Wi Fi internet service in Iowa (Des Moines, Cedar Rapids: city hall, hotels, shops)

[mofford]

Whatever happened to the plans for wireless internet in Des Moines ? I remember hearing that Iowa City and maybe Ames had it. Does your town have Wi Fi ? How well does it work, what do you need to make it secure and how often does it go down ? Is this type of service always going to have limited transmission around coffee shops and the like ?

[DBQer]

Dubuque has free public Wi Fi in the downtown and port areas. I've found that it works reasonably well, although it can be somewhat spotty at times.

Not sure about Iowa City, but I know Coralville has public Wi Fi near the city hall/library complex.

[mofford]

I just thought that since we are freeing up the airwaves from the analog TV signals, perhaps we could get some benefit from it. Some countries allow people to own cordless phones that have a 20 mile range. Not sure if Wi Fi can be used on those old TV bands but would like to see some REAL Wi Fi coverage. Im guessing the phone and cable companies have resisted Wi Fi and they may be part of the problem too.

Hey DBQer, what are the download speeds with Wi Fi in Dubuque, does it run at Cable/DSL speed or slow like dialup ?

[iowegian]

Originally Posted by DBQer

Not sure about Iowa City, but I know Coralville has public Wi Fi near the city hall/library complex.

Both Iowa City and Coralville have it in a few areas. Cedar Rapids also has some coverage downtown. Here is a website with maps:
cFree Wireless Network

I've never used it (no laptop ) so I don't know how well it works. I just know that it exists. I see students on their laptops around the Ped Mall sometimes so I'd guess that it works.

[DBQer]

Originally Posted by mofford

Hey DBQer, what are the download speeds with Wi Fi in Dubuque, does it run at Cable/DSL speed or slow like dialup ?

I'm really not sure what the specifics are... but, to me, its always operated at a comfortable, swift speed. The system is run by Mediacom, so I would assume it uses their Cable/DSL capability.

[mofford]

Did a little checking around and found out there are over 40 hot spots in Des Moines, 29 are free and listed at this site.

Des Moines, Iowa - Free WiFi hotspots wi-fi cafes coffee shops hotels wireless airports

Interesting that there are a few nearby me at the airport and the library on Porter. Did some reading and noticed you need at least 512 RAM but 1GB is prefered, windows XP or later, wireless router, encryption software, blah blah blah, Im not there yet but it's a nice thought.

From the site that iowegian posted, regarding the coverage area for Cedar Rapids, said that you can't recieve it inside your dwelling and coverage was limited to outdoor areas only. Would imagine you could use an outdoor antenna of some type to interface with the system using a laptop or upgraded desktop computer. They make a wifi meter that tells you the signal strength for your location, would be nice to have, or friend with laptop set up for it. Im more interested in doing a desktop wifi conversion upgrade with the PCI slot or something like that, if I had coverage. Has anyone ever tried it and want to share your experience with it ?