Hotspots and Free Wifi

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

Hey everyone. This is the first year that my friends and I will be staying on site for the convention instead of commuting from my sister's house in Roswell. I know that the hotels we're in charge for their wireless access, but I was wondering if there were some hot spot alternatives around the con?

I saw the post about Boingo from the 15th of July, but I am not trying to sign up for a service. (Though if it's a cheaper option...it might be worth it)

Some of us have smart phones and date plans so that won't be an issue, however I was hoping that some site-vets might know of some good places to snag some quick wifi access during a quiet hour or two.

Any suggestions or alternatives to paying 20+ dollars for 10 minutes of email checking are appreciated.

Comments

[childofmetis.livejournal.com]

Last year I used the Corner Bakery.
70 Peachtree St NW # 100
Atlanta, GA 30303-1247

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! I'm making up a list of places I can find out and about the con for my roomies and Thursday I'll go exploring when we get there.

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

Dont know for sure so check on this, but all FedEx Office(formerly FedEx Kinko's) locations reportedly now offer free wifi hotspots...the Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton each have a FedEx Office(dont know bout the other host hotels)

Also, if desperate, the Hyatt Place(former Amerisuites) a block and a half north of the main Hyatt has free wifi in the entire hotel...

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

forgot the longtime standby: The Peachtree Center Food Court has free wifi...

[maryquesera.livejournal.com]

Another free wi-fi spot is at Caribou Coffee in the food court. I think you had to sign up for an account with them so you might get some spam from it, but it did work.

You said you're already aware of it, but you might want to take a closer look at Boingo. Their mobile service is $8 a month and there's no contract. I used it in the Marriott last year (though not in the main ballroom; the signal apparently doesn't carry in there) and supposedly the Hyatt's on it too. They are also in most major airports, so if you're flying, you should have access there. The only problems I had with it were not Boingo's fault - all my third-party apps crashed a couple of days into the con and I couldn't fix it until I got home. I had no problems cancelling the account later. I've heard to stay away from their "credits" service; you'll use a credit ($2) every time you log in, whether it's for a few seconds or up to an hour.

[belisamadesigns.livejournal.com]

A couple of questions... were you able to use it in your room? My laptop is a monster and the thought of lugging it up and down to the lobby isn't appealing. Also, what's the speed? Can you do anything more than check email with it? I may need to log into Second Life and that is a serious pull on an internet connection.

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

Pretty much have to pay to get in any host hotel room...the nearby Hyatt Place offers free wifi thruout the whole hotel..

[belisamadesigns.livejournal.com]

oh sorry, I meant Boingo. I know its "insert unreasonable amount here" to have it in your room through the hotel.

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

understood...wondering on that myself....doesnt look like it going by Boingo's site...

[feuervogel]

If you're really lucky, you can get boingo in your room at the Marriott. I got one bar, sometimes two, in my room on the 24th floor on my smartphone. You're not really supposed to, though.

[maryquesera.livejournal.com]

I was able to use it in my room at the Marriott. 30-somethingth floor. I don't remember about the bars or the speed; I wasn't using it for anything heavy-duty. Boingo's Mobile service covers only mobile devices like a Touch or iPad; they have another service for laptops, also $8 a month. If you want both, it's $16 (such a deal). Just FYI - if you're going to try it, make sure you get the service you need for your device.

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

Yes, Boingo works in your hotel room, on the hotel's Wi-Fi network or wired jacks in the rooms, in the Marriott. You are paying Boingo, and they are paying the Marriott's provider a small amount.

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

one more mention and I'll be quiet:

For those out of towners reading this that subscribe to Clear.com, Atlanta is one of the covered cites..

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

This is all very helpful and appreciated! I am going to post about the Boingo thing to my roomies in our facebook message thing so that my other con companions can make up their own mind.

It might be worth it for my iPod Touch...

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Any McDonald's or Starbucks in the area?

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

There is a starbucks outside of the Marriott, and I did see a McDonalds on the street between the Marriott and the Westin (Street name escapes me right now) but they didn't have a wi-fi logo last year.

[alladinsane.livejournal.com]

the Westin and Marriott lobbies have them...there's one a few blocks south in the Equitable Building...Also, right behind the Equitable Building is the main Atlanta Public Library

Nearest McD's is several blocks away...very much miss the one that used to be next to Hooters across from the Hard Rock

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

Ah! That was the McDonalds I was thinking of too aladinsane. So never mind McDonalds then.

[tim farley (from livejournal.com)]

The Starbucks that are inside the Westin and the Marriott do NOT have their own WiFi, because the hotel provides it. The full Starbucks store out on Peachtree (directly across the street from the Hyatt) does have free WiFi.

Full details here including a map here:
http://skeptools.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/digital-guide-to-dragoncon-2011/

[garybaldy.livejournal.com]

Be aware due to the high number of users. Phone data plans may be a little sketchy.

[cygess.livejournal.com]

Quiet hour or two. giggle, now that's funny! (said in the most loving of tones.)

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

XD

True enough cygess!

[richardlt.livejournal.com]

I'd also like to offer this bit of experience when using cell phone data plans if you're staying in the Westin: It won't work.

