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April 14, 2003

A great thing: hotels with ethernet

Hotels with free DSL are wonderful. I spent the night at the Hilton Garden Inn in Arcadia, CA; I'd read that the hotel had Internet access, but it was a pleasant surprise to find out it was free. Speeds are pretty good, too - a DSL speed test last night said I was getting 975k/bits/sec down and back up to the net. That upload speed is impressive; my Bellsouth ADSL service gives me something like 1.2 Mbits down, but only 256 k/bits back up. (If this weblog isn't responsive, that's why.)

After I check out, I guess I could also go out and find a Starbucks with T-Mobile's WiFi service. Looking at their site this morning, they do have a pay-as-you-go plan at .10/minute. That's not too bad, but they have a 60 minute minimum, meaning it's at least $6 every time you login. They also have a $50/pre-pay plan with no minimum, but the minutes expire after 120 days. That's not so good for me. I don't drink coffee, so I can't see spending 8.3 hours in coffee shops with my laptop over four months.