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Wifi in Main Street
https://lamma.com.hk/forum-OK/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15081		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Alan [ Tue Jul 22, 2014 5:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Wifi in Main Street
Back in the Old Days you could sit just about anywhere in Main Street and have a choice of free wifi to connect to.

I wandered along the street recently with my new smartphone and didn't find one free signal...
Author:  Lamma-Gung [ Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
Almost all YSW Main Street restaurants have free Wifi, no?

But you need to get the restaurant's Wifi password and a few of them change it quite frequently.

I usually don't bother with free Wifi, as 4G is much faster and I rarely reach my "fair use" limit, even with streaming music on the ferry or while hiking.
Just yesterday, I tried to connect to the free Govt Wifi in the Wind Tower Park in Aberdeen's Ap Lei Chau, and despite getting the password from the website for "safe surfing", I was unsuccessful and wasted a few frustrating minutes trying.
Author:  Alan [ Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
I mean open and unencrypted, of course; if you have to buy something to get the password it's not "free".

And my SIM card is voice and SMS only. The only Internet it gets is from wifi.

I don't need to be online 24/7 so a data plan is a luxury I do without.

I guess once people started trying to watch online TV and Youtube it made giving free wifi a problem.
Author:  SSL956 [ Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
I'm sure the business owners paying for the service never intended for people wondering through main street to be able to access their wifi for free. They probably just wised up to it and made it password protected so that only themselves and their customers could access it. Fair enough.
Author:  Alan [ Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
Yep. Nowhere to sit unless you pay. No water to drink unless you pay. No wifi unless you pay. Perfectly reasonable and civilised.

Anyway, in HK there is no data cap on broadband, so no matter how many "freeloaders" there are the owner has no extra charge. The problem is as mentioned, people sucking up most of the bandwidth with video. Smarter routers can discriminate on that basis, as in the govt free wifi, but it's not a standard setting.
Author:  Lamma-Gung [ Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
That happened a long time ago. I hardly remember a time when Lamma business offered free Wifi without password to anybody. But up to 1/3 of private Wifi routers were password-free just a few years ago. You could get free Wifi on Main Street and even in many homes. Almost all protected now.

One additional benefit of 3G/4G, besides streaming music or radio almost anywhere on Lamma, is having a portable Wifi Hotspot at no extra charge, letting you up/download up to 10 times faster than the 3Mbps fastest broadband speed.

But as there's a huge price difference between 3G and 4G data plans, I wonder if it makes any difference to data speeds on Lamma. Even the best 4G connections here rarely exceed 35Mbps. Anybody checked this out? We could save up to several hundred $s per month by using only 3G.
Author:  Alan [ Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
Or we could pay $250.month for 200 M service if Hutchison would turn on the fucking fibre network they put under our streets two years ago.
But they get a better return selling 4G, so I gave up holding my breath for that.
Author:  Lamma-Gung [ Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
You could get 3G for below under $100 these days, I think. Still cheaper than any Broadband connection anywhere in town... and it's available now.
Author:  Alan [ Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
Since I don't get a mobile signal in my home, 3G isn't viable for me.
(Which is why I was trying to get wifi in Main Street, to sign up for Whatsapp you need simultaneous mobile and Internet connections.
At home I have only wifi. In Main Street I have only mobile. Eventually I did it at a friend's house.)

Also they have draconian data caps, which they're not enforcing now but one day they might.
Doesn't matter how fast it is if you hit your download limit after 2 days.
Author:  adamk [ Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
Yeah that Fibre again. Never happening.
Author:  pit [ Tue Aug 19, 2014 2:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
We could always start our own Lamma ISP and demand access to that dark, dark fibre or else... :twisted:
Author:  zep [ Tue Aug 19, 2014 5:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
I needed wifi urgently when my system was down a couple of days ago, and I sat outside the library, and even though it was closed, there was a good free signal.
Author:  Lamma-Gung [ Tue Aug 19, 2014 7:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
Zep, you're welcome anytime to sit outside our house for a free WiFi signal.
If you ask nicely I might even serve you fresh, French-pressed offee and a macaron on our rooftop so you can fully enjoy our WiFi, available for free 24 hours/day!
Author:  Alan [ Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
zep {L_WROTE}:
I needed wifi urgently when my system was down a couple of days ago, and I sat outside the library, and even though it was closed, there was a good free signal.

That's good to know. Though I think I did try there.

I'm a bit closer than that, if you need it again I can give you a login.
Author:  zep [ Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wifi in Main Street
Nice to know I have helpful neighbours - I'll immediately cancel my Netvigator account and hang around outside your houses, shouting up for a coffee when I need one.
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