Should CO PC upgrade WiFi to 802.11n?
 

With more and more airports offering free WiFi - (mostly "G") - do you think CO should upgrade the PC's to "N" WiFi?

The Cisco version appears to be the emerging standard with IEEE finalizing the standard taking too long. Most laptops are now shipping and have standardized on the Cisco "N".

This would provide a needed upgrade to the CO PC WiFi and give it an advantage over what is available in the airport.

No.

1. There is still no official "n" standard to upgrade to;
2. The bandwidth capacity within the room is not the issue in most cases;
3. Upgrading the radios in the lounges will provide zero functional benefit to users.

When all those "g" or "n" access points link to the same uplink that is slower than an old "b" access point there is really no point.

Then CO needs to upgrade the access point. Home FIOS is minimum of 15/5 these days with 25/15 or higher available for nominal fee.

At the DCA PC - CO has the router sitting on the bar. I think it is a Cisco Linksys router. I doubt anyone would buy a G router at Bestbuy these days - N is pretty much the standard at Bestbuy.

CO isn't buying home service because they aren't installing it in a home. Give Fios a call and give them DCA as your "home" address and ask what they'll charge. :rolleyes:

It is pre-n, not n. And it is absolutely still possible to purchase g routers.

Plus my previous points still stand. The uplink to the internet is generally smaller than the 54mbit nominal speed that the g routers can support.

What is the upside in your view to going to a pre-n system, other than that they can use the new name? In other words, are there any practical benefits to either CO or passengers that you see from such a move?

But the Cisco version is becoming the defacto standard - folks have given up on IEEE. Soon we are going to see WiFi added to Cellphones (standard flip phones) (I know iPhone, etc already has WiFi to use if available because 3G is too slow - particularly AT&T overload).

The cell phones are headed in the direction of - if WiFi is available your calls will go over WiFi and not the cell network. So when you have WiFi in your home and use your cellphone - your call will route over your WiFi connection and not overload the cell network.

Fine, but don't call it something that it isn't.

Holy random sidetracking of thought, Batman!

What does any of that have to do with CO choosing to upgrade the wireless access points in the PCs??

All of those mobile wifi devices will work just fine on the existing wireless infrastructure; going to a pre-n system wouldn't change that.

What really matters to me is that CO does not change the hardware to include a login screen. I just love being able to work without clicking through five additional screens. At the same time, the internet can never be fast enough.

While this is great, it also allows non-members/guests easy access and at the end of the day, those folks are eating a slice of the bandwidth that's already over-saturated in a number of clubs.

Maybe CO can shield the Pclubs so the signal doesn't leak out. :D

But, seriously, the big issue at the Pclubs is not the in-house bandwidth, it's the connection out of the club. As sbm12 stated, commercial bandwidth costs much more then residential, so it's not a fair comparison.

it could go down to b for all I care, as long as the backend connection gets better! 11megs it PLENTY, but when you can get less than 200k to the net most of the time, (and sometimes slower than that) you don't need an n standard access point. You need a faster internet connection, or QOS controls to keep people from torrenting and other large downloads(I'd prefer they not to this in large scale, there are very legit reasons one could need this for work purposes as well)

Who wouldn't want faster internet? SBM's points aside (good points) will CO get more members or charge more for membership? If no, then why would they?

Problem is, it won't give you faster internet at all. Unless they start offering some in club streaming services to utilize it from a local cache server content of videos etc(which would carry cost and not make any sense to do), there is no reason at all to upgrade the local wifi connections.

The proposed solution does not offer such. That's why it is a bad idea IMO.

IAH airport is offering free 45 minutes of WiFi to anyone now. Maybe CO should just eliminate PC WiFi - they do not offer it at LAS - since it is free at the airport.

The point being - it would be nice (and again I say nice) if the PC could increase its line connection speed and then up to N to differientiate from the now free WiFi offering at IAH. IAH PC speeds have been terribly slow.

Cova, you're missing the point. Upgrading to N would NOT differentiate the PC, because the user wouldn't notice any difference.

And they can increase the connection speed to the internet without upgrading to N - the current wireless spec can handle more speed - it's just not available.

And 45 minutes is very different from unlimited. ;)

Agreed.They already differentiate. They offer more than 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure that the PCs aren't trying to compete with any airport in terms of their WiFi offering. They have a few other benefits, too. Also, one would need a VERY big connection for anything above the "g" standard to be useful. The number of places that have a 50Mbit+ line out is pretty small.

But if we're cutting the WiFi from the PCs at airports where it is really free then SEA can go. BOS & DEN, too, IIRC. PTY offers free wifi in the terminal. There's another lounge that can be cut.

Except that it is really nice to have the co_presidents_club SSID connection saved and anytime I walk in to a lounge and turn on my laptop it just associates and works. There is value in that consistency of product. That is certainly something that CO and the Presidents Clubs are selling, no?