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Bad Connections Dog Google's Mountain View Wi-Fi Network

Posted by timothy on from the expensive-to-get-infrastructure-right dept.

itwbennett writes "Google launched its Mountain View, CA public public Wi-Fi network in August 2006. It was one of the first public wireless Internet services in the U.S. and was intended to provide free service across the city. But in 2012, one year after Google signed a 5-year agreement to continue the service, it started a slow decline to the point of being unusable. 'We started noticing it in very large files, things like operating system updates, but now it's on files as small as 500 kilobytes,' said Rajiv Bhushan, chief scientist of pharmaceutical startup Livionex and a long-time user of the network. A recent test by IDG News Service resulted in a total failure to get a working Internet connection at a dozen sites around Mountain View, including in the city's main downtown area and directly in front of Google's headquarters." I've had disappointing results trying to connect to several other public wireless nets around the U.S., both privately sponsored and municipal. Do you know of any that work especially well?

4 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. isn't wifi like the old layer 1 hubs? by alen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    you transmit into the air and everyone receives the signal and the receiver has to filter out any traffic that is not meant for itself

    too much data being transmitted by people in the area and the connection is useless. even my home wifi is almost useless during peak times at night since i have two dozen or so other people with wifi around me

  2. Seems to be a systemic problem. by doubledown00 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is just one user's opinion, but slow gradual declines seem to be the hallmark of Google projects. They work well when they're shiny and new, but over time the projects are neglected and deteriorate. Similar things have happened with Google Voice and Google Docs.

  3. Re:Abuse of tool? by spire3661 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Did you know that HP printer drivers are now up to 160 MB? its not just movies that are large files anymore.

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    Good-bye
  4. Re:The solution by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Or perhaps it's just oversaturated. Wifi doesn't have unlimited bandwidth you know. After enough people find out that they can stop paying for their regular ISP and just hop on a free wifi you'll start to run into problems.

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    Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK