Super twisted article in The Star - Reposted due to error

[fruvous]

Super twisted article in The Star

Well the Star has published an article about congestion on our various communication networks but has somehow managed to mangle all the delivery methods into one poorly written article and calls it all "WiFi"

• Can't make calls - VoIP or cell service?

• Sporatic Wifi - Nothing to do with UTMS. Go wired?

• What if there is an emergency? - A voice call with die to allow the 9-1-1 call through

• Bell says they received no complaints - which network? Landline or wireless?

• Talking about how Wifi packets collide - What does this have to do with UTMS or DSL or Cable?

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

Cottage country Wi-Fi sags during Canada Day crush
Published on Monday July 02, 2012
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Stephanie Findlay
Staff Reporter

Richard Brown likes to use the Internet and his cellphone at his cottage. Lately, however, he’s been having problems.

“When you’re trying to make calls, calls wouldn’t go through, particularly on Saturday,” said Brown, who owns a cottage on Gull Lake near Minden, Ont., sandwiched between the Kawarthas and Algonquin Park.

“What happens if someone had a real issue? Let’s say you’re on the boat and somebody had a major accident. The call would just not go through,” he said.

Brown suspects the summer population boom in the area is to blame for the sporadic Wi-Fi. Minden, a town in the heart of “getaway country” popular for its Canada Day celebrations (the attractions include river duck racing, crazy boat racing and an antique car show), sees its population of 5,600 more than double on the long weekend.

Xavier Fernando, an engineering professor at Ryerson University, believes the crush of Canada Day cottagers affects the quality of Wi-Fi connections in two ways.

First, if there are too many people sharing the wireless connection, packets of data will collide with each other and not transmit. And if the portion of the fibre bandwidth allocated for Internet services is not enough, connectivity slow down.

It is no surprise that a place like Gull Lake is having wireless issues, said Fernando.

“In a cottage area, normally, you (the service provider) don’t provide excess capacity unless it’s required for, because it will be expensive,” he said.

A Bell representative said that company has not received any complaints about the quality of its cottage country service.

“We have no reports of network congestion,” said Jason Laszlo, media relations person for Bell, in an email to the Star.

A Rogers representative was unable to answer a similar query by press time.

Meanwhile, the people of Minden soldier on.

“I was just complaining to my husband that I was frustrated because every time I go on the Internet I can’t get on the website,” said Lesley Elliott, who owns a bed and breakfast.

“I really don’t know how many people are on it, but certainly we’re struggling with it today,” said her husband Gord. “It’s been giving us trouble this weekend.”

http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...nada-day-crush

[Steve Punter]

Wow, I'm used to newspapers getting facts wrong, or twisted up, but this articular manages to pack more conflicting statements per word than I've seen in ages. They talk about people making cell phone calls, people using WiFi, and the capacity of fiber back-hauls, all in virtually the same breath. It's quite clear that the author doesn't fully understand the technologies he's writing about and really should have had it proofread by someone with a bit of tech savvy (which surely there must have been somewhere among the Toronto Star writing staff). The editor clearly didn't understand the technology either and only checked for spelling and grammar.

However, in the end most newspapers don't have reporters that know much about the complex technologies they report on and this sort of article isn't really that big a surprise. Had it appeared on a tech blog however, there would have been no excuse for it.

[Paolo]

I concur, this article makes no sense, getting wifi signals mixed up with cellular? someone should report the article to the toronto star for their inaccuracy. no wonder Rob Ford does not like the Star. If they made up things about cellular phones i could only imagine what they make up about city politics

[Scotch-guy]

Liberals know nothing about anything. Red Star = Useless!

[robsaw]

It is The Star! Why expect facts or accuracy?

[live_strong]

and the end of the article there is a red triangle which can be used to report errors.
i submitted my feedback, i suggest everyone else does the same.

[mech9t5]

I asked the star if I could be one of their writers too.

I can write about my complaint at the cottage. When the giant light bulb in the sky goes off after 9 or 10pm it's annoying. Why does this happen? Well, the electric company can't supply enough electricity due to excess demand on the grid. More people in the summer coming to town for weekends and celebrations cranking AC puts excess demand on the grid and the electric company has to have rolling brown outs. However, there is some relief because they do provide a white emergency light that isn't as bright but is better than nothing.

[mech9t5]

http://thestar.blogs.com/interns/2011/10/one-years.html

STEPHANIE FINDLAY is a 22-year-old university drop-out from Kanata

Hilarious... that's the first line in the writer's Bio!

[fruvous]

Haha, I tweeted her directly.

[fruvous]

This needs to go into the article comments!

I asked the star if I could be one of their writers too.

I can write about my complaint at the cottage. When the giant light bulb in the sky goes off after 9 or 10pm it's annoying. Why does this happen? Well, the electric company can't supply enough electricity due to excess demand on the grid. More people in the summer coming to town for weekends and celebrations cranking AC puts excess demand on the grid and the electric company has to have rolling brown outs. However, there is some relief because they do provide a white emergency light that isn't as bright but is better than nothing.

[mech9t5]

Kids, what is the moral of this story?

Stay in school...

[sirtate]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.732 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/126)

That article is amazing...

If its 'wireless', it must be Wi-Fi...

It's techno-ingnorant people like that in the media that spin public opinion, whether the technology is cellular, or economics... Scary

I have a beef with the hydro company, BTW.
The clouds last night snuffed out the night light...

The government needs to do something! Hold somebody accountable

[reveries3]

I wonder which school accepted her for long enough that she was even able to drop out of somewhere.

Edit: UBC, seemingly.

Sent from my LG-P509 using HowardForums

[fruvous]

OMG this comment drips of sarcasm. Someone better check this story out now that everyone has wifi. People won't be able to make calls in these areas! Wifi packets will go crashing into people's cell phones and landline internets!

http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...itional-stores

[howard]

Now they need to tell us Rob Ford broke the WiFi's in cottage country.