The other day I was in a cab from our office on 20th St to our apartment on 5th st and I decided to take out my iBook and scane for wireless networks. In the course of one $6 cab ride I must have detected at least 20, 4 of which were open.

When I have some time, I’m going to build a pringles can aentenna to see if I can stretch my own airport down to Bagel Zone. I keep a password on it, but give it out to friends. I know that it does reach the benches across the street, whenever the weather is good…

It’s amazing how freeing wireless is, it seems so simple but changed the way I use my computers.

After we ran a story on NYC wireless, i joined the mailing list and I’ve been very impressed. Lots of good updates on cheap hardware, low traffic, and, appropriately, almost no noise.

My favorite wireless network (and I’m guessing the largest in New York) is Columbia University’s:

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/networks/wireless/
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/networks/wireless/coveragemap.html

(There’s actually even more available places then what’s on the map, I know both the Business School lounge is wireless enabled, but it’s not on the list. Now, if I can only get them to hook up the wireless network (operated by the main Columbia computer staff) with the Business network (operated by a different computer staff), we’ll be in, er, business.)

There’s some minimal configuration issues, but there’s no network validation. So, when the weather gets nicer, come on out to the campus and hang out.

Actually, I must admit it’s really hard to look at your screen with the sun blaring down at you.