Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Posted on 5th February 2008
Last week, I went along to the Milton Keynes Perl Mongers social, which was also Birmingham Perl Mongers first date on their 2008 World Tour. As it was a Wetherspoon pub, while ordering a pint I asked if they had one of these 30 minutes free cards for the WiFi, which I duly got. Now the idea of having WiFi in a pub is great, but providing 30 minutes free when you order a pint is inspirational. However, not having a working WiFi is just a pain. I already have several cards from the Wetherspoon pub in Bromsgrove, when I failed to get a connection there (others had problems too, so it wasn't just me). At Milton Keynes it seems there was some drastic Java error which failed to load the landing page to allow me to login. Apparently the error had been logged, but it didn't get fixed at any point during the evening :(
Although I've only tried this at two Wetherspoon pubs, it's also a 100% failure rate. Do any of their pubs actually have a working WiFi, or is it a big ruse to get geeks into the pub? It would be a great shame if it was the latter, as this is exactly the kind of thing that pubs and cafes should be using to attract business. WiFi is relatively cheap these days and the additional business it brings is worth it. With more and more WiFi enabled devices being sold, especially phones, it wouldn't surprise me to see WiFi accessible meeting places to see an upturn in business and hopefully profits, hopefully inspiring others to follow suit.
Comments
Wetherspoons, WiFi & Linux
CovLUG used to meet in Wetherspoons in Coventry for our monthly Social. The service went downhill and one off the factors in us eventually deserting and going to the Varsity instead is the free WiFi in Varsity. The cost of installing a adsl line and having the wireless router on the wall is very low nowdays. None of the staff would be technical enough to solve access problems so if you buy a card but cannot use it, it is a rip off. Even if you get to use it, the cost is excessive.Posted by Andrew Stringer on Tuesday, 5th February 2008
