FC VC Now Has Free Wifi

[Beardilocks]

Title about sums it up.  Just found out.  

It pretty much only works, like, in line at the counter.  Lol.  But better than nothing.  And way freaking better than  the $14/hr or whatever insanity goes on at the Inn these days.  

Just don’t expect to get anything in your truck in the parking lot.

[DAW89446]

Probably for those who can't get cell service and data in the valley, so that they can use their smart phones to pay at the counter for whatever they bought.

[MojaveGeek]

There has been free wifi at the VC for many years. Maybe it was offline for some years so seems new to you? It used to work if you sat at the benches in the shaded area just outside the door. But at least last time I checked they turned it off overnight! So unless you came by during office hours, you were SoL. It must be pretty crazy trying to use recreation.gov, which they seem to be relying on increasingly, out there. I can roam onto the cell network and use up my ration of data in a few minutes... or have nothing at all A friend who has AT&T service often has decent connectivity at SPW but not very far away, and somehow from year to year, sometimes it works, sometimes no. The SPW wifi is fine at 4 AM on the patio behind the office of course.

[Beardilocks]

Well hell. I’ve checked every year I’ve been here and there never was any. Even have asked and the VC desk folks always said I had to go pay at FC Inn. I’ve asked every year.

And staff this year acted like it was new. Granted they may have only just got here.

Weird.

[Bluegreen kayak]

No more driving to Pahrump to sit in the Home Depot parking lot? Could be good news.

[Beardilocks]

The library in Pahrump is a much nicer location to enjoy wifi. ;-)

[DAW89446]

The library here in Winnemucca didn't have wifi until 2016; they didn't broadcast it out of the building until COVID shut down the state. The few times I tried motel and casino wifi, when cops would see me sitting in my truck with my laptop they'd come and tell me to move on. Until I found out about what a hotspot does on a cell phone, I didn't have home internet until about 2017, then it was very limited.

[Beardilocks]

Talking to NPS today and the wifi is absolutely new as of Oct. Sorry Geek.

And it’s brought to you by Starlink. For better or for worse.

[MojaveGeek]

Talking to NPS today and the wifi is absolutely new as of Oct.  Sorry Geek. 

And it’s brought to you by Starlink.  For better or for worse.

Ha ha, I'm pretty sure I've been going to DV longer than any of their current employees have worked there.  Government employees have little motivation (pension) to work past retirement age.  And there WAS wifi long before Starlink.  I used it. 

And there used to be pay phones at SPW!   I used them to dial up via acoustic coupler and a toll free number back in the day, the "day" being the 90s.

Can anyone else remember the "Panamint Pizza" counter at FC, as long as we are dating ourselves   I think that went away in 92 or 93.

In any case, I'm glad they have brought it back.  What they had before was pretty shoddy and I haven't even tried in years.

Oh, just to see if my memory is playing tricks on me, which would not be the first time, I googled a bit and found a 15 year old post on tripadvisor saying that the VC had just started wifi. I'm sure there is discussion of such in the old forum archive but searching the forum is iffy at best.

So, Beardilocks, did you use the VC wifi, and if so, any comments on quality?

[DAW89446]

And there used to be pay phones at SPW!

Maybe not much longer. AT&T wants to abandon landline service in California.

Inyo County Opposes AT&T Request to Eliminate Landline Service - Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News