Hotel High-Speed Internet

When you travel, do you take your laptop in the hope of getting a decent connection to be able to e-mail family or friends, do you need to keep up-to-date with work or do you want to follow your Internet-based business? My experience with High-Speed Internet at hotels is varied but, over the past year or so, pretty good.

There is certainly a value to the service and different hotel chains treat it very differently. Hotels treat Internet connectivity in different ways, more often than not advertising a free service as an attraction. The service is usually offered as one or more of a business center, wired high-speed hook-up to the Ethernet port, USB port or wireless.

On a visit to Stockholm last year the Sheraton wanted a king’s ransom to connect me to North America through the Internet. Luckily, they also had a business center that boasted a computer and Internet connectivity at no charge. So as long as it was not busy, I was able to do my work fairly easily. A method of transferring data fast from my laptop to the hotel computer was a good accessory. I used a dongle, a USB flash-drive.

For the wired connection, you sometimes need to provide the cable. At the Best Western in Mineral Wells, Texas, the excellent service was ready to connect, even having a clear acrylic holder to keep the cable on the desk (instead of dropping to the floor behind furniture) with connection instructions. In the San Bernadino area, where I also stayed at a Best Western, it was necessary to ask the front desk for the loan of a cable. I now carry several cables with me – including an Ethernet cable.

I quite like the ability to sit in the sun or around a pool or common area so that I can work with people around me. For this I enjoy using the wireless connection. My Dell has a very sensitive wireless unit in it and I’ve found myself being able to move away from the better coverage area to more marginal areas.

A 2006 Winter vacation in Florida certainly exercised my computer’s ability. At a luxury apartment in one part of Orlando, I was able to use the wired connection in the room for which I was charged US$20 for the week, but I was annoyed by the signal constantly dropping out. After a day of this, I called Maintenance and they sent a non-tekkie handyman to troubleshoot. I was kinda peeved. Here is me with all my knowledge and they send me a handyman! Well, what do you think, but, after feeling around and looking at various boxes, cables and things (the equivalent of car tire-kicking) he moves out the sofa and, lo and behold, discovers that a connector from the wall transformer had been disconnected. The internet box system had been operating (if marginally) without power!

At a lower-rated AmeriHost in Orlando, I was limited to using their wireless connection, requiring me to actually get dressed to surf the net. When I really had connecting problems one afternoon, the front desk apologized and had to call the service they subscribe to in order to had the connection checked. Luckily for me, it was back up within the hour.

Also for budget travelers needing a quality room with Internet, I found the Countryside Hotels and Suites boasted a good, free connection - both in-room connected and lobby/pool wireless.

If a modem is the only way to connect, you will need to have a way to connect to an ISP. If you have AOL or a large ISP, you may have a fairly extensive choice of local or toll-free numbers to choose from. It’s also important to ensure that you are allowed or are even able to connect up through the phone line because hotels often use 6-wire connections instead of the 4-wire connections we are used to at home. In the future, I’d guess that VOIP will create new ways of thinking - and connecting.

GPS for Directions, Fun and Learning

I used to work for one of the Marconi companies.

Marconi was internationally regarded as a leader in electronic technology. Recent financial reversals may have ravaged the old dynasty but I recall many of technical achievements and Marconi’s involvement with, not only the original practical uses of wireless communication over long distances, especially maritime involvement, but in such areas as outfitting aircraft in the early eighties with the then-new GPS systems.

More recently I have had several opportunities to test out the GPS system on the ground and in the air. I had been watching, salivating, in the hopes of buying a GPS unit, finally deciding to get a system to use with a laptop. I felt the hand-held units were inadequate for my reading-challenged eye-sight and was watching and pricing units that I could use on my Dell laptop with its more-than-adequate 14 inch screen. Last Summer I bought Microsoft Streets and Trips. The local office supply store obliged by pricing the 2005 version at under US$85 and I jumped at the opportunity.

The system, while not being totally problem-free, provides a fantastic service. The 2005 version has no voice-direction. (I've since upgraded to the 2006 system which does provide it.)

Usually, as the primary driver on longer trips, I use the services of my partner, Libby as the navigator. She is also in love with our GPS. Whenever we go on a long trip whether in Canada or the U.S. we ensure the GPS head unit is installed at the base of the van's windshield, and plug into the USB port of the laptop whenever we need to.

It has guided us down the east coast of both Canada and the U.S. suggesting fastest routes, scenic routes, you name it. When we came upon a nasty traffic snarl just outside of Montreal, it guided us immediately to a great alternative route.

In the past weeks we also carried the system on a trip from Toronto to Orlando, by air to Atlanta and then by road to Orlando. During the flight each way, I was able to give my 10-year-old son geography and navigation lessons by licking and sticking the sensor head to the window and plotting our trip, watching also the plane’s airspeed and altitude in metric and imperial units of measure.

Fun for both of us.

Of course, there is a period at take-off and landing that the laptop can’t be used.