On Lisa Rein's Radar: BART WIFI - More Clues About The Beta Network

May 08, 2007

BART WIFI - More Clues About The Beta Network

Rafael Lopez makes some interesting observations while testing out the BART beta wifi network.

From Rafael:

Today on the way home I was pleasantly surprised about this adhoc free public wifi that rode along with me from Montgomery to Balboa Park. The Bssid changed between stations. The thing that stuck out was the signal power. I had a solld half signal bar all the way down. Comparing it to wifi rail which is usually a quarter bar at best. I hope to find out how I can get on their beta list...

It stops streaming in the Powell tunnel

Edited April 24. 2007

Ok I tried streaming a video of my five year olds birthday party from my home pc. I ran the test between powell and civic center heading south at 6 pm. It didn't work. It played for about 10 seconds then the video buffered and then it didn't recover.

Maybe the BSSID changing had something to do with this? Who knows. I'd love a steady wifi connection
while riding through underground tunnels. We're still in beta - I know. I asked to be a "beta" tester from their website via their support email address. Still waiting to hear back from them.

from: http://geocities.com/rlymp/

Edited May 05, 2007

Today on the way home I was pleasantly surprised about this adhoc free
public wifi that rode along with me from Montgomery to Balboa Park. The
Bssid changed between stations. The thing that stuck out was the signal
power. I had a solld half signal bar all the way down. Comparing it to
wifi rail which is usually a quarter bar at best. I hope to find out
how I can get on their beta list.

It stops streaming in the Powell tunnel

Edited April 24. 2007

Ok I tried streaming a video of my five year olds birthday party from
my home pc. I ran the test between powell and civic center heading
south at 6 pm. It didn't work. It played for about 10 seconds then the
video buffered and then it didn't recover.

Maybe the BSSID changing
had something to do with this? Who knows. I'd love a steady wifi
connection while riding through underground tunnels. We're still in
beta - I know. I asked to be a "beta" tester from their website via
their support email address. Still waiting to hear back from them.

No service this mornig at Civic Center going north 9am

Edited April 23, 2007

I was heading north this morning and I was unable to connect to
wifirail when I arrived at the civic center station. I did connect once
I arrived at the Powell station.

It doesn't stay connected between the Civic Center and Powell tunnels

Edited April 20, 2007

It doesn't stay connected between the Civic Center and Powell tunnels
heading North this morning at 9am - WWAAHHH!! Again the BSSID turned
all to zero's and I lost connectivity. The only way to get back online
was to deselect wifi rail and reconnect manually. I could wait for my
pocket pc to do it automatically, but you have to realize that their is
only three and a half minutes between the time we stop at Civic Center
and Powell St. stations. Now if someone was watching a video from
CNN.com or streaming music while in the tunnel they would be pissed
because they would drop their signal and then forced to restart their
application.

Bart Wifi

Editied April 19, 2007

Tonight I logged in at Montgomery without a problem. This time I kept my eyes open for any wifi changes between the stations. The BSSID did change between stations again. I had to disconnect wifi and reconnect - I’m back on again. I'm not sure if the service provides seamless connectivity between stations while on the train - don't know if that's their guarantee or not - I have to reread the fine print on their site.

I can tell you that's not going to
make a lot of people happy if they have to disconnect and reconnect. I
understand that we are still in beta stage. I'm just writing about my
experience with the service so far.

C'mon Gavin and Google - hurry up with the free wifi for San Fran.

Wireless Lan Manager

Configuration

Edited April 18, 2007

Screen shot inside the train at Montgomery
Screen shot inside the tube between Montgomery and Powell notice the BSSID are all zero's
Screen shot inside the train at Powell

It seems that seamless "switching" between the three stations needs to be improved. This evening between 635pm and 640pm I was heading south on Bart from Montgomery to San Bruno. I logged onto Montgomery's wifi rail without a problem - this time it accepted my login and password. I'm still waiting for the password confirmation email. The signal strength needs to be improved on the platform and on the train. When the train moved and headed south inside the tunnel I noticed the BSSID turned all to zero's. Then when we entered Powell there was a different BSSID number. I couldn't surf any longer. I had to disconnect and reconnect my wifi to be able to surf again. Thank God I didn't have to type in my login and password again.

This is my experience so far with this.

You also have to remember that between Montgomery and Civic Center is a whole 7 minutes if that.

NEW WIFI SERVICE ON BART

between Embarcadero and Civic Center

Edited April 17, 2007

My Pocket PC settings - O2 XDA IIS

Edited April 16, 2007

Posted by Lisa at May 08, 2007 12:51 PM

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