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Surf the Web, no strings attached
Wireless Internet access is not just about being able to surf the Net while sipping a latte in a local coffee shop. In New Orleans, for example, after hurricane Katrina blew out much of the city's communication infrastructure, the city opened up access to its wireless Internet network—normally only accessible by state employees and emergency personnel—to all local residents, creating a free wireless network or hot spot.
Free public hot spots are becoming increasingly common in cities and communities around the world, and the Buffalo Niagara region is no exception. Since the first free hot spot was set up in downtown Buffalo at Lafayette Square in 2003, others have popped up at the Buffalo Zoo, the Erie Basin Marina, City Hall, various locations along Main Street and more. A complete list of area hot spots is available from BuffaloWiFi.org (http://www.buffalowifi.org), an organization established to promote Internet access in the area.
Nationally, the Buffalo Niagara region is in the middle of the pack as far as wireless Internet access goes, coming in at number 56 on Intel's list of the 100 Most Unwired Cities (http://www.intel.com/personal/wireless/unwiredcities/index.htm). To find free hot spots anywhere in the U.S., check out the Wi-Fi Free Spot Directory at http://www.wififreespot.com/. While airports, universities and cafes are widely recognized for their wireless networks, untethered Internet access is on the rise and networks are sprouting up in surprising places—at campgrounds, RV parks, and even in laundries.
Why the growth in free hot spots? Free wireless Internet networks are often viewed as contributors to economic development and, for local businesses, as ways to draw in customers. Some proponents of municipal wireless networks believe that free hot spots can help close the digital divide by providing free Internet access to those who cannot afford to pay for it. But a recent announcement that Google is the leading candidate to provide free wireless Internet access across the entire city of San Francisco has revealed another, less idealistic, motive: advertising (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/
2006/04/06/MNGCGI4CA71.DTL&type=tech).
Wireless network providers can track the location of the devices that are using their networks and Google hopes to use this information to stream targeted, contextual advertisements to users. So as you wirelessly surf the Net, say, on the corner of Haight and Ashbury, ads for local businesses—shops located a few blocks from of your current location—would be directed to your computer (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12188577/).
Some universities are using their wireless networks in a similar fashion. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, has created iSpots (http://ispots.mit.edu/), which enables students to keep track of each other by showing the location on campus of their laptops when they are logged in to the wireless network (students have the option to turn this feature off). Other schools use their wireless networks to keep track of campus transportation vehicles so that students know exactly when their bus will arrive.
While UB did not make Intel's list of the top 50 "unwired" campuses—one SUNY school did make the list, SUNY College of Technology at Alfred (http://www.intel.com/personal/wireless/
unwiredcampuses.htm)—the wireless network here is quite extensive. Check out the Wireless Coverage Area Maps page for a complete list of all the places on campus that you can dispense with wires and still enjoy high speed Internet access (http://www.oss.buffalo.edu/Network/Wireless/wls-maps/). Wireless Internet access is pervasive throughout most areas of campus libraries, which can be very convenient when there's a line of people waiting to use the public-access desktops.
For more details on what you'll need to start using the wireless network here at UB, check out the UBWireless homepage at http://ubit.buffalo.edu/ubwireless/. A wireless Internet card, a piece of equipment that is becoming increasingly standard on laptops, is required (you can purchase one if your laptop does not already have one). One of the lingering concerns with wireless networks continues to be their security and privacy vulnerabilities. For more information on this topic, see UB's summary of wireless network vulnerabilities at http://www.oss.buffalo.edu/Network/Wireless/Standard.html.
—Charles Lyons, University Libraries