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Re: Hotel networks (Was Re: Security for the IETF wireless network)

2014-07-31 23:47:59
At 10:04 AM -0400 7/25/14, John C Klensin wrote:

 I think the world would be a better place (and not just for IETF
 meetings) if hotels disclosed what they actually were providing
 when they advertise "Internet service".  But, having seen about
 zero attention paid to our efforts in that direction almost ten
 years ago (trying to specify what the words should mean) go
 exactly nowhere and having a major ISP respond to complaints
 that a service advertised as "up to 5 Mbps" was delivering under
 800 kpbs with "speeds not guaranteed", I'm pretty pessimistic
about near-term progress in that area.
 If the IETF could do something about it, I don't know what it
 would be.  I suppose we could publish post-meeting performance
 and capability information on the hotels we use (including
 before and during the switch to our external connections), but
 that might make some otherwise reasonable hotel choices decide
 they don't really want us.   On the other hand, some of us
 could, as individuals, approach some popular travel rating sites
 and encourage them to create a much more sophisticated category/
 report for Internet connectivity than "yes" or "no" and start
 reporting what we find when we travel.

I happened to see this today

"How to Check a Hotel's WiFi Speed Before Checking In"
http://www.frequentflier.com/blog/how-to-check-a-hotels-wifi-speed-before-checking-in/

Which reports that the site http://www.hotelwifitest.com makes speed tests and speed test results available:

"The results of user's speed tests are also combined with other users' input to create hotel WiFi profiles viewable on the Hotel Wifi Test webpage."

Seems like a step in the right direction. Of course, speed during a few samples isn't the complete picture, but it's better than nothing. Perhaps IETFers can help the site measure other factors?

--
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal;    facts are suspect;    I speak for myself only
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And still I persist in wondering if folly must always
be man's nemesis.                    --Edgar Pangborn