UPDATE: As of late October, 2010, Central Market now has their wi-fi up and running. This still serves as a cautionary tale not to advertise something as available when it’s not.
In this day and age, it just shouldn’t be that hard to find free wi-fi in popular gathering place, like HEB Central Market. In fact, they advertise that they have free wi-fi:
The HEB Wireless network shows up easily enough, but once you connect, actually accessing the internet is another matter entirely:
Mind you, it’s been this way for at least a week – I had the same problem when I was here last week, and I did tell someone about it. Apparently I’m not the only one. From a review of Central Market on Yelp just a couple of months ago:
So I thought I’d try an alternative. Of course, there were the usual selection of obscurely named networks, all requiring a security key, but there was one that looked promising:
MyTurf_FREEWIFI – awesome!
Only problem… “No Internet access”. The signal strength is fine, but no internet access.
I don’t get it. If free wi-fi is worth offering, it’s worth checking to make sure it’s working. And if it’s not working, turn off the router! It’s effectively advertising that you have something, and then you don’t. Terrible customer experience.
Still the same situation. Now HEB_Wireless asks you to login to wanderingwifi (not free as far as I cam tell). But there aren’t any links or information as to how to get an account.
MyTurf_FREEWIFI won’t connect. This is a brand new laptop so it isn’t because I’m using old equipment.
I was just there last week and it seems they’ve gotten things sorted out. I connected right away and it was a string 34mps connection.