The Daily Ping

The 1st Ping was published on January 6, 2000.

May 22nd, 2007

An Open Letter to Nomadix

Dear Nomadix,

Hi there. First, thanks for providing WiFi to places that might not ordinarily have it at all. It’s a nice thing you’re doing, “creating value” as you put it.

But I must complain about your crappy, crappy routers. They are crappy. Here is why: almost every 5 requests I put out for a web page are met with your “You are being connected…” page. This page apparently tries to open a pop-up window, helpfully (?) telling me that I am connected to your service. The thing is, I block all pop-ups. I don’t need them; they don’t need me. But if I don’t unblock them in Firefox, it causes me issues. I have to resend the request. That’s super!

Worse, this sometimes breaks things like flickr uploadr (already a not-too-great piece of software). And right now for instance, I can’t use your connection at my hotel because – ready? – it’s “full”. It’s full. That’s like saying the internet is down for cleaning. I know it can happen, but this is silly. It was fun when I decided to come to a local Panera Bread for breakfast and found that they use your crappy services too.

Here’s what you need to do. Stop it with the pop-ups, and offer beefier routers. If you choose not to do this, there’s one thing you should change: the “You are being connected…” page. Oh, I don’t mind seeing your ugly and meaningless logo there – that’s not it. You typoed the name of your own company on this page. Opps.

Unwilling customer,

Paul

Posted in Technology

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