Working from a home office there are often times when a change of scenery is required, and nothing beats a coffee shop with wireless internet. Here's an updated list of some of my local favorites.

Free Wireless Internet locations:

Bean Traders
Homestead Market on W. Hwy 54
app. 1/4 mile North of I-40 (exit 276) & app. 1/4 mile West of Fayetteville (Durham, NC)

Bean Traders
Meadowmont Village
(next to Harris Teeter) on HWY 54 between I-40 (Exit 273) & Glen Lennox (Chapel Hill, NC)

Panera Bread
213 West Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Town of Carrboro Wireless
(Now covers Weaver St. Market and Armadillo Grill)

Bear Rock Cafe
201 S Estes Drive
University Mall
Chapel Hill NC 27514

Not so free Wireless Internet locations:

Fedex Kinko's Chapel Hill
114 W Franklin St
Chapel Hill NC 27516
 
Starbucks
103 East Franklin Street
Chapel Hill NC 27516
 
Borders Chapel Hill
1807 Chapel Hill Blvd.
Chapel Hill NC 27514
 
Barnes and Noble
The Streets at Southpoint
8030 Renaissance Parkway, Suite 835
Durham, NC 27713

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After a full week of having my Nextel Wireless Broadband service and card, I must say that so far I'm currently a very happy customer. The coverage within the coverage area that I have traveled is excellent. I have found that in some large buildings the signal is unavailable, but so far this has been rare. In an unplanned experiment on Friday I used the service to listen to the live .Net Rocks broadcast while traveling about 20 miles. The coverage during the trip was solid and I never a missed a minute of Rory and Carl's interview of the Channel9 team.

[It should be noted, that Nextel and Flarion do a great job and make very clear that this device, as with other mobile devices such as cell phones is not designed for user while driving and should only be used when it is safe to do so. In my case, my Tablet PC sitting on the seat next to me acted like a radio without any need for direct attention. Be safe with your mobile devices!]

I have been very impressed with the speed of the device. I seem to typically see speeds of around 900kbps with bursts higher. In areas with very low signal the speed has dropped down into the 400-500 range, which is still faster than many other wireless services. Top speeds have been in excess of 1mbs, and for much of the week has actually been better than the performance of my cable modem, which despite marketing claims of now being twice as fast, has been performing pretty poorly the lately.

Overall I think this product is a great solution. I understand that Nextel is still investigating other wireless technologies before committing to building a national network, but if this is the minimum we have to look forward to, the future of wireless broadband is extremely exciting.

If there are any other software developers out there looking at targeting this type of mobile platform, drop me a note. I think this is a great area of opportunity for field service, real estate, other industries on the go.

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Today I received and installed my cT-1000 Nextel Wireless Broadband PC Card. The hardware is manufactured by Flarion. Nextel and Flarion launched a trial in the Raleigh-Durham area back in February and have been expanding the coverage in the triangle area as the trial has continued. The trial appears to have been called a success as Nextel is now offering the product to the public.

Nextel is currently offering plans ranging from $34.99 to $74.99 depending on usage and speed requirements. Download speeds range from 750kbps to 1.5mbps with bursts up to 3mbps possible. Packages also provide private or dynamic-public IP addresses with static IP addresses available for a small fee ($10.00). The hardware is currently being offered for $50 (Regular $199) until June 30th.

I think there is great potential in this product for mobile users that move within the RTP area. While being marketed as "Cable-speed without cables", the result of bandwidth and mobility greatly increases the possibilities for mobile applications. This modem in a TabletPC creates and extremely versatile and well connected platform for software developers.

The setup in my Toshiba M200 went extremely well. In fact, compared to devices I have installed from other manufacturers, this was amazing simply. The process was to insert an auto-starting CD, click next 3 or 4 times, agree to run unsigned code (Which is something in this day and age I think they should correct and instructions should not tell you to ignore those warnings. Get your drivers signed!) and then insert the PCMCIA card. I was connected. Plain and simple.

I haven't had much of a chance yet to test the speed and coverage in the area, but I'll report back when I do.

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Now that nearly every portable computing device is being made with some for of wireless connectivity device inside we see more and more locations offering their services as an access point. Some companies like T-Mobile are partnering with destinations like Starbucks and Borders. I personally still have a tough time accepting their rate plans, but they're getting closer.

And then there are the locations that offer free network access to their customers. I've been amazed at how my destinations of choice have changed because of free wireless access availability. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I wouldn't be willing to pay for some level of service at an appropriate price point. After all, I definitely spend more going to site that has network access. I often end up having that extra cup of coffee or eventually give into the fresh baking just added to the display I'm sure it helps them increase their sales at the end of the day and I go away happier with a better perceived value for my money. More customers and increased sales per customer, how can you go wrong?

My current locations of choice include:

Bear Rock Cafe

Bean Traders

and I hope to check out the Jump' N Java Cafe' and the Gateway Cafe in the near future.

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Posted in Network | Rant | Software  | Comments [0] 

I thought this was worthy of placing here in hopes that it might be of use. A while ago we deployed an Acer TabletPC with built in wireless and had nothing but problems connecting to the network. We seemed to browse fine, but when it came to sending any data (such as printing) it would fail. The soultion turned out to be creating an MTU entry for the wireless interface with a value of 1472. Info on adding this entry can be found at microsoft.com

Hopefully this helps somebody solve the problem more quickly than we did.

UPDATE: Originally I had thought this problem we encountered seemed to be limited to the Acer product but it would seem that others have it as well. My Toshiba M200 just wasn't right when running wireless. Even some web pages, especially Microsoft.com had real problems trying to load. The above fix of the MTU setting has made a huge difference. I hope to do some more testing, but if you have problems, create and MTU entry for the interface as described equalling 1472.

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Upgrades are now available for Viewsonic V35 and V37 Pocket PC devices here. Orders can be placed online or printed and sent in. There appears to be a free upgrade available for a limited time for devices recently purchased.

On the note of Viewsonic and the PPC devices, I need to use the opportunity to say how happy I am with the 802.11 SDIO wireless network card that I recnetly purchased. The card is amazingly small, easy to install, and works remarkably well. It performs way better that a similar compact flash card that I have for another device. If you're looking to network a V37 or similar device, this card is highly recommended.

Posted in Network | Software  | Comments [0] 

Well, at least for the day. Being the geek I am I could not resist working this afternoon from the Cafe at our local Borders Book Store. Today Intel and T-Mobile are having a special free wireless access day to promote their products. I've been curious for a while now about thei service so here I am. Besides it's a good test as my hotel for PDC apparently has a T-Mobile hotspot.

I'm personally a big fan of wireless access. Working from a home office just wouldn't be the same without it. Being able to wirelessly roam the head office when I am there as well just adds to the benefit. Bring on the wi-fi coverage!

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For some time now I have been making use of a NEC Voice over IP telephone to keep in touch from my home office. I've also been enjoying the freedom of a wireless network card in my laptop to be able to work at different places, but still needing to run back to my desk to get the phone. Well now, thanks to a little network configuration and a USB network adapter, I am able to connect my IP set directly to my laptop which routes it through it's wireless adapter on to my VPN connection to the head office. The result is an (almost) wireless voice over IP phone. I'm hoping soon that NEC comes out with an 802.11 wireless IP set of their own, but for now this will do nicely!

Posted in Telephony | Network  | Comments [1]