Scott Manning September 2, 2003 | Comments (1)

While I was in San Jose this past weekend, I had some down time between the end of the conference I was attending and before my flight left. Instead of chilling out at my hotel, I decided to go to the airport early and see if I could hook up to the wireless Internet connection that was available.

Connecting to another wireless network other than the one at my house was a new adventure for me, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

I showed up at 9:30 AM Saturday morning. My flight wasn't supposed to leave until 2:30ish in the afternoon. As soon as I got through the groping at security, I immediately stopped next to a "Wireless Hotspot" sign and booted up.

After a few tries of trying to connect to the network, I finally had success when I unchecked "Allow Microsoft to automatically connect to available networks". Interesting.

Next, I was taken to a credit-card screen where I needed to pay a mere $6.95 for a day's worth of Internet. This seemed worth it to me since I'd be there for a while. Comparatively, the hotel's Internet cost me $9.95 a day.

The company I did it through was Wayport, Inc. It turns out that Wayport has been around for a while and is installing wireless Internet all over the place including McDonald's. Not sure who has the urge to surf the Internet while eating a Big Mac, but Wayport is paving the way for fast food eaters throughout California.

Their pricing schemes include day passes and prepaid passes.

The ultimate verdict for the day is that the $6.95 was money well spent and I'd do it again. The connection worked the whole time and stayed at a steady 1.5 Mbps.

Deactivated plugs
Of course, any day in the digital life couldn't happen without at least one problem. Half the electrical outlets throughout my side of the terminal didn't work. While I had to hunt for one, the Internet connection stayed alive though.

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