Tropical Software


		The idea of collecting these sites in Florida was suggested by Dwight Hines to the Mac People Mac users group on Jan. 9, 2003. Tropical Software is happy to host a list of Florida sites as a public service. If you know of another one, just hit our "Support" button and email it in! Disclaimer: We make no warranty at all as to the veracity of this information. It consists of reports we have received from volunteers who send it to us. They either have had personal experience, or have received the information in other ways. We believe the information is reasonably accurate, but there is no way we can check all the sites in Florida, or elsewhere with our limited resources. We rely on you to update the information and check it for us. Please let us know if the site is free or paid and if the signal strength was good, access steady and fast or not, and what the overall experience was like. NORTH FLORIDA: Jacksonville area: Downtown: Danny Quitter reported 4/26/03 from the Jacksonville Business Journal (http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2003/05/26/ focus1.html) that the previously established WiFi zone inside the City Hall at St. James Building now extends outside and across the street to cover at least half of Hemming Plaza, a full block sized park in the center of downtown Jacksonville. I hope to test this and report back again soon. PANERA BREAD: Danny Quitter discovered that all 4 locations of PANERA BREAD Restaurants in the Jacksonville Area are offering FREE WiFi High Speed Internet Access. Danny's (slightly edited) May 26, 2003 report follows: This includes Baymeadows Rd. at Southside Blvd., San Marco on Hendricks next door to newly renovated public library, San Jose Blvd. in Mandarin, and on South 3rd St. in Jax Beach. This is absolutely FREE. Panera's also offers a brochure of FAQs and helpful instructions for the novice on how to connect. This brochure is called "The How of Wi-Fi" and it should be prominently displayed. (I found it easily at the San Marco store.) There should also be a small sticker on a window near the entrance indicating that WiFi is available in that store. Using a Mac Powerbook. G3 with built-in Airport card and antenna, the connection was strong. Note to users of Mac OS X: the system at Panera's doesn't seem to want to play nice with Mail or Safari, not at first. I couldn't connect using either of those apps. However, after opening MS Explorer first and establishing a connection, Mail connected just fine to DL incoming messages. Safari also opened on top of Explorer and ran just fine. I could not send any emails, however, using Mail for OS X. I don't know at this time if it was operator error or a connection failure. Just be advised. ("Your mileage may vary.") immedia When you connect using a browser (Explorer, in my case) you are immediately taken to the Panera Bread WiFi home page, with an extra pop-up window that shows their "Acceptable Use Policy." You must read and click through this, then the pop-up will close automatically, then you are free to surf. As their brochure points out, "No passwords. No fees. No limits." Panera's is already a popular place around Jacksonville, especially for lunch (they specialize in gourmet sandwiches and fresh bakery goods). I imagine it will become even more so with free WiFi zones. Starbucks: Reported by Danny Quitter on 2/17/03 at 10:59 PM: For what it's worth, a call to one of the local Starbuck's Cafes confirmed they are indeed now "live." Specifically, the San Marco location appears to be live. I went by there to check it out, seek details about the T-Mobile promotion, etc. I did not actually connect, but there are signs on the door and brochures in a rack explaining the T-Mobile deal. ( http://www.t-mobile.com/hotspot/ ) Prior to my checking in San Marco, I checked a brand new Starbucks location in Riverside. They are NOT live, or even wired. The manager says that's at least 4 months away 'cause of some contractual thing with T-Mobile... When contracts were signed to get the T-Mobile WiFi connections installed at umpteen Starbucks locations, a cut-off date was set for "established" locations which would be wired first. New stores opening after whatever that X date was were not to be included in the original build-out, but will come eventually. That's why the new Riverside store isn't live yet. But another of the real live locations, I was told, was a Mandarin store. I still have to check or ask that Tinseltown store. In the mean time, T-Mobile has a page on their site listing all the locations where they've installed wireless 802.11b access (see: http://locations.hotspot.t-mobile.com/ ) Here's a surprise: not all of T-Mobile's installations are Starbucks! (But all Starbucks that are or will be wired have T-Mobile systems.) *Starbucks will provide locations in the Jacksonville area starting Feb. 12 according to an article in the St. Petersburg Times (see article below). Jacksonville Landing -- good but not as fast as Centennial House of Ponte Vedra St. Johns county: St. Johns County has wireless in Ponte Vedra and it is working great. They have plans for wireless for the new library to be built in South St. Augustine and will eventually have wireless in all their libraries. They are doing a good job of dealing with the security issues but more people need to know they have wireless now. I am very very impressed with their factual and hands-on knowledge and attitudes about technology and information and the role of the libraries in all of this. Ponte Vedra Library has a good system. Updated by Danny Quitter 4/26/03: I can also confirm that the Ponte Vedra Branch of the St. Johns County Public Library appears to be the only branch in their system