Sunday, January 27, 2008

Flying Hotspots?

I was in Boise a few days ago, waiting for my wife to run various errands, and I had my notebook with me. I thought, "What's the chance that I can find a wireless hotspot that isn't encrypted so that I can check my email?"

I searched for wireless networks--and I found a couple of them that appeared. They were weak, but I seemed to be able to connect to them--and then they disappeared.

About five miles away, an hour or two later, I tried again--and again, two wireless networks showed up--and then disappeared. A few minutes later--one of them showed back up again--and then disappeared again. And while one of these mysterious wireless networks had what was obviously the Linksys default name, the other had the name "Jet Blue Hot Spot."

Was it possible that I was seeing passenger jets on approach to Boise International? They might be at 10,000 feet or less--which is less than two miles--just barely within the range that I would find possible. This might explain why I would see them, then they disappeared, then reappeared a few minutes later. It might be the same plane, flying in a circle, or multiple Jet Blue planes all configured with the same wireless network name.

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