Anybody there this week? Wired Internet

[WilsonFlyer]

Can anyone that's there now or has been very recently confirm or deny the continued availability of wired internet in the rooms?

If it's still there and you used it, has the performance gotten any better since most people are probably flocking to the premise wireless?

Thanks!

 

[rlovew]

We are at BLT his week. I am sitting on my balcony on a fast wireless connection as I type (we are on the 2th floor so I don't know if that is why it is so good). DH was using the wireless yesterday- he wanted to load a new game onto his computer that was around 5 GB I think he said and while it took about 5 hours he didn't have interuptions on it (we have very lo bandwith limitations at home some any bigger bandwith items we do while away.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Thank you!

Anybody know anything as to the status of the wired internet?

 

[Brian Noble]

has the performance gotten any better since most people are probably flocking to the premise wireless?

It is very likely that the wired and wireless networks share the same back-end connection to "the Internet" at large, so it won't really matter what last-mile connection people use, wired or wireless, the performance you see is probably the same either way.

That said, I also suspect that WDW upgraded their back-end capacity to deal with what is certainly a significant increase in guest network traffic. Based on the reports we are hearing, it sounds likely that the new capacity is more than sufficient.

 

[LisaS]

It is very likely that the wired and wireless networks share the same back-end connection to "the Internet" at large, so it won't really matter what last-mile connection people use, wired or wireless, the performance you see is probably the same either way.

We expected that as well but at BWV the new wireless service was significantly faster than the wired. Wired Internet in our room was so slow it was unusable. We switched to DH's 3G wireless service instead because it was faster than the wired service in the room. Once the new wireless service finally started working from our room, it was quite fast.

 

[rlovew]

Thank you!

Anybody know anything as to the status of the wired internet?

Sorry I had meant to say that my DH was using our wired internet while I used the wireless. He had no problems.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Sorry I had meant to say that my DH was using our wired internet while I used the wireless. He had no problems.

I actually figured you may have just typed that wrong. Thank you!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

It is very likely that the wired and wireless networks share the same back-end connection to "the Internet" at large, so it won't really matter what last-mile connection people use, wired or wireless, the performance you see is probably the same either way.

That said, I also suspect that WDW upgraded their back-end capacity to deal with what is certainly a significant increase in guest network traffic. Based on the reports we are hearing, it sounds likely that the new capacity is more than sufficient.

I understand what you're saying but I wouldn't bet the farm on that. I plan to do some testing while I'm there next week and then we'll know for sure.

Are you right? Probably, but I wouldn't have designed it that way for a variety of reasons and I do this stuff for a living. We shall see.

 

[bwvBound]

I plan to do some testing while I'm there next week and then we'll know for sure.

I look forward to your report, WilsonFlyer! I rely on wired internet and am concerned for our stay in January.

 

[Snurk71]

I understand what you're saying but I wouldn't bet the farm on that. I plan to do some testing while I'm there next week and then we'll know for sure.

I'll be testing BLT towards the end of next week for an additional report too.

 

[Brian Noble]

You think they are multi-homed to guest-facing connectivity?

Interesting. I'm not sure I would have done that, but maybe so. Just installing the wireless bits de novo is one way to go about it. Seems like it would have been cheaper to leverage existing infrastructure, but maybe not.

We switched to DH's 3G wireless service instead because it was faster than the wired service in the room.

I've been about 50-50 with the wired connectivity. Sometimes it's been great. Sometimes the 3G connection is better.

 

[dvc_john]

At OKW now, and a couple of questions about the wireless:

No screen comes up about the '$9.95 fee, does not apply to DVC members'. Does that mean the wireless is free for everyone now?

Where exactly is this wireless coming from.
I play 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' online, but here at OKW I get a message that WWtoaM is only available in North America.
And I missed Amazing Race on Sunday, and tried to watch it online. I get a message that says 'not available in your geographic area'.
Never ever have seen those messages before.

 

[DenLo]

We were told by one of the installation techs at BLT that there will be three levels of services. A slow speed (he called it snail speed) that is free for all guests. And two other speeds, medium and fast that are available for a fee. He did not know which speed the DVC members would be given as their free internet.

I would guess we're getting the medium speed and the fast speed is available for a fee. I think the fast speed was installed for business guests that do a lot of downloads/uploads. And those guests are used to paying for this service. Not that Disboards members couldn't use the fastest speed to upload all of those photos.

 

[LisaS]

You think they are multi-homed to guest-facing connectivity?

Interesting. I'm not sure I would have done that, but maybe so. Just installing the wireless bits de novo is one way to go about it. Seems like it would have been cheaper to leverage existing infrastructure, but maybe not.

I've been about 50-50 with the wired connectivity. Sometimes it's been great. Sometimes the 3G connection is better.

Our 3G connection wasn't great. We had no signal during the day. It did work in the evenings but was quite slow though still faster than the wired Internet.

This wasn't the first time we had issues at BWV. Tech support came to our room last year but in the end couldn't get things running any better for us. He later called back and said that as slow as it was, it was within spec and there was nothing more he could do for us. During our conversations we got the impression that the existing infrastructure at BWV was kind of a mess. At one point they were going to offer Internet access via the TV and started installing the equipment and running wires but the project was never completed. Look behind the TVs at BWV and you will probably find some of the equipment still attached to the wall back there as it was in our room last year.

I don't remember having any problems with the wired Internet at other resorts (AKV, VWL, OKW) so I wonder if they are handling BWV differently because of the state of the current infrastructure.

 

[OCarol]

It was available at OKW last week and worked ok.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

You think they are multi-homed to guest-facing connectivity?

Interesting. I'm not sure I would have done that, but maybe so. Just installing the wireless bits de novo is one way to go about it. Seems like it would have been cheaper to leverage existing infrastructure, but maybe not.

That's what I would have done, Brian. You're right, though. There are 25 ways they could have done this so who knows. Their track record isn't that great. LOL

We'll see next week. I'll let you know what I find out.

PS... For those few of you out there that actually know me, Rides and Shows has nothing to do with Resorts. Just wanted to throw that out there. You guys know just as much about Resort connectivity as I do. LOL

 

[dvc_john]

I play 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' online, but here at OKW I get a message that WWtoaM is only available in North America.
And I missed Amazing Race on Sunday, and tried to watch it online. I get a message that says 'not available in your geographic area'.
Never ever have seen those messages before.

More weird things with wireless here:
I log on to mapquest (it usually automatically gives me a map of Orlando when I am here), and it comes up with a map of Sao Paulo Brazil!

 

[Shadeaux]

More weird things with wireless here:
I log on to mapquest (it usually automatically gives me a map of Orlando when I am here), and it comes up with a map of Sao Paulo Brazil!

The same thing happened to me at OKW last week when I was using mapquest. Very weird!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

More weird things with wireless here:
I log on to mapquest (it usually automatically gives me a map of Orlando when I am here), and it comes up with a map of Sao Paulo Brazil!

I'm starting to think looking at the traceroutes is going to be interesting. Wonder what the heck they're up to?

 

[Brian Noble]

Maybe they are buying peering services on the spot market!