McDonald's to Expand Wireless Web Plan SAN FRANCISCO - Now residents of this technology-focused region will be able to order a Big Mac and wireless Internet access at the same time. McDonald's Corp., which has been offering wireless Internet access at 10 restaurants in New York City, expanded the pilot program Tuesday to 55 outlets in the San Francisco Bay area. About 20 more will soon follow. Additional restaurants in New York and Chicago also are slated to become so-called wireless "hot spots" as part of a McDonald's goal to offer wireless service at several hundred restaurants by year's end. click link above for more info ------------ hmmm... a Big Mac meal and CC.net....
Long Beach offers free wi-fi access in their downtown district for about 2 or 3 blocks. That is SO cool. They're about to add the airport area soon. They said it only costs them abour $4-$6k per year as most of the equipment was donated by various companies. You can now sit outside at a restaurant and use the wi-fi provided you're in the coverage area. I wanted to do live updates from the summer league games, but unfortunately the Long Beach State campus doesn't have free wi-fi access. Many Starbucks and It's A Grind coffee houses have wi-fi access as well.
I'm such a frickin out of touch loser...I saw this and assumed Wi-Fi was an abbreviation for some Tex Mex food trend I hadn't heard of yet...sadly no joke...
Can people imaging themselves accessing this BBS from a MacDonalds? ... wait, why do people want to access the BBS from a MacDonalds?
How does this WI-FI thing work? Is it something that one could do at home in lieu of a wired network? I know my wife uses it in airports, hotels, and Starbucks.
Yes, there are several wi-fi network cards, access points, etc. that you can use at home. The communication between pc's is slower (11 Mbps for 802.11b and 54 Mbps for 802.11g whereas most ethernet (wired) networks are now 100 Mbps). But unless you transfer a lot of large files between pc's at home, you won't notice the difference. I'm contemplating going wireless at home with a 802.11g network. I've got a bird's nest of ethernet wiring that I'd like to get rid of.
I looked into this a bit more. I was concerned that the WI-FI that is in airports/hotels/etc. uses a different standard than the one is common for home networks. This is not the case. My wife just bought a new Dell laptop PC that does the WI-FI thing. This fall, I will be switching to cable broadband. I plan on getting a wireless (and wired) access point which now appears should work with my wife's laptop.
