ping: Jeff .: the WSJ looks at providing WiFi in retail stores...

[danny burstein]

http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/01/28/overcoming-the-challenges-of-retail-wi-fi/


--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 29 Jan 2013 03:26:39 +0000 (UTC), danny burstein
<dan...@panix.com> wrote:

>http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/01/28/overcoming-the-challenges-of-retail-wi-fi/

Chuckle. Brilliant advice from Bain Global IT. It reads like
shopping mall wi-fi is somehow akin to a mysterious black art
requiring secret knowledge or the involvement of Bain Global IT.

One would think that after about 15 years of mass wi-fi deployments
(McDonalds, Starbucks, every coffee shop in town, various municipal
Wi-Fi systems, airports, sports centers, skools, etc) those in the
industry could figure out how it's done, but I guess not.
Interestingly, the one's I've seen fail are those where nobody
bothered to do a site survey and where management tweaks the
calculations to make it looks easier or better.

Thanks much...

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Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

[miso]

On 1/28/2013 9:16 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Jan 2013 03:26:39 +0000 (UTC), danny burstein
> <dan...@panix.com> wrote:
>
>> http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/01/28/overcoming-the-challenges-of-retail-wi-fi/
>
> Chuckle. Brilliant advice from Bain Global IT. It reads like
> shopping mall wi-fi is somehow akin to a mysterious black art
> requiring secret knowledge or the involvement of Bain Global IT.
>
> One would think that after about 15 years of mass wi-fi deployments
> (McDonalds, Starbucks, every coffee shop in town, various municipal
> Wi-Fi systems, airports, sports centers, skools, etc) those in the
> industry could figure out how it's done, but I guess not.
> Interestingly, the one's I've seen fail are those where nobody
> bothered to do a site survey and where management tweaks the
> calculations to make it looks easier or better.
>
> Thanks much...
>

I find Starbucks to be the most reliable wifi. I never have issues with
it. Peets sometimes doesn't work at all, or will indicate you didn't
connect when you actually did.

Muni wifi seems to be on the wane. I don't see that Milpitas wifi
anymore. I need to check if Pleasanton still has it downtown.

One thing I find annoying is these retails stores don't have anyone
remotely geeky to discuss wifi problems. Nobody knows anything about the
wifi. They don't even boot it.

For the retail stores, I'm sure they are logging MACs of the users.
Maybe tracking them from zone to zone. Since I have Peets and Starbucks
in my quick connection file, each company knows I frequent their
competition.