The Pain Of Connecting Wirelessly

Does your wireless connection actually connect?

I just took a nice little vacation to sunny warm Acapulco. While waiting in the President's Club (no, Server Pipeline doesn't pay that well, Frequent Flyer miles do), I saw a big sign saying "Wireless Internet."

"Wow," I thought. Unfortunately, it was a vacation, so I didn't have my computer, but other travelers did. As I walked around, I saw expressions from glee to downright frustration.

The gleeful ones were doing their work; the frustrated individuals could not connect. I walked over to one unfortunate non-connector to see if I could help. He was running a Dell notebook computer with XP, and his workmate had a Dell with W2K (and no, this is not a Windows bashing commentary). They just couldn't connect.

Tried everything I knew, but no luck. They were able to connect to their wireless network at the home office, but not here in Houston.Now, this isn't the first time I've encountered this problem. At one of my clients we have an Apple wireless hub. People come in and out of the office all the time, and need to connect. Wireless is the best idea. However, if you don't have an Apple, you're in for a tough time.

Our IT consultant (I consult on financial matters here) came in with a brand-new IBM. It had connections built in for every conceivable Access Point, including Apple. What do you think happened.

Yup, he used a 10 Base-T connection.

So, why is it so difficult to connect?

Editor's note: For more on wireless communications check out mobilepipeline.com and mobilizedsoftware.com. If you're interested in a Sneak Preview of IBM's DB2 Everyplace 8.1.4, check out a review here.0