Adventures in wireless

Recently my wireless service at home has been interrupted. I also recently obtained a copy of Gran Turismo PSP, which came with a free download-able car (the Veyron Bugatti). Of course, this car can only be downloaded if you're connected to the Playstation network. This left me in a bind. I can't fix my wireless at home, but I can't get my free car.

What to do?? Well, of course I turned to the interweb. From a friend's computer I looked up as much information as possible about free wifi hotspots in my area, how the PSP connects to open networks, etc. What I ended up finding was quite intriguing. First, there are lots of businesses that give free wireless (very cool). HOWEVER, most of them run "g" band wireless, which is not accessible to the PSP (or my Nintendo DS, as it turns out). This was, of course, a depressing development. After several evenings of searching the web (on a wired computer, if only I knew someone with compatible wireless!) I realized I would have to look up all the local wifi places and see if anyone offered "b" band wireless.

As it finally turned out, Barnes and Noble in my town does. In fact, B&N offers both "g" AND "b" at this particular location. I logged in, downloaded my $2,000,000 car and I was set. This whole experience has taught me a few things though. For anyone looking to use free wireless for games there's important info you need. 1) Some places provide free wireless, but they don't support the "b" band, ergo gaming isn't possible. B) Wifi locator websites aren't always accurate, and 3) it's best to just have a router at home that works, that way you don't get into a mess like I did.

I was very surprised in my wireless search to find very little info about what locations offer wireless that does or dosen't support gaming. Here are places I found that DO NOT support games on their wireless: my local library, McDonald's, 3 local coffee shops (all small mom and pop places), Safeway, just about ANY major airport (Frankfurt supported my DS shockingly) and my local Starbucks. So gamers beware: if you want to play wireless on the town, maybe check out Barnes and Noble and your own Safeway (they're supposed to offer b & g wifi, but my city's does not). But don't get your heart set on playing online, cuz you may come up short in that area. Now you know, and knowing is half the....the....something or other.