to currently have WiFi. I emailed the webmaster for the St. Johns County Libraries to ask if WiFi was available in the Main Library near downtown St. Augustine. Although somewhat vague, the reply was, basically, No, there is no WiFi at the St. Augustine Main Library. St. Augustine: 1. Centennial House on 26 Cordova street. Good strong signal, but waiting to hear if they will open it up to people for just coffee and WiFi. But it looks a delightful place to stay for visiting the city. Updated by Danny Quitter 4/26/03: I can confirm an earlier report that the bed & breakfast Centennial House in St. Augustine (26 Cordova St.) does offer WiFi. I have not used or tested it myself. But they do have a brochure describing their "B&B" which mentions "...wireless internet connection throughout the Inn." No word on whether or not they would open it up to the public "coffee house" style. But I would be inclined to think they won't, since the place is primarily a "B&B" without a large public dining or seating area. The building is, in fact, a renovated old house. Contact: innkeeper@centennialhouse.com, or check their web site at centennialhouse.com. Gainesville: 1. Kinkos in ether net only. Fair speeds. And free and the computer manager is a delight. 2. University of Florida (UF) has a number of locations but parking is a pain and the speeds are not that great. The law school has the best speeds and poorest parking. 3. Rumor has it that the UF Doubletree Hotel on 34th Street has wireless; can anyone verify? CENTRAL FLORIDA: Tampa area:** Starbucks will provide 11 locations in the Tampa Bay area starting Feb. 12 according to an article in the St. Petersburg Times* (see below). Orlando area: Starbucks will provide locations in the Orlando area starting Feb. 12 according to an article in the St. Petersburg Times* (see article below). SOUTH FLORIDA: Ft. Lauderdale: Dwight Hines writes: Only have found two free WiFi places. Marriott, where I am now, at 900k 2440 West Cypress, Fort Lauderdale 33309. Good parking, good location of electric power outlets (close to lobby tables so you dont' have to worry about trippers or stretched wires). Well, it is 5:43 a.m. and I'm running at over 3 meg speeds. that beats UF entomology dept. Current Throughput KiloBits/Sec : 3428.6 KiloBytes/Sec : 420.2 Aleo, there is another Marriott in tourist section of Ft. Lauderdale. "Original Fat Cats" at 320 SW 2nd Street. The one time I went there, the owner worked with his server and then his router and then the cable people to get it to work with Macs. The speed was about 1 meg. But, the drawbacks were: 1) They don't open until 6 p.m. 2) There are grown men with huge live pythons at the front entrance. One of the pythons was an albino 3) The music is terrible and loud 4) They don't have food. Courtyard by Marriott, on the other hand, is relatively peaceful, very gentle and nice staff, and are open all 24 hours. Miami area: Starbucks will provide locations in the Miami area starting Feb. 12 according to an article in the St. Petersburg Times* (see article below). Miami International Airport (MIA): Admirals Club Miami E and Flagship Lounge Terminal E Daytona area: Dwight Hines reported Nov. 5, 2003: I'm on the road in Daytona Beach, which has a public library that has the slowest internet connection I've ever seen in a library (178K). I'm in the Pilot's Lodge Motel, on Highway 1, that has the fastest ethernet connection I've ever had -- 2.6Meg. It is run and owned by a Korean, who charges five dollars extra if you use his computers -- each room has it's own windows machine. If you have your own machine, it is still 5 extra, but the total cost of the room with ether is less than one third of Adam's Mark, which has ONLY phone connections. Two of the motels I stopped to check on prices at on the way here did not even have phones in the rooms. Bunnell Motels are not recommended, although Miltons is fun to stop and talk with the owners. It is obvious that Mr. Yoo is far ahead of the envelope on this and possibly because he is from Korea, the country with the greatest rate of bandwidth connections to the homes. Obvious, also, is that when the other Motels and restaurants get modern, he will be ahead because his expertise is right here. If you have a computer problem, he can fix it. There is no way the other motels are going to have someone in-house who knows about computers. So, kudos to Mr. Yoo.... d, in Daytona Beach, loving this 2.6 Meg connection. --- Thanks to Dwight Hines for this article (and much of this site's information). * Starbucks is starting to offer wireless Internet access in bay area outlets. By DAVE GUSSOW © St. Petersburg Times published January 24, 2003 Starbucks lovers in Florida can get something extra with their caffe latte starting next month: wireless Internet access. The coffee giant will provide access to customers for surfing the Web and checking e-mail on notebook computers or Pocket PC handheld devices at 11 locations in the Tampa Bay area and 100 more in Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando. The service, a partnership with wireless provider T-Mobile and Hewlett Packard, starts Feb. 12. Starbucks already has service at more than 2,000 locations elsewhere in the United States. For more details: http://www.sptimes.com/2003/01/24/Business/Want_an_e_mail_with_y.html T-Mobile's site listing (all the locations including Starbucks) that are live today: http://locations.hotspot.t-mobile.com/ Other lists of live WiFi zones: http://www.freenet.org/gdfn/freenets.html http://www.freenetworks.org/ Wireless libraries list: http://people.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/wireless/wirelesslibraries.htm Please send us any WiFi's you know of and have used.