Wi-Fi

[Joe]

I got a laptop with wi-fi last year and have been trying it out at various restaurants.

I guess I don't really understand the whole wi-fi phenomenon and was wondering if some of you computer-savvy types could clue me in.

I've been using www.speedtest.net to test wi-fi speeds at local places. There appears to be a huge variation, like on the order of the fastest being 70 times as fast as the slowest.

Many of the places that have wi-fi do not even advertize that they have it--not even a sign on the door. You have to ask.

I don't understand why this is so. Isn't it a marketing tool?

AFAIK, the relative speeds are not advertized at all.

Here is a spreadsheet I put together. Consider it a work in progress.

(It appears I have to upload it as a PDF rather than an Excel spreadsheet.)

 

[beancounter]

I set up a wireless router in my house and found that a small object like an office garbage can will slow down the signal if it's between the router and the receiving device. So I imagine at a store, in part, it depends on what's in the way of the signal.

Also, the base speed of the WiFi depends of the broadband speed it's associated with. For example, I'm paying for a 30mbps connection, and my router is (almost) the same speed. If I paid for the 75mbps connection , the router would broadcast signals at that speed.

 

[Joe]

I set up a wireless router in my house and found that a small object like an office garbage can will slow down the signal if it's between the router and the receiving device. So I imagine at a store, in part, it depends on what's in the way of the signal.

Interesting. I suppose I could do multiple speed tests at various places to try to get a more accurate picture of the speeds, minimizing the influence of objects blocking the signal.

Also, the base speed of the WiFi depends of the broadband speed it's associated with. For example, I'm paying for a 30mbps connection, and my router is (almost) the same speed. If I paid for the 75mbps connection , the router would broadcast signals at that speed.

What is the effect of multiple users using the signal? For example, at Starbucks or Panera there are often at least a dozen people using the wi-fi at any given time.
At Fulin's, I may be the only person with a laptop in the restaurant. So if there are a dozen users at Starbucks, does that mean that each is getting 1/12th the speed that would be gotten if there were only one user?

 

[beancounter]

What is the effect of multiple users using the signal?

I'm pretty sure multiple users will slow it down, but ultimately, I beleive it's dependant on the original broadband connection.

 

[Blues]

I got a laptop with wi-fi last year and have been trying it out at various restaurants.

.

I've been using www.speedtest.net to test wi-fi speeds at local places. There appears to be a huge variation, like on the order of the fastest being 70 times as fast as the slowest.

Many of the places that have wi-fi do not even advertize that they have it--not even a sign on the door. You have to ask.

Could be lots of reason Joe , you might be just connecting to an unlocked , but not for public use wifi or even a wifi connection from the shop next door . Some places get hit by some who click and download large files . That could be the reasons for the slow connections to deter some downloading movies and the like .

Out of interest Joe , whats the strength of your wifi a,b,g,n,< it makes a big difference,
here's a link ....
http://www.wifihowto.net/the-wifi-standards-802-11abgn

 

[Joe]

Could be lots of reason Joe , you might be just connecting to an unlocked , but not for public use wifi

No, I don't think I've ever seen one of those.

or even a wifi connection from the shop next door . Some places get hit by some who click and download large files . That could be the reasons for the slow connections to deter some downloading movies and the like .

I was not complaining of slow connections. Just noting the wide variations in speeds. Speed becomes relevant if you want to watch a YouTube video without it stalling or download OpenOffice or LibreOffice or some other huge file. Even some of the Windows updates run 50MBs, which I would avoid trying to download on the slower wi-fi connections. But even the slower ones are fine for checking e-mail, routine web-surfing, most routine tasks.

Out of interest Joe , whats the strength of your wifi a,b,g,n,< it makes a big difference,
here's a link ....
http://www.wifihowto.net/the-wifi-standards-802-11abgn

Thanks for the link. I'm going to need more time to check out that website.

I'm not sure I understand your question.

My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite I bought new in September 2011. I'm pretty sure it is built to run 802.11n

The "radio types" of the wi-fi connections available vary, of course, but right now I am on Fulin's, which is 802.11n

I'll have to make note of the particular "radio types" associated with particular wireless connections in the future. I'm sure some of them are 802.11g

 

[Blues]

My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite I bought new in September 2011. I'm pretty sure it is built to run 802.11n

If its 802.11n , you have your bases cover from your end for maximum speed and distance from the connection point .

I think you are aware Joe , there seems to be a growing number of bogus wifi hot spots (overlapping genuine wifi hot spots ) set up by those who want to take what is not theirs . For the sole task of extracting bank login details etc . Personally i never bank on-line in wifi hot spot areas .

 

[Joe]

I think you are aware Joe , there seems to be a growing number of bogus wifi hot spots (overlapping genuine wifi hot spots ) set up by those who want to take what is not theirs . For the sole task of extracting bank login details etc . Personally i never bank on-line in wifi hot spot areas .

I was not aware that this is a growing problem, nor how widespread it might be. I've had problems with some wi-fi spots where I've gotten messages from my anti-virus or other security software about "invalid certificates," but was not really sure what that was all about. So I was at best only dimly aware that something improper might be going on.

I don't do banking from any commercially available wi-fi spots, i.e., not from Panera or Harris-Teeter or Office Depot or such.

Here's the text of one of the error messages/warnings I received:

===============================================


This Connection is Untrusted


You have asked Firefox to connect securely to accounts.google.com, but we can't confirm that
your connection is secure.

Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site's identity can't be verified.

What Should I Do?


If you usually connect to this site without problems, this error could mean that someone is trying to impersonate the site, and you shouldn't continue.

Technical Details

accounts.google.com uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is not trusted because the issuer certificate is not trusted.
The certificate is only valid for Muginn.brueggers.net

(Error code: sec_error_untrusted_issuer)

 

[Blues]

I have never had that problem Joe , but first you might like to check and change

time and date to the current location (traveled to other country), using the "Internet Time" synchronization, and then this problem was gone

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/868722

 

[Second Summer]

There are a couple of things that happens when you connect from a typical coffee shop wi-fi hot spot that are different from connecting from home.

One issue is that most of the time at these wi-fi hotspots you connect to the Internet through a proxy. This means that your Internet traffic can be routed through by a program that does content-filtering (looks for "bad" words) to prevent undesired use of the network. (Porn surfing etc.) But in principle, all your Internet traffic can now be intercepted.

Many places the first thing that happens is when you try to go to a web site, is the network you're on will redirect you to a portal page of some sort where you have to click a button to confirm that you won't use the network for illegal activities etc, and maybe sometimes enter a password that the store has provided. Anyway, even though you've been redirected to this page, sometimes it won't change the actual URL. So you may have typed in the URL for your Google account, but the page you're being shown is the coffee shop portal page. There is usually no malicious intentions behind this, just some technical solutions that haven't been thought through properly. I can see how that could conceivably make Firefox or anti-virus software complain as in the warning Joe received.

In principle, your traffic should be safe if you connect over HTTPS rather than the usual HTTP, as the traffic is then encrypted. (Assuming you don't accept any new certificates ...) However, I would still agree that connecting to your internet bank and anything else sensitive like that is a bad idea when you're connected to the Internet from a wi-fi hotspot.