What did I try, but GoogleWifi

Thursday 24 August 2006 - Filed under Default

Today, I connected to the newly-opened Google Wifi network. A few weeks before, after eating at the In-N Out at Rengstorff in Mountain View I spotted what I thought was a node on their mesh network. At that time, the access point was not broadcasting its ssid and I couldn’t get on even with a couple of good guesses. This time was different.

Connecting was super-simple. I turned on my laptop and associated with the only network around – ‘GoogleWifi’. In seconds I had an IP address and started up my browser.

I was immediately taken to the Google Wifi login page where I was able to login with the same username I use with Google’s other services Gmail and Google Groups. The password even filled itself in just like I was logging into Gmail.

Once connected, I was able to surf around easily enough. No big warning came up about the fact that my connection was unencrypted but if you care about security and are using wireless, you’ll be using a VPN anyway. Google says they’ll be offering something soon but for now I’ve read you can use iPig.

The other thing I did was Speakeasy’s online speedtest. My download speed was 1.2 Megabit and the upload was 401 kilobit with ping times under 100 ms. What these specs mean is that watching online video, uploading files to your favorite website, or playing 3d multiplayer shoot-em-ups should all work well.

So my conclusion on this service is it’s great. It’s fast, free, and easy to use. It should be enough for most people for the next couple of years.

It’ll be interesting to see how the network matures, if it gets faster, and of course more widespread. I won’t be giving my cable connection up either way, but it’s nice to know I can pull over and do a quick Google Maps check when I’m on my way to my next appointment in or near Mountain View.

References:

Output of IPCONFIG *****************************
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : googlewifi.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Wireless Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 64.9.237.xxx
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.248.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 64.9.232.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.6.48.39
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 64.9.224.36
64.9.224.37
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, August 23, 2006 12:49:52 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, August 23, 2006 1:19:52 PM

Tracert to Yahoo.com ***************************

Tracing route to yahoo.com [66.94.234.13]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 8 ms 9 ms 10 ms 64.9.229.166
2 7 ms 13 ms 5 ms 64.9.228.112
3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 8.6.48.5
4 9 ms 12 ms 10 ms 64.9.224.137
5 13 ms 12 ms 12 ms pax-edge-01.inet.qwest.net [72.165.114.253]
6 20 ms 9 ms 9 ms svl-core-02.inet.qwest.net [205.171.214.33]
7 9 ms 7 ms 12 ms pax-brdr-02.inet.qwest.net [205.171.205.30]
8 8 ms 8 ms 18 ms if-9-3.core3.PDI-PaloAlto.Teleglobe.net [207.45.196.85]
9 9 ms 9 ms 17 ms ix-6-2.core3.PDI-PaloAlto.Teleglobe.net [207.45.213.130]
10 11 ms 12 ms 16 ms ge-4-0-0-p440.msr1.scd.yahoo.com [216.115.106.201]
11 82 ms 16 ms 9 ms ten-1-3-bas1.scd.yahoo.com [66.218.82.217]
12 11 ms 84 ms 10 ms fifaworldcup.yahoo.net [66.94.234.13]

Trace complete.

2006-08-24  »  David Sterry