LIRR Penn Station Wi-Fi Derailed, or In Praise of Managed Services

On the way back from a holiday, the fam and I stopped in Penn Station to catch our train back home.  Proud of myself for being completely off the grid for 5 days, I could hold out no longer, and wanted to see what email delights awaited me.  Having used the hotspot in the waiting room once before, I opened my laptop, connected to the LIRR_HOTSPOT_11G network, got an IP address, and... nothing.  Turns out, name resolution was not functioning.  Of course there's no way to let the railroad management know this, other than this blog post, but somebody needs to reboot the little netgear router they have running the thing.

When you offer a service, it better work, otherwise people get pissed, because they plan their movements around it sometimes.  Trust me, I've had earfuls from users expecting a malfunctioning hotspot to work.  It's like the plumbing, when it works, nobody notices, but when it's broken, all hell breaks loose.   Part of the issue with wi-fi in places is its unmanaged nature.  Things break, software and systems hang occasionally, and somebody or something needs to be on the lookout for when bad things happen and something needs a kick to get it started again.  Unfortunately, the massive number of independent venues don't get this, and it seems the railroad needs to be reminded of it too.  I'd be happy to manage the spot, keep it running, and even post some PSA's or do advertising.  Simply making sure the service is working as advertised will make folks a lot happier and less angry at the railroad.

Comments

[follo]

thanks for your job