Robert in Seattle

Well, as part of my high-priority tasks with setting up my new studio, I had to have broadband access up and running pretty quickly. It keeps me connected with everything going on in my world and actually affords me the luxury of doing a lot of different things just about any time anywhere. A lot of people don't seem to have the same philosophy about all of this, opting instead to simply turn everything all off in an effort to feel like they actually have total control over their lives.

Personally, I think that being wired is a good thing. If I see a call coming in from one of my kids while I'm painting at the studio, I'll probably take it. If I don't feel like talking to one of my business partners, I can always opt to let my phone put them into voicemail instead of picking up the call. I suppose that's why I still find Instant Messaging so intrusive. Maybe I'm being antiquated here but...

In any event, I digress. Yesterday, the Seattle Times ran an article on the abundance of free Wi-Fi hotspots in Seattle as documented by a recent University of Washington study. Better still, I found a Wi-Fi location site that includes the results of that study as well as many more nationally. Wi-Fi really looks like it's finally, truly close to its tipping point.

When I first moved in to my new studio with no phone line (and, of course, absolutely no Internet connection), I was quite surprised to find several unsecured wireless networks in the neighborhood. While some of them weren't exactly off the scale for signal strength, it did at least allow me to check my e-mail and look at the DOT webcams for traffic before heading back to the Eastside on the 520 Bridge (now rated as the worst commute in Washington!) Anyway, after losing two weeks waiting for Qwest to install a new phone line, Earthlink came through literally 24 hours after my phones finally came up and I was up on Broadband at around 2Mbit. Next step was to get up and running on wireless, not a task for the weak-hearted despite what everyone says. Especially when it turns out the damn equipment is flawed! I started out with one of those Microsoft wireless base stations that I bought on Woot! for $15.95 plus shipping What a deal, right? But after days and days of trying to get it working properly, I finally gave in and called their tech support number. Naturally, I was routed to India where a techie politely and patiently walked me through almost two hours of trying mostly stuff I’d already done. His conclusion at the end of all this? "Sir, after consulting with my supervisor, we believe your equipment is broken and we will return your money." Swell.

So Thursday, I went out and bought a brand-new Buffalo Wireless Cable/DSL WHR3-G54 router. (It helped getting a discount from my son who works over at the local PC Club in Bellevue!). Great product -- it actually installed without a hitch, but I still ended up calling their tech support as it would connect through my DSL modem. A simple download of their latest firmware update fixed the problem and as of last night, the wireless network was up and running. I'm in here today securing it so that we can make it private with some decent security. Wandered downstairs to the back of the building with my Sony notebook and was able to get a really solid signal while surfing over to the DOT site again to look at that nasty traffic out there again! (Adding their antenna did help a lot!)

So now I'm looking for wireless webcams to add to the network from my studio. This view's too good to keep to myself!

Link posted by RobertinSeattle : 3:45 PM