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

[Randall Gellens <[e-mail]>]

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
-------------- Randomly selected tag: ---------------
And still I persist in wondering if folly must always
be man's nemesis.                    --Edgar Pangborn