Last week my family was on vacation in Oregon. We travelled there
(and back) from California via Amtrak's Coast Starlight (late as
usual). While on the train I was able to connect my iBook through my
cell phone (Verizon). Back in the mountains I had no access but
along I-5 in both California and Oregon I was able to connect without
a problem.
The Phoenix Suites hotel we stayed at in Albany, OR offered free
wireless Internet access which was one reason we stayed there.
Connection was just a matter of saying yes to the OS X.3 prompt when
it asked if I wanted to use the hotel's wireless APs. The hotel is 4
stories and had (IIRC) 6 APs, the claimed coverage through the hotel,
I had good connections from rooms on two different floors and the
lobby. The system intercepts your web access puts up a web page
detailing terms of service (basically they don't allow file sharing
services) and virus warnings. After that it works normally. My only
complaint is that it puts that page up every couple of hours. And
after it puts up that page you can't back up and get back to the page
you were trying to get to. They only need to do it once. E-mail and
news programs had no problem at all. My daughter had the same
experience using OS X.2.8 on her Wallstreet. I was a bit surprised
as I thought the Source Forge driver took a little more effort to
find an AP.
From Albany we drove to The Dalles which is about 80 miles east of
Portland along the Columbia River. There we stayed at the Shilo Inn.
It also offered free wireless Internet. Our experience there was the
same including the persistent web page intercept.
The third place we stayed at was an old dingy motel in Medford
(having found no better place in town with a vacancy). No Internet
and my cell phone was on the Extended Network meaning I could make
voice calls but not data. On the way back to Albany we stopped for
gas and I was able to access a free WiFi AP from the service station.
But I was driving so I couldn't read my mail along the way.
It's a small sample but the free Internet access worked fine.
My ISP has dialup access points around California and national dialup
for a $3/mo fee. In the past I have used it but this time I didn't
hoping I could use the hotel wireless access and my cell phone. And
except for one day I was able to.
--
Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA
Macintosh / Internet Consulting
"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"
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