Informed Wireless

What took the airlines so long to put this together? It can't be the most complicated setup, and the value proposition is great.

$5.95 for the entire flight is a bit pricey, especially when there is the possibility of running out of batteries, but I sprang for it as I have a lot of work to do online today.

The speed is good, and so far I haven't had any issues at all. I'm running Debian GNU/Linux, but that shouldn't matter thanks to the fact that wifi is an industry standard.

I'm flying Airtran and apparently most of their planes have wi-fi setup. Good stuff!

This past Sunday I returned from a week long vacation to Los Angeles, Hingham, Pawtucket, and New York City. When I got back I fired up my laptop's wifi card (I had been using my EVDO modem) only to find horrific latency. Pings were taking several thousand milliseconds when they should have been taking less than one millisecond.

I loaded up pfSense and switched a few channels until I found one without much interference. Unfortunately there are a ton of wireless networks around me, as well as many other apartments. The interference could have been caused by a number of things - microwaves, most likely.

I don't like to use the auto setting, as that has caused me more trouble then aid in the past. I don't have to manually change my channel very often. Maybe once every other month, not enough for it to be a bother.

I've had two Meraki networks setup for over a year, and they have earned a little over three dollars for paid use by the community. Its practically negligible, but its not negligible.

Besides, I'm glad I have it set up for other reasons, like:

• My main wifi is encrypted, if I have a new device or a friend is visiting, the open network is available.
• The open network is available for traffic that doesn't need to be encrypted - I use my Meraki for Netflix television.
• If anyone needs a quick internet connection for an emergency, I'd like to think that I could help out.

Hopefully soon there will be wireless internet everywhere!