should be what wouldn't you do with it?

not much if all he has is a cable modem going into it. 10mb is fine for my home network, I can't remember the last time I transfered a file larger than 100 megs across it, other than from the internet which isn't going to get over 1 mb anyway, well not on my cable connection anyway.

 

[Max Leung]

Streaming audio, copying CD images over, file system sharing...I'm a software developer and dammit, all those computer API programming documents are HUGE (several gigs worth). It'd be nice to leave them OFF the gaming rig, yet still allow me to program on it, since it is my fastest machine.
I regularly transfer 600+ megs of data in one sitting. And besides, 100mbit LAN cards are dirt cheap...$15 US! And tie 2 machines together with $5 worth of cables, and you'd wonder...why the hell not?
100 megabits is just right for streaming mpeg2 video...think about it.

 

[SteveA]

However, 10mbit/s doesn't cut it...I want at LEAST 50

Have you looked into 802.11a wireless networking? 802.11a wireless networking operates at 54 Mbps (I think). The hardware cost is not much higher than 802.11b.

 

[Ryan Wright]

10mb is fine for my home network, I can't remember the last time I transfered a file larger than 100 megs across it

If you only have one or two computers and don't share files often, sure...

I, on the other hand, have a server with a couple hundred gigs worth of storage on it. Last night I ripped a bunch of new CDs on my workstation, converted to MP3 and moved nearly a gig of data over to my server. Even at 100Mbit on a commercial (read: fast) switch, it took some time. I'd upgrade to GigE if it wasn't so darn expensive.

 

[Philip_G]

still makes no financial sense for what I need, when I can buy a 120 gig hard drive on sale for what, 120 bucks max, if I need to keep files I'll keep them locally, no need for a storage server since this machine is mostly SCSI I can still add some cheap IDE storage, I already have 4 computers, a laptop, and a TiVo spinning in my apartment, sounds like a 737 spooling up in here with all the drives whirrring, no need for more I would like a wirless router for the laptop, since I already have a proxim PC card for campus it would be nice to have cable access on tap instead of having to plug in, oh well. besides once I go down that road I'm buying jet directs and then it's all downhill from there. For my tiny network I'm happy with my 15$ hub, even have a spare, just in case

 

[Ryan Wright]

if I need to keep files I'll keep them locally, no need for a storage server

That totally defeats the point of a LAN. I enjoy being able to access my files from anywhere. Whether that's simply any random networked device in my house or a computer on the other side of the world, it's nice to know my entire archive is at my fingertips. Thus, a server.
But, they aren't for everyone, and as you said you have no need for one, so it's not like I'm going to talk you into it.