NOTe NOTE: Spellchecker is not working. Read at your own risk.
It was not so long ago that my hotel criteria was, " Do you have internet access?" Then, it quickly became, " Do you have wireless access?"
Now it seems I need to add another criteria, " Did your hotel purchase the package to allow visitors access to secure websites?"
Who would have known that companies could opt whether or not to allow access to a secure website?
While I didn't select the hotel for my stay in Ashland, Wisconsin I did do some reconnaissance work before leaving on my trip and was very pleased to learn that the Americinn in Ashland, Wisconsin has wireless internet access.
I was delighted. and somewhat surprised. Ashland is not exactly on the beaten path.
Ashland is a community of about 8,000 people located nearly 90 miles east of Duluth. A lake ( that being Lake Superior) community, it is a breathtakingly charming place ---even in the middle of January The AmericInn is lakefront. My room was not. It also didn't have wireless internet service.
Turns out the hotel does have wireless internet in the rooms...just on the left side of the hotel. My room was on the right side.
Neverthess my room did have high speed access and it was fine..until I tried to write a post on Typepad.
I could get to the home page, but I couldn't login. Given Typepad's recent technical problems, I assumed the site was down....again. I was wrong.
Then I tried to visit my bank to transfer some funds to my son's checking account. I couldn't get there either.
I could get to msnbc.com, I could get to mail2web.com. So afer booting and rebooting my computer several times, I called the front desk. They gave me the phone number for their technical support company.
Turns out that I couldn't access Typepad or my bank because they are secure websites and evidently the AmericInn opted not to purchase the SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0 -- package.
Why is this an optional item?
My next question is," How expensive could it possibly be to have SSL 2.0,SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0?
As my teenage daughter would say, "ANNOYING".
Maybe it was because I had not really slept the night before but it took me at least 10 minutes to remember that I had another choice-- phone banking. It has been years since I relied on the telephone to transfer funds or check balances.
I didn't get it right on the first try, but by the third time,I was able to make the transfer. Unfortunately for my son, it occured after the 6:00 pm deadline.
As far as posting to Typepad, it was my wakeup call to get my Blackberry MOBLOGGING ready.
You never know when you'll be someplace that thinks purchasing the secured network package is a waste of money.
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