Gogo Inflight Internet for the Traveler

Finally! The Intertubes in the air! Yes, I finally got what I've been wishing for. Internet access at 30,000 feet. A few days ago I flew from San Diego to SFO on Virgin Atlantic. First off, those Virgin planes are pretty nice. The blue glow comforts and calms the traveler while their media system is not too bad. .. Not too - the touch screen requires fingers with the power of a gorilla. The best bit is the internet which eliminates time as quickly as a road runner on a golf course. Not sure what that means though it sounds right. ...

Virgin Atlantic is featuring GoGo Inflight Internet. A wifi connection to your laptop or iPhone for just under $6.00. That is a lot if you are on a 65 minute flight, but a longer flight just might be worth it. Especially if you can book the expense to your company, all the better.

I spent most of my time posting the last blog and reading email. Connection was simple and quick. I did have to enter in a credit card number which I am sure the bloke behind and to the right of me was gingerly copying down. If you register with GoGo beforehand you can take care of that credit card stuff before hand. Once the captain has turned off the no-electornics sign, simply login securely. On my Mac it was painless. Your pain may vary.

Connection begins at 10,000 feet or greater. No, surfing the web during take off and landing. No surfing the web while waiting for your flight to board. At least not through gogo. Once you are up in the rarified air, you can surf all you want. I did change my dns entries to OpenDNS primarily for security and perceived speed. OpenDNS just makes surfing nicer, lighter and just all around happier. Trust me, it does.

Speed -- yep, I was interested in speed. While we were cruising along at about 450 mph (ground speed) my internet connection was cruising along at 449 Kbps down and 287 Kbps up. Not exactly super fast but then it was better then that ISDN line I had at the turn of the millennium.



By the way -- DSLReprots.com is the site to check line quality and speed. I highly recommend it. And no, I do not have any financial interest (to my knowledge) in DSLReports, GoGo, Virgin Atlantic, Google, AT&T, Uverse, Blogger, LinkedIn, Victoria Secrets or anyone other company I may have mentioned or thought of while writing this blog.. Wait! I do have some Apple. Damn you FTC stop treading on my fingers!!!

Quello e tutto per oggi!