Is Pilot's WiFi fast enough to watch Hulu?

It's been seven or eight months ago, I really don't miss that $5 anymore, but thanks for the offer. What would be nice if there was a way to test the speed before I pay the $5. Maybe you could unblock one of the speed test sites or put a utility on the log in page somehow, so we can see what we are getting before we plunk down the $5. I understand that in remote locations internet access is limited to satellite, but I'm not interested in using such a service. Satellite coming in at less than 50 kbps just isn't worth my time bothering with.

 

While I was not downloading torrents I think it's important to note that torrents are not illegal. Any use of the service is affecting the bandwidth available to other drivers. It would seem more logical to increase bandwidth than trying to limit the bandwidth the customers can use. At least in as much as increasing bandwidth tells your customers you are working to make your service better whereas the other route is bringing your customers experience down to match your service. Could you maybe provide us with a list of known good Pilots where we can count on good service?

 

That is actually a good idea MrMustard. I will look into that for you. Though, we do not use Satellite (some locations are running on 3G). Siricom did use satellite however and they which provided the Pilot wifi internet before us.

While I agree with you completely that torrents are not in themselves illegal I also would ask you how many of the people downloading torrents on the pilot network are actually using it for Debian releases or Creative Commons work?

In blocking P2P and Filesharing we are not trying to "Speed" the network up we just want to keep people from slowing it down. Even on a 12/6 Mbps cable connection if you have someone downloading torrents and maxing out the TCP connections everyone on the network is going to be considerably slowed down.

Our goal is to provide the best service to as many people as possible. We tailor our service to our customers and apperciate your feedback. If people express interest in getting legal torrents we can pursue that avenue.

I will work out a list of Internet Connections by Pilot location and try to get that to you all as soon as possible. I am also going to work on MrMustard's idea as a nice temporary solution.

 

So why cant Pilot put out a few $$$, lord knows they make enough from the prices they charge us for things, and buy all new top of the line equipment, hire a local internet provider, for each location, so they can set it up properly. Fix it when it goes down?

I'm so glad i don't use wifi anymore. I sure the beeeeep wouldnt pay Pilot for slow service.


But just wait, Idle air will be coming to all Pilots,(read the may issue of thier magazine) and then you can use thier service.

 

I'm pretty sure skibum that Pilot subcontracts it's wireless service to Wandering WiFi. Mr.Mustard does have the right idea, the very first thing I do ANY time I connect through wireless is hit speakeasy and run a speed test. I will give Wandering WiFi credit for at least discussing this. If they do unlock a speedtest then I would definitely look into using them in the future. Until then though I'm not sure it's worth the frustration. Why the hell can't Bosselmans buyout Pilot...

 

3G? That's interesting. I'm curious how you get around the data caps the cell companies have been imposing That's why I use wi-fi when I can, so I don't use up my 5 gig cap. Also, I for one have no problem with p2p traffic being blocked. I'd rather have it than not, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. One guy downloading a movie torrent can really slow things down for everyone. I think what most people are interested in, is streaming video. (it is the title of the thread anyway) The digital tv transition really took most of us drivers' tv's away. The new digital signals don't travel very far, and degrade rapidly. They made us all go out and buy new tvs, only to find that the new tvs don't work near as good as our old ones. If I can catch the latest episode of "The Office" on hulu, that's what I'd like to see working more than anything.

 

I read that too. I hope that doesn't happen. All Idle-air does is screw up the parking lot. The vast majority of Pilots have limited space in the first place. Frankly, I don't know how that outfit even stays in business. If you walk through any location on a given night, there might be one guy actually using the service. I certainly don't have any use for it.

 

I ran into some of their guys twice (once in Texas, once in California), and just from talking to them, it seemed like even the guys putting in the equipment knew it was cheap, unreliable service. I liked the fact that the guys (who really seemed to know their stuff) were open & honest about the quality, and they said SOME stores would have nice speed, but most were using a cell card - like for laptops - and they joked about all the calls the techie dudes in their office were gonna get...
Personally, I'm stickin with my verizon card.

 

first of all, the wifi service was installed by an out source. and the main problem is the ISP service. most of the places are using just a DSL line. i talked to the people at wandering wi fi and found this out. the other problem is the WiFI access points and servers. when you get alot of connections the speed of the connection will suffer. the only service i found to be better is the flying j wifi service. now when there is alot of drivers using it, it will slow but it does do a better job.
i believe they are using a T1 connection. now there are only a hand full of pilots that will have a T1, but most of them will be dsl. and some will have no connection at all because of their location.

 

That is more or less correct. The equipment is good, it is sometimes the connection that is causing the issues. We are constantly updating the connections at sites. For instance we just upgraded 3 Love's locations last week alone.

As always if there is a site that is super slow or has issues please call us. The more information we have the better we can help.

Just as a side note to a past post in this thread there is a list now of all Pilots with WiFi. It is located here:
http://www.pilottravelcenters.com/Locations/Travel_Centers/Amenities/Wireless_Internet.aspx