It all started on July 17th this year, when I walked into the Argyle Free Library for the first time EVER. I owe some of the credit for checking this library out to my dad first of all, because after all, I heard that the library had wi-fi, so I went to download a PAID FOR movie (thats right... I do NOT illegally download media from the web.. thats bad) for my dads Birthday present. Also my cousin Vicky was over spending the week with us. Going to the library would bring back good memories from back when we all went to a library together in Kansas and Vicky's sister (*ehem*.. won't name any names) tried to get us lost.. I'm thinking. But Vicky ended up saving the day and got us on the right buss home. So I owe some credit to her too.
The library with wifi sounded good.. real good. While we were there the first time, I brought my Mac and iPod Touch so that two people could take advantage of the wifi of happiness. While we were there, the network disappeared! So... I calmly and collectively switched networks. It just so happens that I switched to a EMS stations network. Apparently its only online on certain hours. More about that later. It was great. I got my Apple completely updated (yes even iTunes.. my bad) in just 30min!
I liked the wifi of happiness so much... even after the 38 min walk back home last time.. in the 93 degree weather... that I decided to ride my bike this time after recalling the amazingness. (our van has engine-atrophy, 2LTd Syndrome (second Law of Thermodynamics) and its EXHAUSTed. aka its pretty much dead.) Fortunately it only took me 11 min to get there by bike. So, I get there.. sit down at the nice big table in the air conditioned room, and join the "Argyle Free Library" network. Then I proceed to look into WordPress, frantically opening webpages on as many tabs as possible to look over when I'm offline at home. (gotta love dial-up) Just as I clicked "Download" on the WordPress page... the network again, just like last time, completely disappeared. I wasn't surprised.. so I switched to plan B. The EMS stations network (00:12:17:4C:09:2F) *grin* I got it.. it looked good, but I found out real fast that this network was not connected to the internet at the moment. I frantically went to plan C. NETGEAR20... another in-range network. It was week, but it worked... sorta. The signal strength was very unstable, and disconnected quite a bit. I never did get to download WordPress.
This concludes another episode of "the great search for free/cheap high speed internet" where I dedicate a certain percentage of my life and time, devoted to come up with the dial-up users answer to their most vexing problem... 50kbps.
Unless I can talk to the librarian (who happens to be a very nice woman who was born before 1950 I'm thinking.. just to give you an idea about how much she knows about wireless networks. She's a very sweet lady. I'm in no way trying to bash her) into letting me take a look at the network, I think I'm going to have to find another hotspot or alternative.
signing out.
Ed.
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