t mobile was never that good, and now its worst.
once i tried calling tmobile, its really worthless

Many consumer wi-fi routers/access points support 255 connected devices at a time. With the laptop age coming to an end, people are connecting to wi-fi with smart phones and ipads and so this combined with UA giving away wi-fi to non-paying guests at the expense of people who buy memberships is overwhelming RCC wi-fi. It would not surprise me if such gear is used (i.e. what you can get at best buy, staples, etc.) in RCCs. There is higher end gear, from smaller outfits like Aruba.

I suspect a UA exec using the RCC would notice this crap, but I speculate they have T-mobile 3g USB sticks for their lap tops.

I'm fairly certain that T-Mo is not using consumer grade equipment from BestBuy.

They're probably using Cisco or other commercial grade equipment, and they would not be subject to a 255-user limit unless they configured it as such.

Given how often (since February) I fail to get a DHCP provided IP address in an RCC, I'm not so sure. Once you decide to give something away for free, you are not inclined to provide quality.

It could also be the burden on the systems doing the DHCP and authentication. Even after getting an IP address sometimes the validation pages take a while to load up.

Clearly the system was not built for the load it's handling at this time.

Since UA is presumably paying for each of the cards, T-Mo is doing UA a disservice here. Hopefully UA is gathering complaint and usability data to go after T-Mo, which will in turn put pressure on T-Mo to upgrade its network, which will give UA leverage in terms of renegotiating the contract.

LAX is terrible, JFK I never have a problem
 

I've failed to get a connection at LAX last 3 or 4 times, and one they made an announcement over the PA.

JFK works for me every time. I've no idea if they use the same Cisco equipment at both locations.

Not only is JFK a smaller club, but as an outstation, you have a much different type of traffic. People not parked there for two hours before a connection, rather people who got to the airport 20 minutes too early and stopping in for a quick drink and email check.

LAX signal does seem erratic. But two weeks ago, while in transit at LAX, I got strong signal at RCC near gate 72. Even when I went outside RCC to general boarding area, and didn't want to bother going in again but tried to get on internet I got strong signal.

The Wi-Fi standard itself only supports a maximum of 255 connections per access point. However, at 255 connections the connection will be unusable anyway. Maximum useful connections with decent performance is around 20, or slightly more with good (not Cisco) equipment.

The problem is that the RCC has been deployed like a Wi-Fi hotspot of 4 years ago: 802.11b/g and a coverage-based model that tries to make sure there is signal strength everywhere. Based on their customer profile of today, they need to deploy it like a modern college classroom: dual-band 802.11n with dense coverage, and more advanced features like load-balancing to distribute the load between multiple APs automtically. Airports have had to do this for cellular networks already, and Wi-Fi will need to follow.

FWIW, a friend was at the ORD Admirals Club this day, and was having the same issue. Maybe it was an airport wide issue.

At ORD a few months ago I was unable to connect to the Admirals Wifi and also the airport wifi.

Probably coincidence.

And I've got to believe that the type of use has got to affect this -- e.g., streaming or computer games vs. text email. One might even say, "It's not your father's wifi" to my son, who's all about computer games, and can't believe that I'm sending him YouTube videos (:eek:) about what's going on in Japan.

Unable to connect to internet through T-Mobile in any RCC!
 

OK, is this just me?

For the past two months, I have been unable to connect to the internet through the T-Mobile connection in the RCC's through any browser. This has happened to me repeatedly in LAX, ORD (in either terminal), IAD and DEN. At first, I thought it was my computer, but I really don't think it is. I get an error every time that says that the server is not available.

Has anyone else had this issue? It's really making me crazy! :mad:

YES!!!! Do you have a Mac? I have been at SFO,LAX and JFK and nada....I was going to go down to Apple store one day and see if its something with my settings

I always have to tether my phone to my computer. I can't get the site to redirect. I don't have a Mac. Its a Samsung with Windows 7. It started in March for me. I was able to connect via t-mobile at the U.S Airways club though.

I do have a Mac!! And I feel like I'm pretty computer savvy, but I can't make it work.

OK, so has United just stopped offering this and they forgot to tell anyone? What is the deal? Does anyone know?