Thursday, June 26, 2008

Why doesn't Fayetteville have this problem? Bentonville wireless service for all laptop users temporarily out of service on town square



Because we don't have free wireless service on the square! But we have some wonderful stonework and some smaller trees this year for only a million dollars or so. Will your purple-hull peas taste any better this summer than last? Are the put-and-take flowers any prettier? Or are the women prettier or the old men any less ugly? Are any more people driving from other cities and spending big bucks in our city this summer because Fayetteville taxpayers coughed up the big bucks for this unnecessary remodeling?
The Morning News
Local News for Northwest Arkansas
Wireless Networking Again Working On Square
By The Morning News
BENTONVILLE - The city has rebooted the wireless device that enables laptop users to access the Internet on the Bentonville square.

Jonathan Rogers, the city systems manager, was unaware the free wireless networking access area - known as a "hot spot" - wasn't working until a person called him Tuesday morning.

"Our transmitter to the square was locked up. It needed to be restarted to correct," said Rogers, who fixed the problem within an hour of the person's call.

Rogers doesn't know how long the hardware malfunction lasted or what had caused it. He suspects lightening or a power surge.

"Typically we turn it on and let it run. There's no monitoring. We rely on users of the system to tell us if they work or not," Rogers said.

Bentonville spent nearly $3,000 creating the hot spot in May 2007. The service offers the most basic commercial wireless network, the 802.11b standard, to entice people to use the downtown park and eat and shop at nearby businesses.

Rogers asks users to call 271-5911 to report any future system failures.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So are blaming Dan for the square debacle and his failure to get wi-fi on the square? Granted, that is the only thing that was needed. But in 20 years, the square expense will be forgotten and the new trees will provide shade and this post will be silly.
Dan's failure to include the one thing needed in this project and his insistence on going forward on this even after the council under the leadership of Alderman Jordan had struggled to keep the budget down without a tax increase is no better reason than his pretending the sewage plant debacle wasn't his responsibility to say he shouldn't now jump into the race for mayor. The real reason is that he promised NOT to run with great fanfare many months ago and not keeping that promise would be his worse lie.
Maybe he got a job offer while in Florida. Assistant for election management, maybe?