Amy's+WiFi+Page

WiFi Hotspots in Madison, WI (Feb. 23, 2010)
There are many areas in Madison that offer wireless access to various member of the community. As commonly known, all campus buildings have wireless access on the UW-Madison campus. Also well known is that public libraries in the area offer wireless access to the Internet, but the broader question remains of where individuals can find wireless Internet access when they are not on campus, a member of the student body or faculty, and are not near a public library for access. Upon my preliminary searches online, I found a couple of helpful sites that seem to list various options and places where people can access free wireless Internet.

[|Free WiFi Hot Spots] This website offers up a variety of places in Madison, WI that offer free wireless access. As seen today, the site acknowledges 101 of these places in the area. Common places that offer free wireless access on this site are restaurants, coffee shops, government buildings, libraries, and hotels. As a quick and easy resource, I think that this website is a great place to look for a place to grab wireless in a free manner, but because it offers information only when people place it on the site from their own experience, many of the free WiFi locations are probably not listed. And then there are also those places that offer WiFi, but might include some nominal charges...

I'll be looking more into locations to find and access free WiFi as well as those locations that charge or companies where WiFi access can be bought monthly or annually for charges. I also am interested into looking at who uses WiFi and for what? Or what groups may use different WiFi locations for different uses? Like we discussed in class today, there does seem to be a limit on the accessibility of WiFi and a gap in those that can use it or want to use and I am interested in how these gaps occur in Madison. So, basically, I haven't really hashed out what my question or topic is going to be and within the next few days my plan is to research a little more to figure out exactly what I am looking for.

= = == WiFi - Mad City Broadband Available on the [|Mad City Broadband] website is a map locating areas in Madison, WI with WiFi access. ==  = = Areas in GREEN  are "fully deployed and optimized", this means that users should experience strong and stable signals with consistent speeds. Areas in YELLOW  are "fully deployed, currently undergoing optimization", users in these areas may experience WiFi with inconsistent signals and speeds. Areas in LIGHT BLUE  are "awaiting mounting asset approval", users have not yet received access to WiFi, but hopefully will soon.

The Cost $$ of Mad City Broadband
To log in to the city wide WiFi Internet is easy. All you have to do is open up your computer or laptop's wireless Internet "finder", on my Mac it is called an AirPort and it searches out different wireless Internet access points.

Mad City Broadband offers multiple different options for usage. By finding and connecting to either "msncity" or "madcitybroadband" on your wireless capable computer, it will connect you to the home website in which many different plans: hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly, can be reviewed and subscribed to. Mad City Broadband is therefore NOT FREE!

A **daily rate** to use the broadband is **$9.95** A **monthly rate** to use the broadband is between **$19.95 and $29.95** Other rates were unavailable on the website.

Compared to what I've seen about other Internet usage plans, the monthly rate numbers seem pretty comparable, if not cheaper, than average Internet rates nation wide.

The part that makes Mad City Broadband worth the cost is that you no longer need to search out Hot Spots with WiFi access. So basically you pay to always have WiFi instead of searching it out to get it for free.

Computing on the UW-Madison Campus
The website [|Getting Connected] features many different ways students (as well as faculty and staff - in fact, anyone with a UWNetID) can connect to the Internet and the UW System over the Web.

Probably the most known way to connect to the Internet on campus is through the wireless **UWNet**. The system boasts fast and convenient access, as well as a secure network that requires NetIDs and passwords. UWNet is available in campus buildings through access points that must be logged into individually as you move from point to point.

A list of access points can be viewed here: [|UWNet Wireless Locations]. There are 123 campus locations equipped with UWNet wireless, this is over 70% of all campus buildings. The map below shows the buildings equipped with UWNet wireless, buildings highlighted in RED are the wireless capable buildings: As you can see, almost all buildings on campus are equipped with wireless through the UWNet system. Most notable, however, is the lack of wireless noted in the residence halls on campus.

Residence halls are not connected to the wireless network, instead they are connected to **ResNet**, which provides an Ethernet connection to all dorm rooms. In addition to the Ethernet connection it provides, ResNet also provides some wireless access in the dormitories. Lists of where residents can receive wireless Internet provided over the ResNet network can be found here: [|ResNet Wireless Locations].

Some notable locations with ResNet wireless access are: common rooms, study lounges, and classrooms.

People Who Use Madison WiFi
To get a better understanding of the people who use WiFi in Madison, I created a survey that I passed out to many different individuals. I passed these surveys out to individuals I saw around campus, so unfortunately, my sample only consisted of students (both graduate and undergraduate) and a few professors.

The survey looked like this: I specifically did not ask individuals about if they used the Internet or not because I know that all students and members of the University must use the Internet to stay connected to what was going on in classes and to complete research projects, etc...

Results from the survey point towards most individuals using UWNet and ResNet (but, through personal asking, all of these students lived in the dorms and no student who did not live, work, or often visit the dorms used this type) on campus. Off campus, students used high speed Internet that was provided by Charter or their apartment buildings or places of living, as well as Free Hot Spots in Madison. Through personal asking, most of the Free Hot Spots in Madison that were used were coffee shops, such as Coffee Bytes and Espresso Royale.

What the Results Mean....
Dealing with the particular question of WiFi usage in Madison, and especially on campus, these results point towards students really taking advantage of the WiFi offered through the University on campus, while also taking advantage of free WiFi hot spots off campus.

While my results pointed towards little to no usage of Mad City Broadband, I do not think that is because it is not being used, rather that students do not feel like they need to pay for their Internet usage when so many free options are offered.