The Tanasbrook Times. Beaverton, Oregon. September 2005.
Do You WiFi?
By Jennifer Willis
After years as an internet dial-up customer -- I was a true power user on a 56K connection, if you can believe it -- I finally made the jump to broadband when I moved to Tanasbrook in 2004. My DSL connection has made a world of difference in my productivity and has allowed me to keep in touch with friends back East via video chat. When another resident wrote to the HOA office asking about WiFi, we got to wondering how many broadband users we have here in our community.
"Broadband" is the term adopted nearly a decade ago to describe high-speed internet access via cable modems, DSL modems, and even satellite. With speeds up to fifty-times faster than the standard 56Kbps (kilobytes-per-second) of dial-up access through the computer's built-in modem -- and with monthly costs typically ranging $30-50 -- most home offices and many recreational Internet users have made the jump from dial-up to broadband.
Okay, so what then is WiFi?
WiFi -- "Wireless Fidelity" -- is the popular term for a high-frequency, wireless local area network (WLAN). In other words, it's a localized connection offering broadband connection speed without having to be physically plugged into a modem.
Most laptop computers -- and even desktop machines -- now come pre-loaded with a wireless card that allows the user to take advantage of these wireless networks. An admitted web-nerd, I have a secure wireless network in my own home, thanks to the simple addition of an Airport Express wireless hub to my DSL modem. (My apologies for the geek-speak!) This means that I can take my laptop anywhere in my condo -- even outside on my deck -- and still be able to use the Internet, without having to be physically plugged into anything. But you don't have to set up your own network to take advantage of wireless internet.
Many local businesses are now hosting what are called "WiFi hot spots." These hot spots (also called nodes) offer wireless connection to the Internet on the host's premises; all you have to do is show up with your laptop computer and start web-surfing! Some establishments offer WiFi as a free service to their customers, while others require a paid subscription to use their hot spot.
Our local Coffee People up the street in Tanasbourne offers free WiFi access, and you can typically find me working from the comfort of their over-stuffed chairs at least once each week. (Note that their Chocolate Mocha Shake is pretty spectacular.) Across Evergreen,
the Starbucks at Barnes and Noble also hosts a WiFi hot spot, but you'll need to be a T-Mobile WiFi subscriber to use their service.
But the really exciting news comes from the non-profit Personal Telco Project, "a volunteer group of Portlanders who believe that... wireless networking, or 'Wi-Fi', technology is both cool and empowering." According to the group's website, members initially "started out by turning our own houses and apartments into wireless hot spots... and then set about building these nodes in public locations such as parks and coffee shops." In other words, this group is helping to set up free WiFi hot spots all over Portland; they currently support more than one hundred active hot spots and are working toward eventually covering the entire city of Portland and beyond.
One of the Project's newest hot spots can be found not too far from Tanasbrook at the Cedar Hills Crossing shopping center, offering free, high-speed, wireless connectivity to patrons and merchants alike. Says Nigal Ballard, a Personal Telco Project advisor, “Shoppers and visitors can be fully connected.... Parents can bring their teens to shop and the parents don’t ever have to be out of touch. They can be connected and productive.” The Cedar Hills Crossing hot spot covers the indoor Barking Frog area.
With so many free wireless hotspots available, the question may not be, Do you WiFi, but Why not WiFi?