eG in the Park

[Fat Guy]

We decided to go out to the Broadway Under the Stars think at Bryant Park tonight, and I figured it was as good a time as any to check out the free WiFi service offered by nycwireless.net in the park. Well, I'm here to tell you that it works. I'm posting from the middle of Bryant Park. Welcome to the 21st Century, for real.

[mamster]

Great! If I can make it over there in time, I can steal Fat Guy's laptop.

[Fat Guy]

Any excuse to buy a new one.

Except I have no money.

[Steve Klc]

Last week I found myself parked along Columbus, Amsterdam, and in between say 78th and 82nd. In each and every parking space over the course of four days when I opened my iBook I (unintentionally, of course) found unsecure WiFi access, could check e-mail and get on eGullet for PM's.

[Stone]

Anyone know what "wifi" stands for? Is it a play on "hifi".

[Fat Guy]

Yes, I currently have five choices of networks of varying levels of security and signal strength. Of the five, I can get legitimate free access through the official Bryant Park provider, and illegitimate access through two others (in fact, I was on some dentist's network, I think, at first, until I got my settings sorted out). Then there are two paid providers, Verizon and I think T-Mobile. Verizon actually tried to take over my connection in order to ask for money but I thwarted it. Pretty much anywhere you go in Manhattan below 96th Street, at this point, you'll pick up a WiFi signal. Whether you can do anything with it is another matter. But hey, you can always park outside my house and use my node -- I intentionally leave it open and keep the firewall local on each of my network PCs. The access point I have is enterprise strength so it can probably provide access for an entire square block no problem.

[Fat Guy]

WiFi is short for Wireless Fidelity.

[jhlurie]

But hey, you can always park outside my house and use my node -- I intentionally leave it open and keep the firewall local on each of my network PCs. The access point I have is enterprise strength so it can probably provide access for an entire square block no problem.

And now I feel like such a bastard for encrypting mine. And I'm in a place where its pretty unlikely that anyone WOULD piggyback on me anyway.

[Fat Guy]

Yes you are a bastard. Just install ZoneAlarm on your PC and leave the WiFi thing open. Unless you send a lot of confidential stuff over the internet, I guess. But how safe is your landline anyway? Getting all security-crazy about WiFi is like how people are willing to pay at restaurants and over the phone with a credit card but somehow they don't want to use credit cards online.

[Suzanne F]

Is that what they put in City Hall Park? Or is the setup there linked to John Ashcroft?

[vengroff]

Is that what they put in City Hall Park?

Yes, it's in City Hall Park. I used it a few weeks ago when I was in NYC. The signal strength was a little low, but it worked.

[sashorter]

But how safe is your landline anyway?

For those cable modem users among us, I believe that's about as safe as having a whole big neighborhood LAN. Not sure about DSL.

I neither encrypt my 802.11 or have firewalls installed on the machines. I should probably do one or the other...

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Scott