CEDX

LIRR Penn Station Hotspot Update - Service Call Logged

Managed service fans, hear this.  After a night of consulting in Gotham, I was heading back out to the wilds of Long Island, and decided to see if the hotspot in the LIRR waiting room had been brought back to life.  This time, I couldn't even associate to the network.  The rather grumpy, short-tempered, sharp-tongued, silver-haired customer service fellow didn't believe me when I said there was a wireless network in the waiting room, even when I pointed out the sign.
On the off chance I would have more luck, I went to the customer service office where I had a pleasant conversation with the younger fellow on duty, who indeed knew about the network, and was unaware of anybody having issues.  He was under the impression that few people used it. ( managed services could either confirm or disabuse him of that notion )  However, he did treat my news seriously and logged a service call with the railroad's IT helpdesk.  I won't be back in town this week, I think so if somebody wants to leave a status report in the comments to see if the IT department followed up on the service call, please be so kind.

The Great Peconic Bay Marina Joins

The latest customer of the CEDX wi-fi network is The Great Peconic Bay Marina, located in South Jamesport, New York, on the beautiful North Fork of Long Island.  Access is complimentary to slip owners, who will be given a username and password by marina administration.  We are very happy to have The Great Peconic as part of our network, and look forward to a long relationship and smooth sailing.

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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.

Supporting the Entrepreneurial Spirit

My friend Pam, owner of Klatch Coffee Bar on Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan, and her husband JC, have started a summer program for budding entrepreneurs, building a a coffee bar in donated space at the South Street Seaport. 
The locations of both coffee bars are on the map below, and the press release is after the jump.

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Westward Expansion in Cherry Grove

We've added an access point in Cherry Grove on the west end of the town, on top of the building known as Holly House.  The SSID is FIWISPCGWEST, and those residents west of the town dock should be able to see our service now, where we couldn't deliver a signal before.  To steal a page from Henry Powderly's book, er, blog, here's a google map showing our two APs in the Grove.

 

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Party Lines still exist, at least on Fire Island

On Fire Island, we compete with Verizon's DSL product and a couple other wireless providers for the internet access market.  We like to think we're growing because we provide a better service, and treat our customers nicer.  Ultimately though, most commodity purchase decisions come down to economics.  If you are within DSL range, VZ is the cheaper alternative so far, and that's just the way it is right now. 

However, part of the fun in this business is enjoying the idiosyncrasies of Fire Island and its denizens.  We're bringing on a new customer in Ocean Beach who is well within DSL range who has the weirdest rationale for joining that I've heard in the five years we've been doing this. He actually has a party line telephone that he doesn't want to give up.  To get DSL, he'd have to switch.  When this guy picks up his phone, an operator has to connect the call for him.  I didn't even think that they existed any more!   There must be some kind of regulatory requirement that forces VZ to keep these lines active, which, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised about, given the state of telecom regulation in this country.  I actually feel kind of bad for VZ that they have to support this anachronism, but hey, we're happy to get a new customer.  And no, it's not the "Petticoat Junction" magneto type phone, but I wouldn't be suprised if it's a rotary dial.

CBSMobileZone - Improving but model still crippled by weather

This is something I tried out in February, I'll have to go back and check it out again, now that it's warmer.

In my second test of the CBSMobileZone at 40th and 7th, I met with more success, but not happiness.  Again I got a failure to connect message, but it seemed to be spurious, and my BlackBerry connected after the error.  I was able to test with the BlackBerry browser, and got connected, but it was freezing cold out, and I just couldn't wait for the redirection from the signin page to finish.  Also, I never saw anything other than the click to login button and the Terms of Service checkbox.  The portal page needs to be fixed up so advertisers can reach handheld users, not just big screeners.

Look, up in the sky, its Cablevision Wi-Fi

Folks in the tri-state area, take a peek at the wires on your poles. If you see a box that looks like the one in the picture, you're in a Cablevision Wi-Fi hotspot, SSID optimumwifi.   This one is in front of Rockabilly Barbers' East Northport location.  I could take a picture of it, but couldn't logon to it with my Blackberry Curve.  Something about expired SSL certs.  Neither the Blackberry browser or the Opera browser worked.  I'm assured its a Blackberry bug, and not an optimumwifi issue.  We're seeing the beginning of their Wi-Fi buildout in the first steps beyond the pilot stage.  I find it a curious form of flattery that they've stuck an AP in front of one of my locations. 

LIRR Penn Station Hotspot Field Report

8/14/08 Update Here.  I took the Iron Horse into the Big Town today, and checked out the LIRR's Penn Station waiting room hotspot.  The SSID's are LIRR_HOTSPOT_11G, and LIRR_HOTSPOT_11A, and are completely wide open, there's no splash page or other web login interface.  It runs off of a little Netgear RP614.  So kudos for putting in a tri-band access point.  One of the funny things I noticed, is that they are running it off of a Time Warner Business internet connection.   I'm not sure what the Terms of Service are, but I'm pretty sure the LIRR can do what it wants with that connection.  Pity the residential customers don't have the same leeway.  I found out about it via the LI BIZ BLOG, so hat tip to Henry and the gang for that.  Of course, it would be great if the LIRR would use this as a jumping off point to further web enable their customer facing communications, and use it as a marketing platform.

New wifi hotspots in the Garden State

UrbanHotspots is pleased to announce our new partnership with City Beans Coffee and Hudson City Caterers, providing complimentary wi-fi at their Harborside and Gateway Center cafes.  With a purchase, customers get one hour of access, using a complimentary card  given out by the cafe staff.  UrbanHotspots customers can use their existing accounts, or prepaid cards.   The Harborside location is convenient to the Bergen-Hudson Light Rail Line, and the Gateway Center location is on the third floor.