[Pdx-pm] Fireside Cafe, open 124 hours a week!

Tom Phoenix rootbeer at redcat.com
Sat Nov 22 21:50:03 CST 2003


On Wed, 30 Jul 2003, Michael G Schwern wrote:

> BEST COFFEEHOUSE EVER
>
> Fireside Cafe, SE 13th and Powell.  Free wireless.  Free ethernet. Power
> jacks galore.  Comfy faux "cabin in the woods" feel.  Friendly clerk
> (the owner).  Little side room with rocking chairs for quietness.
> Populated mostly by studying college students.
>
> And the hours:  Open 7pm Sunday to Midnight on Friday.  124 hours a
> week!  YOW!

And now, it's open eternally. (Which sounds better to me than saying
"24/7".) Also, they have sandwiches and some snacks, so you don't have to
live on coffee alone.

But the bad news is that I can no longer connect to their free WiFi. It
worked an hour ago. But after I put my Mac to sleep and re-awakened it,
"There was an error joining the selected AirPort network." The attendant
on duty says that "Macs sometimes have problems", but can't offer any more
assistance. And I can't find anything in log files or elsewhere telling me
more about what's going on. Dang this user-friendly interface!

Details for those who are interested: PowerBook G4 using internal AirPort
card with Mac OS X 10.2.8. It worked without a problem on the first try; I
selected the network name from the pop-up menu and needed no password. I
used it for over an hour. Trying to reconnect, I tried manually specifying
the network name, tried no password, tried made-up passwords, tried the
network name as a password, told it to use the strongest network, told it
to use the last-used network, told it to use a specific network, called it
some bad names, tried totally different network settings (using my cell
phone to connect to Verizon's network, which works fine; I'm using it
now), then went back and tried everything again.

My best theory: When my machine went to sleep, it failed to properly
disconnect from their access point. When I try to connect again, their box
thinks my MAC address is already connected, and won't let me connect back
up. (Can this happen to WiFi?) Although this implies that the problem
would be cured by rebooting their equipment, I can't suggest that when at
least half a dozen folks are using their access point at the moment.

Anybody else have this happen? Did you figure out how to cure the problem?

--Tom Phoenix



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