wifi: Hennessey's Tavern at Hermosa Beach

Monday, March 08, 2004, at 10:22AM

By Eric Richardson

I'm hanging out at Hennessey's Tavern in Hermosa Beach, online via free wifi provided by Hermosawave. The location is amazing, right on the end of Pier Ave (where it's just a pedestrian walkway). The ocean is maybe 100 yards of beach away. They have outdoor seating, and also rooftop seating, but to avoid the glare I set up at a bar-type table inside. There's a great breeze wandering in, and they're even playing good music. The staff's great, very friendly. A full battery is pretty essential: I can't really see a power outlet anywhere. I had a full battery, though, and wasn't expecting power, so that didn't faze me.

The connectivity, though, is all over the place. I'm getting some normal ping times, but more often than not I'm getting times in the 3500ms range. The first time I ran a bandwidth test it showed me 450kbps, the second time 50. I'm hoping this is just an aberation. I dropped an email to Hermosawave, so we'll see what they have to say.

If the latency issue resolves itself, this is definitely a place I could see myself frequenting. They've got Guinness, the ocean, and free wifi. What else I'd need, I just don't know.

(Update: see the comments for a little more info on the latency issues.)