Anyone wondering about the value of wi-fi need only spend a few hours without it. Or, in my case, a few days. Last weekend, my wireless went on the blink. Did I need any evidence of how much my household relies on that little router in the corner? Not really, but I got it.
Losing access to streaming on-demand movies and TV was annoying, to put it mildly (although the dampener that the downtime put on my ability to do weekend work may have been a blessing in disguise). The only real winner will be Telstra thanks to the beefy 3G data pack I’m using to get through the dark period.
This month’s cover feature is another reminder of just how essential wireless has become. For many organisations, wi-fi is no longer an added extra but is increasingly seen as an essential service. Among some local councils, public wireless is now being treated like water fountains in parks or household rubbish collection. This is an incredible opportunity for network specialists. Perth City Council, for instance, invested $300,000 to roll out free, 50Mbps public wi-fi across much of the CBD.
A separate incident this month reminded me of the importance of security – and just how vulnerable we all are. I got a call from the bank about some suspicious ATM withdrawals on my credit card. Sure enough, my card had been compromised. ATM skimmers are a huge problem, but they can’t be to blame for this: I’ve never stuck my credit card into an ATM. I can only assume the scammers discovered my PIN by some other nefarious means, perhaps a security camera installed at a less-than-honest service station or convenience store.
So that was my month in technology – stuck on hold with my internet service provider, then spending hours troubleshooting my router; followed by more time sitting on hold trying to speak to my bank, then spending hours resetting online subscription services tied to the compromised credit card. I would kill for my own private managed service provider – any takers?
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