[P1] hot spots in the U.S.

[Dan Farley]

William said - 
> Well, let's skip forward to the part where this lady declaimed, "I
> would NEVER say anything like that !!".   I talked to the owner of the
> ISP and he was puzzled at my effrontery in asking for help.  He said
> something like "We have a direct connection to the Internet here, if
> we were to allow customers to login we'd have to charge a lot more than
> $60 a month".

I was in the exact same position. Too far in the country for cable or dsl
and my only options were satelite or wifi from a local provider. Unlike his
provider though, mine was happy to register my airport card for network
access and even pointed out where I could find their local hotspots. I'm
typing this from one right now (a local Taco Bell is in the beaten zone). I
pay $49 a month and I think they are happy - shoot, I'm on for a max of
30-45 minutes a day, and I'm happy. I'm going in tomorrow to see if they'll
let me have dialup access and add my wife's airport card without increasing
my price. I'm also scoping out used towers for purchase. The total cost of
that option though (assuming I can find a used tower for $100 will be around
$1000 by the time it's taken down, moved to my lot, put up and the necessary
antennae and hardware are purchased.

When I had my own cable connection I failed to encrypt my airport signal and
was happy to share access with any responsible party that wanted to wardrive
in my neighborhood. WiFi internet access should be provided free by the
government. It would be a lot cheaper than building, stocking, manning and
maintaining libraries.

Dan