Or more precisely, it won't work in the sleeping rooms. Due to the UV coating on the windows they replaced after the March 2008? tornadoes, I was unable to get an AT&T signal anywhere in my room. Not by the window, not by the door, not anywhere. I imagine any GSM carrier like T-Mobile will also be affected.

I've since switched to Verizon, so we'll see how it goes this year. They (and Sprint) use a CDMA signal, which seems to penetrate deeper into buildings.

Of course, my problems may just be with the phone I had (original 2007 TyTN II AKA Tilt), so more modern phones like the iPhone may not have had similar issues. I finally migrated to a modern Android smart phone (Droid 3), so this will be interesting to see if it works better.

I'd also like to point out that I recall being able to get signal in the Westin's lobby. It was just the rooms that were cell dead zones.

[archersangel.livejournal.com]

Due to the UV coating on the windows they replaced after the March 2008? tornadoes, I was unable to get an AT&T signal anywhere in my room. Not by the window, not by the door, not anywhere.

that explains why my brother & i had trouble with the "disposable" AT&T phone we had both years we went to the con.

[possibly-sane18.livejournal.com]

I got my HTC incredible right before con last year and didn't have much of a problem using it in the guest rooms at the Westin. Verizon kept me at 2 to 3 bars on the bed closest to the window. I even had 2 bars while waiting for the elevator down. And I should point out its much easier to get internet first thing in the morning on it as there usually isn't a lot of activity on the tower then.

[bahzi.livejournal.com]

The Peachtree Center wifi was so overloaded last year that everything timed out except early in the mornings. This year I'm just going to use my 4G phone as a portable hotspot for my laptop, presuming I get signal in the Sheraton. $14.99 for tethering for the month vs. $11.95 a night seems like the better deal to me.

[veracity]

Do you know if portable works for Sprint?

I actually need the internet for my schoolwork since the campus uses Blackboard and Pearson for turning in assignments. (I'm planning on doing about hour a night since Tuesdays are my long nights with 6 hours on campus so I won't have time to finish them before due.)

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

OMG I hate Blackboard and Pearson! You on a language study program?

I want email for a similar reason. I'm missing two days of school and I need to be able to get the MySpanishLabs done. They only take a few minutes to get through but...gotta do them.

[veracity]

Ha! I am indeed! I'm on "MyFrenchLabs." Damn website pretty much forced me to buy a Windows computer because of that "only works on IE" crap.

I'm tempted to ask what school you go to, if it's mine, because we both seem to be going twitchy-eyed after the hiccups. And the 8 different exercises with like 4 questions each.

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

OMG I hate that. Its the only reason I have the IE broswer on my lappie. I go the University of Montevallo in Alabama. We're pretty small.

Blackboard wouldn't be so awful if the mobile app would just PRETEND to work and if it would actually like alert me when alerts get sent out. Blah. We use a system called 'Forum' for our campus email and announcements and its not too bad. But man...Person makes me want to stab my computer, which is really unfair to my computer.

[veracity]

The IE thing is such a pain in the tush. I mean, I hate IE as it is and now I'm forced to use it? Yeah, they don't have a deal with Microsoft. /sarcasm. I've used Pearson in other MyLabs and man, I didn't like it then either. And if I take French next semester, depending on my schedule, I'll be forced to use it again. Oi. (And the fact you have to buy your textbooks for 2 years at once is rather...annoying, since it's 110 bucks.)

I'm a local Atlanta school. It's a fairly new college, Georgia Gwinnett, and it's obvious they all use the same stuff. No idea why. *shudders*

Did you have to leave BB this weekend for the latest update? Cause that was -brilliant- timing with it being the first week of school. Forum? We use Microsoft Outlook, which is basically just a bare bones Hotmail to be honest. I had to buy an ASUS because the schools seem to forget Macs exist when forcing us to use certain things, like IE or programs. Thank goodness for financial aid.

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

Nah, the BB update, whatever it was, went pretty smoothly. Though they did completely change the way we order our parking permits...which made me want to strangle someone. Still, all in all, other than those issues, its not toooo terribly awful. Do you have an iOS mobile device? Because if you're taking French then you might like the app 'Study Blue'. Its a flashcard app that also works well with Evernote.

As for the textbook thing, I paid 199 two years ago when I bought my book and I've needed it for the last four semesters. I'm in 202 now and almost done with Spanish! Hurray!

Forum uses an MS Outlook-clone for their email. I wish we'd all move over to a gmail server instead but I just have it all forwarded to my non-school email so that I'll remember to check it.

Doesn't the Pearson System also support Safari? Weird. I thought they used to ...

[encarmencita.livejournal.com]

I love your Arya's list icon!

[dracoangelica.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I got it from my girl stoopid_silly. She posts in a lot of the GoT icon comms and its pretty handy with the photo shop. Arya is my favorite character tied with Dany.

[tim farley (from livejournal.com)]

I posted a pretty complete list of free WiFi hotspots near Dragon*Con in my big digital guide to the show at my blog here:

http://skeptools.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/digital-guide-to-dragoncon-2011/

I even include an interactive Google Map so you can see exactly where each one is. There's also a bunch of good advice on using the hotel WiFi cheaply, 3G and 4G in Atlanta and so on.