Internet Access 10 Kilometers High Up In The Air 366
Marton writes "Lufthansa started rolling out their Flynet service in 2004. It is now available on several long-haul flights such as 411D - the one I'm sitting on right now.
It is not cheap ($30 for the duration of a flight) nor is it very fast (satellite-based technology can't deliver the snappy response you are used to on the ground) but it is really, really nice.
It's great to be able to check my email, catch up with some work, or just surf the web - airplane time used to be about napping, paperbacks or crappy movies. Now if only they'd let me have a cigarette I could actually be productive too. " Marton also gave us a traceroute which is attached... I'm going to Tokyo in May and crying that Northwest won't have this.
Here's a traceroute from my laptop which is currently on an A-340 10,000 meters up in the air, doing about 800 kilometers per hour, somewhere over the Atlantic bound for Munich.
C:\Documents and Settings\Marton>tracert www.slashdot.org
Tracing route to www.slashdot.org [66.35.250.151]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 2 ms 3 ms 2 ms 172.16.64.1
2 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms cbb-cds-psn.by.boeing [172.16.0.18]
3 3 ms 4 ms 2 ms sbs.by.boeing [172.31.0.1]
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 568 ms 626 ms 576 ms 10.8.20.38
6 703 ms 567 ms 583 ms ltn02r03-vlan25.connexionbyboeing.net [10.8.20.2]
7 580 ms 705 ms 582 ms ltn02r21-fa2-9.connexionbyboeing.net [10.8.16.25]
8 627 ms 582 ms 632 ms 10.8.16.33
9 579 ms 581 ms 581 ms ltn02r01-fa3-3.connexionbyboeing.net [10.8.16.130]
10 619 ms 582 ms 582 ms ltn02r02-fa3-3.connexionbyboeing.net [10.8.16.131]
11 581 ms 582 ms 665 ms 12.125.155.5
12 655 ms 912 ms 1072 ms gbr1-a31s1.dvmco.ip.att.net [12.127.4.134]
13 1144 ms 1612 ms 1939 ms gbr1-p60.la2ca.ip.att.net [12.122.1.29]
14 1500 ms 712 ms 580 ms tbr2-p013301.sffca.ip.att.net [12.122.12.133]
15 613 ms 579 ms 582 ms 12.122.80.57
16 589 ms 608 ms 790 ms dcr1-so-3-0-0.sanfranciscosfo.savvis.net [192.205.32.110]
17 588 ms 605 ms 582 ms dcr2-loopback.SanFranciscosfo.savvis.net [206.24.210.100]
18 609 ms 1774 ms 1079 ms bhr1-pos-0-0.SantaClarasc8.savvis.net [208.172.156.198]
19 610 ms 968 ms 1108 ms csr1-ve243.SantaClarasc8.savvis.net [66.35.194.50]
20 1109 ms 886 ms 998 ms 66.35.212.174
21 630 ms 860 ms 994 ms star.slashdot.org [66.35.250.151]
Trace complete.
NICE!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:NICE!! (Score:3, Insightful)
VoIP (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Mwuhahahahha (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, you do know what network 172.16 is in, right? Next will you be launching a DOS against 127.0.0.1?
Re:If you need slashdot on a plane... (Score:1, Insightful)
but LEARN TO RELAX
There's nothing so important that it can't wait
until you get on the ground, check into your
hotel (or get home) and have some "me" time.
Then you'll be in a fit state to make mature
judgements.
The worst thing about business today is the
twitch decisions and responses people make
when they're tired/jet-lagged/drunk/caffeine o-d'd
Re:NICE!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, and it be better if high-end computing servers were cheaper too, but really: a global plane based relatively high speed internetwork is not cheap to build and run: we're talking about fitting equipment into planes, trials and testing, satellite bandwidth, the cost of satellite services, etc. This is not inexpensive.
I actually think $30 is not too bad for what you're getting. It's not for everyone, but it's within the reach of many people, considering many of us think nothing about easily spending $30 on a restaurant meal.
Not only this, but international airlines are not actually loaded with revenue that they could absorb the cost of this service into existing price you pay, and really, I wouldn't want my mother (a non internet user) to pay higher trans-atlantic fares so that she can subsidise web browsers: user pays!
I'm sure we'll see the service expand and improve in the future, but for now, it's a fairly decent start. I'm not on a 6 figure salary, yet I'd have no problems paying for this service on the 2-3 12+ hour flights I make per year.
Smoking "rights" (Score:1, Insightful)
Until then, stop whining about being denied the "right" to force other people to consume deadly airborn carcinogens. If you need tobacco so bad, get some chew.
Thought he was pretty cool... (Score:3, Insightful)
Man, I thought he was leet until I saw that. What a shame.
That said, I really don't think this is cost-justified for most people. $30 for the flight to slowly read e-mail and such, things that you can just as easily (and more quickly) do on the ground before or after the flight. There certainly exist situations in which this is worth the money, but the cool factor alone doesn't cover it, at least not for me.
Re:Wow! (Score:1, Insightful)
omg, you slashdot mods are smoking something - it was humour not reality.
Move your hands away from the mod controls and step out of the vehicle.
Re:Will $30 more also get you smoking rights? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Will $30 more also get you smoking rights? (Score:3, Insightful)
A small fire would be very easy to put out anyway, im sure the trolly dollies are trained to use a fire extinguisher. how many times (when smoking used to be allowed on planes) did people used to set fire to things with cigarettes?
i would pay an extra 10% of the price of my ticket to sit in a smoking area because im scared of flying, it'd help calm me down. (i flew home from spain on 11-sept 2004, i was sure i was going to die, even though there was very little chance)
The smokers forced the ban (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:NICE!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:NICE!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Boeing technology (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Will $30 more also get you smoking rights? (Score:5, Insightful)
Regards,
Steve
Productivity? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not being on Lufthansa is nothing to cry about (Score:2, Insightful)
A lot has happened in 4 years, and most of it has been various flavors of European airlines going downhill under intense price pressure from the LCCs. I don't think LH has any planes with 34" seat pitch anymore. You're lucky if you get 32". Check SeatGuru [seatguru.com] for up-to-date info.
Re:NICE!! (Score:3, Insightful)
For someone who needs internet access to work while they're inflight, it's invaluable, and pays for itself a few times over (at least).
Eventually the price might come down enough for one to use this service recreationally without wincing at the price. However, satellites are expensive and satellite time is expensive. So you're looking at either cheap ubiquitous satellites at some time in the future, or some scheme to squeeze more bandwith out of a scarce resource.
Re:Will $30 more also get you smoking rights? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If you need slashdot on a plane... (Score:2, Insightful)
Hmmm... I would have thought the worst things were the poorly informed opinions most people have, their deadly committment to those poorly informed opinions, and the average inability to spell common words.
But I will forget all about those, now that I have heard the truth. It's the text formatting.
Re:Will $30 more also get you smoking rights? (Score:2, Insightful)
The following isn't necessearily directed at you, but just to smokers in general: Please stop living in denial, I'm trying to save your life here. [wikipedia.org] I'm not being a dick or telling you how to live, I've just seen way too many people die from smoking and unfortunately many were very close to me. I've never met you and never will but I do care about your life. Take good advice when you hear it, you won't regret quitting, but you will regret continuing.
Regards,
Steve