Thank Heaven For 802.11

Greetings from the Audio Engineering Society Convention in rainy, windy New York City. I arrived here two nights ago after having spent three wonderful days on vacation in northern New Hampshire, overnighting in the small town of Bethlehem. Theoretically, I could (and perhaps should) have 'unplugged' from the Internet while I was unwinding. Practically, however, the specter of a few thousand emails and RSS feeds awaiting my return to 'civilization' prompted me to attempt a download dump each night.

There appear to be at least two cellular providers in the Bethlehem, NH area. My EDN-issued Samsung SPH-A660 Sprint phone was in digital roam mode; this 'roaming' coverage precluded me from getting online with either my Sprint 1xRTT account or the Verizon EV-DO service I've been testing over the past week-plus. Similarly, I had weak but serviceable GSM coverage on my personal T-Mobile cellular account, at least with my unlocked Audiovox SMT5600; my T-Mobile-locked Sony Ericsson T610 (which I had with me as a GPRS backup) refused to link up with whatever GSM provider was operating in the area. And mimicking an experience earlier this summer, I was able to successfully tap into the Internet via GPRS, the SMT5600 and Bluetooth on the first evening, but thereafter my login attempts were bafflingly rejected.

So how'd I satisfy my Internet addiction? Although the cellular service options in Bethlehem were limited and ultimately unsatisfactory, the town's residents can choose from two broadband Internet competitors; cable provider Adelphia and DSL supplier Verizon. In the three-block walk from my bed-and-breakfast inn to the tiny downtown area, I sniffed five different open (and several WEP- and WPA-locked) wireless access points. Combine broadband with WiFi, toss in VoIP, and you'll get a sense of the telephony revolution that I forecasted earlier this year. Cellular coverage? Nail down out mobile WiMAX to complete the picture, and who needs cellular coverage?

There's one unfortunate 'but', however….it's a good thing I've got this Kyocera KPC650 EV-DO card with me, because the complimentary WiFi service here at the New Yorker Hotel definitely is a case of 'you get what you pay for'. Thursday night it was working reasonably well (albeit with weak reception in my room, indicative of an insufficient number of access points), until about midnight when speeds began plummeting and packets began disappearing into the ether. As of yesterday, I can still get a DHCP network address assignment, but none of my Internet access attempts (HTTP, FTP, ping, etc) are successful. And, of course, the hotel staff is of no help; there's no on-site IT department, and no motivation to call someone in on the weekend to fix a 'free' service. Sigh….