By David Strom
(appeared in Mobile Computing & Communications, 7/97)
When I first starting writing columns for PC Week about ten years ago, one of my first topics was the hotel modem problem. Back then we were lucky to find an RJ11 inside the room that we could plug our 2400 bps modems into, running simple terminal emulation programs to talk to MCIMail.
Well, times have changed. Modems have gotten lots faster. Most computer journalists no longer use MCIMail, and now use the Internet directly. But hotels are still modem-hostile, and you are lucky to get connected at 9600 bps, never mind 28,800.
When I travel, the last thing I want to deal with when entering a hotel for the first time is to understand its telecommunications network. Sure, some hotels have made a feeble attempt at providing a "data port" on the side of their room phones: that is really just a place to plug in your RJ11 jack without having to take apart the wall plate and rewire things. What many hotels don't realize is that their own PBXs are either so noisy or designed not to allow fast modem connections. Well, some of us need to get work done when we travel, and that means getting connected. Some hotels have figured this out: The Boston Marriott Copley has permanent Internet connections in its conference rooms, and the Hong Kong Hilton has Internet access in all of its guest rooms, just to name two examples.
But you may not be so lucky, so in your quest to seek better bandwidth, you have two alternatives:
First, when you arrive at your destination airport, there may be Internet kiosks that are available for a small fee. Some of these kiosks have problems (the ones at San Francisco International, for example, have disabled the Control key, making it difficult to use some programs) and you may have to stand up while you surf, but they can come in handy. Check the airline clubs as well to see what they have.
But my preferred method is to go get a cup of coffee at the local cybercafe. This is a place that serves up a nice fat Internet pipeline along with its lattes and pastries. We are talking a T-1 here, forget that 28,800 stuff. Not only will you get some decent bandwidth and enjoy a good cuppa, but you'll save a ton of dough in the process of doing your surfing.
On a recent trip to Seattle, I left my laptop at home but got an unexpected research assignment that had a short deadline. Luckily, I happened to have the location of The Virtual Commons, a cybercafe about 15 minutes north of the downtown hotel I was staying. Open at 7 am during business days, it was my home away from home for the next few days. Total bill: somewhere less than $50 for about 10 hours of connect time, including the coffee and pastries. Compare that bill with the cost of room service and tying up my phone for 10 hours back at my hotel. This was a bargain, not to mention the fact that I was surfing in style at T-1 speeds, without having to worry about modems, the right dial-up numbers, and busy signals.
The setup at these cybercafes is pretty much the same. They have a bunch of Windows 95 computers that they rent to you by the hour. Fees range from $2-5/hr, which is very reasonable when you consider the amount of bandwidth you are getting. They have relatively recent versions of software on them and some of the machines are fully multimedia-ready.
Some cafes will set you up with a temporary email address, so you can at least send outbound mail while you are there. And in some cafes, you can connect your own laptop to their networks for the same fee as renting one of their computers. Of course, you'll have to know a little about your IP setup and be able to change the address and gateways, but it isn't as hard as it sounds. Better yet, bring along a spare Ethernet card (with both RJ45 and 10Base2 connectors) that you can change its setup, so you don't mess around with your office configuration.
So how do you find these cybercafes? There are several lists maintained around the Internet, of course. Here are two: Yahoo has both a collection of café guides as well as individual listings. And Ernst Larsen has a java-based map with listings all over the world.
It seems odd to find better bandwidth in a place that serves coffee, but that is the current state of the market. Sure there are other promising technologies that might come along, such as Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line and cable modems, but they aren't here yet. Vendors are still arguing over the best configurations. Neither technology has been installed with any great abundance, making it hard enough to support stationary workers, let alone mobile travelers. In the meantime, I'll have a tall double skinny latte and see you at the cafe.