Internet access at Oshkosh?

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
I don't suppose there is any chance that the campgrounds at Oshkosh are
covered by a WiFi hotspot? I see that there is some sort of "Internet
Cafe" in Aeroshell Square, but I once got banned from the "Internet Cafe"
at Sun n Fun because the idiot manning the area saw me using telnet to
telnet into my home computer to read my email with mutt, and thought I was
hacking into their computer or something. At least I think that's what he
thought - he wouldn't actually say what he thought I was doing. So
needless to say I'd be a lot happier if I can use my own laptop to read my
email and upload my photos.

If you can stand the sometimes slow speed (depends on phone and cell co)
you can plug a cell phone into the laptop. The cable and software was
less than $70 and my cell phone acting as a modem runs at 19k.

I can get a duats brief, email or anything else within reason that I might
need from the internet. The only problem I can think of is the cell phone
towers around Oshkosh may be saturated. With the usual free
evenings and weekends, time isn't a problem and you are bypassing
the cell company's data network in most cases so there won't be an
extra charge.

Otherwise you'll have to look for hotspot that may cost some money.
You can find several with an internet search.

Last summer, I took a Cessna 150 from Phoenix to OSH, then on to the
east coast, and then home to Phoenix. I used my WiFi Pocket PC PDA, an
ipaq 5550, during my trip to get weather data and to upload photos and
a diary to a little web site "blog" for family and friends at home. I
spent a good bit of time sniffing around for an open wifi hotspot while
I was at OSH, but I never found one.

There were several wireless networks in each of the large conference
halls, but they all required authentication. I asked around at a few
of the booths that featured wifi enabled products and I got the
impression that wireless net access was an expensive add-on to the cost
of renting the trade show booth. I cynically surmised that protecting
that revenue stream was the reason for not providing public access.

There is, as someone mentioned, a member pavilion where you may wait in
line to use a personal computer for a period of time. I asked the
hostess there about wifi and she didn't really seem to understand what
I meant.

I figured at the time that I could take a walk around the perimeter
road of the North Forty and probably find something coming out of a
residence, but I never tried. The same trick did work earlier in the
week in Manhattan, Kansas when I was able to find a hotspot to send an
email by slowly cruising through a residential neighborhood in a
courtesy car until the green light on my PDA came on.

I've heard that at some gatherings of R. V. enthusiasts the hams in the
crowd will get together and put up some sort of wireless net. I
naively figured that the same would certainly be true in the North
Forty at Oshkosh. I would bet that Oshkosh during that week is pretty
cooking with RF activity. I saw some CAP kids cruising around in a
golf cart with radio sniffing equipment. I presume they were looking
for ELTs and I'll bet they found a few! I also saw an SBC
Communications van covered in antennas driving around slowly with the
passenger staring at a computer monitor. I waved them down and asked
about wifi but the dude just scoffed at me and said no way. Saw a
similar van at the Reno air races in September. Any idea what they're
up to?

-R

Paul Tomblin wrote:
I don't suppose there is any chance that the campgrounds at Oshkosh are
covered by a WiFi hotspot?

Glad you asked, Paul, I was wondering the same thing. http://www.jiwire.com
lists 8 hot spots in Oshkosh, and one of them is

Kinkos Oshkosh WI Airport
1971 S Koeller St
Oshkosh WI 54902

I'm not sure where that is. Jiwire's data indicates they have 2 WiFi providers.

Maybe we could all lobby Basler's to put in a hot spot. Lots of FBOs seem to be
doing that, at least in the big cities.

Dave Butler wrote:

I'm not sure where that is. Jiwire's data indicates they have 2 WiFi providers.

According to the Maps feature on Yahoo, you head out the north forty gate at
Friar Tuck's. That puts you on 20th Street. Walk west on 20th past South Park
Avenue and Capital Drive to South Koeller and turn right. Should be very near
the corner. Looks to be about 3/4 mile from Friar Tuck's.

Looks like there might be a short cut if you were coming from the homebuilt
parking area.

George Patterson
He who tries to carry a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in
no other way.