First impressions of Boingo Wireless Network
The good folks at Boingo have supplied me with a demo of their WiFi hotspot service so I can tell you what I think of it. I only got the demo set up last night and used it this morning for the first time so this is a very limited impression of what I found. I’ll keep you informed how the test progresses as I get more exposure to the Boingo Network.
I am in my usual Starbucks this morning where I have always used the T-Mobile hotspot service I pay for. Before I got here I had installed the Goboingo software which sniffs for a WiFi network that can be used with Boingo and lets you log on if so. Since this Starbucks is still a T-Mobile hotspot I was surprised when I opened up the browser and Goboingo popped up and told me that a Boingo network was available. This means that the AT&T service is already in place here alongside the T-Mobile service for now anyway. I logged into the Goboingo login box and was immediately connected to the "tmobile" network according to the Windows network information. It’s working just as usual, I’m just Boingoing (is that a word?) instead of tmobiling. If Boingo continues to work this well I will definitely cancel my T-Mobile hotspot account.
Interestingly, the goboingo software doesn’t appear to be running anywhere and I couldn’t get it to notify me at first. It seems it is attached to Internet Explorer and once I opened an IE window it immediately popped up the dialog box I mentioned. As a die-hard Firefox user I don’t like having to do that as it means I may miss getting notified at times.
UPDATE: I heard from the Boingo folks who clarified that the GoBoingo software is not attached to any web browser. The minor delay I experienced getting notified that a Boingo network was available in the Starbucks was due to the unusual situation in Starbucks. GoBoingo had to probe the T-Mobile network and then make sure that this network was available over AT&T due to Starbucks agreement and once it did that it could present the network as a Boingo network.
The problem with these large drives is that in order to get that capacity, they have to switch from very very fast single-level cell (SLC) flash chips to much much slower multi-level cell (MLC) chips. They have considerably slower write speeds, and even SLC SSDs already have slowness issues with random writes, I can’t imagine how slow MLC SSDs would be in that respect. They had better be able to come up with some kind of magic-bullet solution to this problem if they want MLC SSDs to be usuable, especially in the server enviornment.
ignore the above comment, it was meant for the ssd post
I had Boingo for several months. Connectivity and quality was spotty and their software took control of my wireless software management too.
I decided to move to a GPRS device where i can have a connection anywhere anytime.
Been using a Boingo Account in the UK for a few Months.
While Finding spots where u can use it can be a bit of a pain (No Starbucks access here, Sorry), It is usefull, and compared to any of the paid subscriptions plans here, Cheap.
One tip for Boing Customers is that you can still use you boing user ID on supported spots without installing the boingo Client.
On the Login page for the Access Point just enter
Username – boingo/(Your Boing Username)
Password – (Your Boing Password)
Handy to use form another machine wher you dont have the client installed.
One point I’d like to make is that if you are a user of AT&T’s DSL at home or business, then you get FREE use of all their wifi hotspots. I did the reverse of what James did, in that I did use boingo every now and then but now since I have AT&T DSL at home, I can get free access of all their hotspots (including starbucks) as well. Simply use the SSID attwifi and then log in via the webbrowser using your AT&T account email address and password– I’m in Atlanta, so of course mine is a Bellsouth.net address, but it works!
Good news is that for an additional $5 per month, you can get the “premium” wifi service added on that allows you to roam Boingo-style all over the place too. BTW I don’t work for AT&T or any affiliated company, I just think its about time something like this happened. Why didn’t Sprint do this for their customers that have an internet account on their phone is beyond me.
@Ralf – Sorry to hear that you had connection issues; we monitor our partner networks to make sure that the access is the same fast and reliable service that people expect from Boingo. And, we continue to grow that network to more than 100,000 hotspots worldwide right now, and we continue to grow and add hotspots around the globe. And, as BBusyB noted, the GoBoingo software is an application we provide to our users to make it easier to log-in into Boingo partner networks; it automatically notifies you if you are in a Boingo network, so you can use your account.
@BBusyB – As I noted to Ralf, we are continuing to add hotspots; as we increase in the UK, ping me at Boingo (first initial, last name at boingo.com) and I will let you know as we add.
@Jeremy Pepper
I Can Understand that It takes time to add more partners.
The problem is that there is no easy way to check weather there is a affliated spot nearby, without actially testing or laborously going through the listings.
It would be nice if the List was available in a easily serchable by address, post code, etc as well as by chains such as by Hotel / Motel chains that where Boingo was usable.
(Also in hotels if the service was usable throughout the hotel, or in just designated areas, as I found to my Irritation Recently)
Even Nicer if that was also available offline.
This Hit or miss in Finding locations is currenly my biggest Peeve With the service.
@Ralf – Also, make sure that you have GoBoingo, which is our newer client. You should have no problems with it taking over. Uninstall the older software, and try-out GoBoingo.
@BBusyB – we are updating our directory in a couple of weeks, that should make it much easier for you to find locations. In the location directory, for hotels for example, it will say where you can find the connections.