Getting Internet at school?

Does anyone else have a really hard time getting Internet while watching an event at a public school?

For example, we were at Erie High School last night for a JV wrestling tournament. There was absolutely no internet in the gym. 100% dead zone. The only way to access the internet while in the school was to get on the school's public WiFi but that was heavily filtered.

To get internet on my phone, I had to walk about a block away from the school and then I was able to get a good connection.

This is not the first time I have noticed this. Is there something within the construction of schools or something that schools do techwise to block the internet?

Or is there something wrong with my phone? I have Verizon.

For the longest time - hence my hiatus - Turk's was blocked by our IT admins.

Today, I asked for that to be removed.

Does not look like I missed much though.

Carry on.

It's the metal roof @ Erie. One of my favorite small town pub 'n grubs nearby has a metal ceiling, and I can't even get reception on my cell phone.

On the subject of public WiFi, as a journalist, its one important to me as I type on an Apple MacBook provided by my company. I have to connect to Wi-Fi in order to send a story to our sports desk. I am grateful to schools who allow easy access, no password, no blocking of Twitter (which I use often for game updates). Others require a password that only one other guy in the school district knows. Some "power down" after a certain time, particularly as I'm wrapping up my story. Some are "guest" accounts that seem as if they span the diameter of a thumbtack.

Some schools (rural AND urban) don't even offer a feed at all. I have to plan a battle-like itinerary to get to the nearest public feed, and drive like a high-speed police chase to get there before deadline.

Then there's Pearl City, a town with a crater that apparently only US Cellular can pick up. I dreaded covering anything there until I found out that the Brew & Chew had public WiFi.

#35 wrote:It's the metal roof @ Erie. One of my favorite small town pub 'n grubs nearby has a metal ceiling, and I can't even get reception on my cell phone.

On the subject of public WiFi, as a journalist, its one important to me as I type on an Apple MacBook provided by my company. I have to connect to Wi-Fi in order to send a story to our sports desk. I am grateful to schools who allow easy access, no password, no blocking of Twitter (which I use often for game updates). Others require a password that only one other guy in the school district knows. Some "power down" after a certain time, particularly as I'm wrapping up my story. Some are "guest" accounts that seem as if they span the diameter of a thumbtack.

Some schools (rural AND urban) don't even offer a feed at all. I have to plan a battle-like itinerary to get to the nearest public feed, and drive like a high-speed police chase to get there before deadline.

Then there's Pearl City, a town with a crater that apparently only US Cellular can pick up. I dreaded covering anything there until I found out that the Brew & Chew had public WiFi.

There's a spot about 100 feet away from 2nd Base in center field where I can get a signal but, other than that, if you are a Verizon customer in Pearl City, you might as well be on the dark side of the moon!

19delta wrote:Does anyone else have a really hard time getting Internet while watching an event at a public school?

For example, we were at Erie High School last night for a JV wrestling tournament. There was absolutely no internet in the gym. 100% dead zone. The only way to access the internet while in the school was to get on the school's public WiFi but that was heavily filtered.

To get internet on my phone, I had to walk about a block away from the school and then I was able to get a good connection.

This is not the first time I have noticed this. Is there something within the construction of schools or something that schools do techwise to block the internet?

Or is there something wrong with my phone? I have Verizon.

I have AT&T, and I have similar issues whenever I am in a big box store or a grocery store. The further in I go from the front of the store, the worse it gets, and it usually craps out completely about half way in.