I’ve once again started to look into my options (or lack thereof) for internet while at Otakon. The biggest problem appears to be that there is no easy solution. My choices appear to be:
1) Use Twitter + text messaging to update immeidately, update blog on the web at the hotel at night. Cost: Free. Convenience: Very Low
2) Take a break every now and then and try to search out free wi-fi spots. I tried connecting to the harbor free wi-fi last year a couple times, but never had much luck, and I’m not sure whether the Sheraton next door has free wi-fi that I could just pop in and use either. For instant updates, one is still looking at the twitter option. Cost: Free. Convenience: Low.
3) See if there are any pay wi-fi services in the area. I may have more luck connecting, but I’d probably be looking at $20 per day week, and it still doesn’t do me much good unless I actually get a signal in the BCC. Cost: Probably something like $60 $20 or so total. Convenience: High if I can get a good signal in the BCC. Low if I can’t.
4) Sign up for a wireless access card rental, such as through here. I can probably cut off a day of rental by having it delivered to my hotel on Thursday (if the hotel is up for that), but since the rental doesn’t end until “UPS scans [the return packaging],” I’m going to have to wait until Monday to end the rental when I can swing by the UPS store. This also assumes that I can get it to work. If not, that would be an expensive $90 wasted. Cost: $80 to $90. Convenience: Very High if it works
Someone else can let me know if there is another option, but this just about looks like it to me.
4 Comments
I take it the hotel that hosts Otakon doesn’t have wi-fi, even for a cost? That would surprise me because everywhere I stay when I travel has wi-fi. At Starfest in Denver, we had to pay $10/day for Internet, but that covered both wi-fi or Ethernet access. So I could make updates immediately, no matter where we were at on the convention site.
Otakon is held at the Baltimore Convention Center. And theoretically Otakon could sign up for wi-fi to be available, but I think it’s like, around $1000 for the initial cost and somewhere around $125 for EACH IP address, so yeah, that’s not happening.
I found a pay service (I linked to it above) which has a hot spot across the street from Otakon, and I sent them an email asking if they know how good the reception is in the BCC itself. I’ll assume you can’t get it everywhere, since most of the time you only get good reception within 300 feet, but if I can get it in the main lobbies, that’d probably be good enough for me.
I think the Sheraton next door to the convention center has wi-fi, but I’m not sure if it’s free or not.
It’s probably free in the hotel lobby; that is the case for many hotels.
(410) 962-8300
This sounds promising…
But perhaps not that promising. The webpage is not definitive, so you might want to call them and see what the rates are and if it’s free in the lobby.