Is Portland MetroFi broken?
UrbanHonking readers and writers, you are the most-laptopped group of people I know, or can even imagine. Wifi is your way of life. I would like to ask you: Do you ever use MetroFi?
I almost never use it, myself, since the service doesn't work indoors. Today, I thought I'd get some work done in the park, and situated myself at the park bench in the northeast corner of Colonel Summers Park. The intersection there, 20th & Belmont, has a wifi node. My laptop sees it, and tries to log on, but it fails. So I gave up and went home.
Is anyone having a better experience with this service than I am? I would be curious to hear.
I think Steve actually used it once!!
I have never connected to a node.
I can see a node from our apartment, but I've never gotten a signal from it. I haven't tried that hard.
However, we do get a somewhat reliable signal from VeriLAN, who are definitely farther away than the node, at 215 SE Morrison Street, Suite 2000F.
Much to my dismay I have yet to connect to a metro-fi node as well.
I just moved from se 37th & madison to se 25th & pine and both locations are currently null and void. Although at the Madison address it at least comes up as an "option" in the airport scroll bar, despite it being an ultimate dead end. Too sad. I initially had great expectations/hopes. Oh well......
the few people I know who have actually had success connecting to metrofi have complained heavily of slow speeds & cutting out. it's a shame, I thought it was a great idea!
I have never gotten this service to work. And what is UP with a free wi-fe service that DOESN'T WORK INSIDE? Isn't that like a basic condition for wi-fi service, especially in a place where it rains all the time? Sorry to be all crabby, it just totally annoys me. How many tax dollars did MetroFi get paid to do what seems to be essentially nothing? Lame.
I can see both Free and Premium MetroFi SSIDs, but have only ever made a single "successful" connection with my MacBook from inside my home near 39th/Hawthorne. The reason I use quotes is that despite my 3/4 bars of signal via my Airport menubar icon, I was only able to load the default local news page after much waiting, and other sites never finished loading.
Most of the time I get the general "there was an error connecting to MetroFi-FREE" with an option to "Try Again". I've also tried from my porch and had no luck.
But I know Cory uses it at Lucky's near 20th/Sandy regularly with little or no problems.
FYI: PersonalTelco.net is acting as a de-facto watchdog group via http://unwirepdx-watch.org/
The other interesting thing over there at Unwire PDX Watch is their independent testing. The city commissioned tests, but Unwire PDX Watch was sick of waiting for the results, and they did their own.
The city-commissioned tests only tested the strength of the radio signal, but not if you could actually connect with a typical laptop. And, surprise, they said there was almost perfect (95%) coverage in the areas they tested.
Unwire PDX Watch, of course, was concerned about whether you could actually connect, so the study they designed tested that. And they found only 58% usable coverage, which sounds a lot more like reality to me.
Whenever it is possible I try to connect to MetroFi. A lot of times it fails.
Just recently, on Saturday night I found myself waiting for some people. So I tried on 10th between morrison and belmonth. I connected and was surfing pretty well for a few minutes. It's weird to see the banner ad that they add to most sites on some of my normal ad free sites like urho.
The only times I've gotten on MetroFi were in coffee shops that already offered free WiFi. But I was curious, and it did kind of work.
I'm so glad that you refered to Col. Summers Park by the proper name. Most everyone in this city calls it Col. Sumner's Park. Two entirely different Col.s. Summers was from Oregon and fought in the Spanish-American war. Sumner was from Boston and fought in the Civil War.
And I still managed to get it wrong, calling it "Summer's" instead of "Summers". [Now fixed.] Thanks.
In other news, from my desk here in SE, my computer detects a MetroFi Free node, and can't connect.
I think the problem here is one of expectations. The node is broadcasting with a powerful antenna. So my computer can see it. But my computer is broadcasting with a weaker antenna, so it can't establish two-way communications. The fact that the node shows up in my little list makes me think I should be able to access it, since that's how these things usually work. I wish it just didn't show up if I wasn't going to be able to connect.
i use metrofi inside my house everyday. i recently moved into a house right off of 39th and division and there is node right outside my door. the only time it didn't work was all day yesterday.
still, i get a pretty lousy signal. i don't expect much better from free internet.
I can't open multiple windows when i use it - like pressing option and click on my macbook. The new window it opens that's supposed to be a different link, opens as an exact copy as the page I clicked from originally and then neither work properly
Whoa, that's a weird problem, Nilina. I've never heard of that.
Here is my problem: I work Sundays in a downtown shop less than a block away from a node. I will get a "good signal" and things that don't involve browsers can connect to the internet (the little icon that checks for unread messages at gmail can find gmail and display the titles of the messages). At the same time, I tried five different browsers (firefox, opera, ie, k-melion, and avast) and they all stalled without even displaying the msn.com startup page.
When I finally did connect with a browser, it was when I retreated to a significantly weaker signal from the nearby coffeehouse.
Metro-Fi is F-ed up. If anyone has any solutions to this problem, PLEASE let me know. I wrote Metro-Fi, but I expect a defensive and unhelpful answer that blames the victim.
No...it's no good and shamockery ...in fact I wrote this article at www.PdxPipeline.com
"OPB discovers that Metrofi is crap unless you are Kristian Foden-Vencil"
I'm downtown on 4th 4 blocks from Pioneer square
I have been clicking at it all morning
I can see the 5 bars for an excellent Sig. It never
does connect. I don't even get an Error...
I can see allot of the secured network connections
and they at least prompt me for an ID/password.
(I do tech support for a living)
This whole thing stinks of the Idea people never consulting and tech people to make sure that it actually works.
Did they bother to make sure that the average non-tech can actually get it to work them selves...
I hope this is not another DMV mess up
I'm downtown on 4th 4 blocks from Pioneer square
I have been clicking at it all morning
I can see the 5 bars for an excellent Sig. It never
does connect. I don't even get an Error...
I can see allot of the secured network connections
and they at least prompt me for an ID/password.
(I do tech support for a living)
This whole thing stinks of the Idea people never consulting and tech people to make sure that it actually works.
Did they bother to make sure that the average non-tech can actually get it to work them selves...
I hope this is not another DMV mess up
finally! about 2 months ago i began being able to join metrofi no problem. Other them the constant adds!! However yesterday it stopped working saying" unable to join metrofi" whats goiing on? Has anyone else had this problem?
I get a nice signal (34th and Clinton transmitter) even through a big house between me and the transmitter. Im aided by a Buffalo hi power card, and the external antenna gives me an extra 10 db or so. I wouldnt get the products advertised on Metrofi site. Those might be great if the transmitter was right outside your house.
I depended on the free service until today when they sprang this new "enhanced" "experience" on us. As if I want my Metrofi "experience" "enhanced." Now you gotta download some ad-running MSN software which I refuse to do. So I just called up Quest for a DSL line.