#215 - Traveling Tech Again

I got to get on the Internet at 35,000 feet last week.  Our Delta Airlines flight from San Francisco to Atlanta was outfitted with GoGo in flight Internet.  I had a complimentary code to get free Internet for the flight for one device.  Usually the cost is around $12 for a days use.  You can always get free Delta airline info and GoGo is always having some free Internet shopping  use.  For example on my flight you could shop Amazon at no charge.

So how does this work?

There are two technologies available - Satellite and cell tower.  GoGo mainly uses cell tower technology.  They have over 100 cell towers that point upward in the US.  A receiver on the plane picks up the signal and then sends out a wifi signal on the plane.  Speed of this technology is comparable to 3G cell phone speed (that is better then dialup, but not much).  I've checked the speed on board several planes and its never faster then 0.9 mbps (for example I have 6 mbps through Shentel cable at home).  It's good for reading email, simple surfing and playing online games.  Don't even think about video, though I did get tunein radio to work on a recent flight. 

The other technology uses rented space on geosynchronous satellites.  Row 44 is the seller of this Internet (and more) service.  Southwest Airlines is the main user of Row 44 and charges $5 per flight for the service.  The satellite technology has more bandwidth then the cell technology and is markedly faster.  You can watch videos and live TV content on Row 44 flights.  The receivers (there are 4) on the plane are more expensive then Gogo and have had some maintenance issues.  Overall the Row 44 service provides what we all want - faster Internet!

While on vacation, the bed & breakfast inn where we stayed had fairly good wifi service, but spotty cell phone service.  The b&b owner used two routers to cover the big house.  However he had used different type routers and had left the SSID (wifi name) as the generic "linksys" and "belkin".  I told the owner he needed to change the SSID name to that of his B&B.  Why?  Because he used security!  An average user will come to his B&B and have problems logging on because most users will have previously memorized "linksys" and "belkin" sites on their pc/ipad and will have different security settings.   That is why I recommend keeping those strange named SSIDs that now come with new routers (like: A09R5863Q).  Once you memorize a wifi security setting its hard to change it for a particular SSID. 

Also if you haven't changed your router in a while, you really need to move up to a n-band router.  They are 3 times faster and cover a larger area of your business/home.