It's amazing how much a part of our personal infrastructure 802.11 wireless technology has become. I rarely stay in a place without Internet connectivity. This past few days we have been in Beaufort, NC staying at the Beaufort Inn. They have just added a wireless network, but it appears to still to be a work in progress. I have no problem in seeing and connecting to the network in their exceptionally comfortable lounge. There is little to complain about when you can sit by a nice fireplace and hook up wirelessly to the Internet and watch the fishing boats head out to sea. In fact if you hit the Beaufort Inn web site, I'm doing this posting from the wing chair just to the right of the fireplace.
Some others technology travelers haven't been as fortunate. A couple of gentlemen with Intel Centrino's mobile technology have had little luck. One visitor is from San Francisco and the other from the Philadelphia area, and both are enjoying Beaufort enough not to worry very much about wireless connectivity.
My Apple PowerBook hooked in immediately after giving it the password. From all the advertising you would think Intel invented wireless and Microsoft made it easy. Of course that would be revisionist history. As has often been the case Apple pioneered 802.11, popularized it and still has one of the easiest systems to use. In typical Apple fashion, the assumption was that those customers who need to know Apple advantage already knew so why bother with telling others their Apple's wireless capabilities. Apple left it to Microsoft and Intel among others to turn wireless computers into a commodity.
There is lot more to wireless network design than meets the eye. Perhaps the Beaufort Inn needs to contact my friends at Ease Technologies. Mark, their wireless expert, has the right tools to map coverage so that every room really does see the network which isn't the case yet at the Beaufort Inn. Ease has been involved in very large complex installations such as the Henrico Country iBook installation which involved thousands of systems. Mark, in a visit before Christmas was telling me about the very cool validation and security features of the products from Bluesocket.
The good news about Beaufort is that there is plenty in the area to keep me off the Internet so only having wireless in the lounge has not been a problem. Between searching for that right house where we can spend the next few years, walking on the beach at Fort Macon, hitting the Maritime Museum, and planning which great restaurant to visit for the next meal, there is little time to spend on the Internet.
We always meet some very interesting people in Beaufort which seems to attract people from all over the world. There's such a wide variety of settings including, historic areas, beach homes, and boating communities to small groups of houses on quiet estuaries that everyone should be able to find a dream spot if you just have an extra half million or so. Now finding it for less than that is the challenge. Our two realtors, Jane and Joan have been doing an admirable job trying to find us a place, but the market is a little lean right now.
Our friends, Robert and Dianne, have been with us on this trip. We all enjoyed sampling the restaurants. As I mentioned before Beaufort is filled with some excellent restaurants. Among the ones we have sampled on our various trips, I can recommend the Net House (great traditional Carolina seafood), Front Street (exceptional chowder), Clawson's (great flounder and oysters), Beaufort Grocery Company (excellent variety of dishes), Aqua (very interesting menu), and Blue Moon Bistro (best salmon ever in a restaurant). There are others we haven't gotten to yet so there is no shortage of great restaurants in the area. Then of courage there was the deadly sausage and egg pie each morning at Beaufort Inn for breakfast. Egg beaters for me for the rest of the week.
For a relaxing spot on the NC coast, Beaufort is hard to beat.
