Think your WiFi is bad?

[sinewav]

I moved back to San Diego because my friend has tons of work for me. And since I am such a company man, I even found an apartment nearby. In fact, it's just across the street, literally 350 feet away. I have to shortest commute of anyone I know, but I can still complain about traffic because I have to cross the street to get home.

Anyway, I was looking into getting an Internet connection for my apartment and got some bad news. The building I live in is commercially zoned and the cost is much higher. Basic service is like $80 a month. I was like, "f-that man."

My boss, who is an engineer, said "How about we just put an antenna on the roof and you can use the Internet connection here at the shop?" So that is what we did. We put an antenna on the roof and I have a receiver mounted to a short microphone stand in my kitchen, which is connected to a modem, then a cat5 cable runs to my laptop.

The connection is fast! But, it's also very shaky and the Internet at the shop is shared with another business. So at any time I could be sharing with a dozen or more people. Needless to say, it's pretty much impossible to play Armagetron, haha. I am still debating if I want to keep the free Internet (minus the cost of the antenna and receiver) or pay $80 a month to play Tron. I mean, I can afford it, but it seems stupid, no?

So, you guys might not see me on the grid for the next few months. Not just because of the Internet, but I also work 6-7 days a week and keep late hours on the West Coast. I don't know if I'll stay in San Diego or move back to Chicago at the end of the year. We will see!

[woof]

I don't know if I'll stay in San Diego or move back to Chicago at the end of the year. We will see!

Stay here!

[Bytes]

It's just so inconsiderate of people to secure their wifi XD

Good luck with your job and hope we can still see you around sometimes!

[TaZ]

Did you make the wifi receiver? oO

[Kinda Slow]

Maybe you could find out who maintains the wifi. See if they can guarantee you some bandwidth for $20.
The weird thing I've seen playing wifi is that Tronning doesn't hog a lot of bandwidth, but it suffers greatly when other connections start browsing. When I started messing the QoS settings, nobody noticed any loss. If you show the IT people you won't abuse the connection, they might work with you.

Enjoy the sunshine when you can!

Oh, and that pic of the receiver makes me drool. I don't need one, but I still NEED one like that!

[sinewav]

Maybe you could find out who maintains the wifi. See if they can guarantee you some bandwidth for $20.

My neighbor just offered to share his wifi for $40 a month. I might take it. Then again, I don't have a lot of time to play right now.

[Kinda Slow]

..., I don't have a lot of time to play right now.

You need to get back to Chicago. That California air has messed up your thinking.

[Fippmam]

..., I don't have a lot of time to play right now.

You need to get back to Chicago. That California air has messed up your thinking.

Lol I'd imagine that California, not being as landlocked as Illinois is, would have a more refreshing atmosphere.

[Lucifer]

No, my wifi IS bad. It's almost dialup speed, and it randomly disconnects/resets connections with servers. You're living in paradise by comparison.

[Jonathan]

My WiFi may or may not beat yours, but my Cat 5e beats them all.

The weird thing I've seen playing wifi is that Tronning doesn't hog a lot of bandwidth, but it suffers greatly when other connections start browsing. When I started messing the QoS settings, nobody noticed any loss. If you show the IT people you won't abuse the connection, they might work with you.

It's not weird. It's just how all connections suffer similarly if only one hogs bandwidth, even though those other connections didn't use much bandwidth in the first place. Those connections will successfully use as much or more bandwidth through retransmissions (but still suffer), negating the hog's potential gains. QoS can fix that by prioritizing certain connections. You can simply pick one you deem important, with minimal effect on everything else if it uses little bandwidth. You can also reason from there and implement QoS so connections that use less than their fair share of bandwidth are automatically prioritized.