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broadcast twitter as ssid

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August 5, 2009

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broadcasting your twitter name as the ssid - let people know you arrived at the event!

Hey folks! – before i get into writing some epic blogposts about each device (i’m going to provide a series of videos for each device that goes into the ammoboxes as well by the way) i thought i would tell you a few tricks that i do with devices i do as well. These will normally just be a few paragraphs of rapid fire ideas and concepts that you can build on. So, with that in mind i present the first one – ’setting your ssid to your twitter name’ – seems like a simple thing to do right? – sure but here some reasons why it is really effective!

broadcast and go (even without your dongle attached!)
dont panic! – i can hear people say why would i want to share my mobile (expensive!) internet with anybody else. well, you do not have to – if you want you can simply just broadcast your mobile ssid so when people are searching for wifi they see you @twittername displayed – a lot of people are nosey and will check you out if they can get on another wifi signal at the event or even sending/shout you a message asking you to open up your wifi via their mobile capable twitter account.

become your own mobile promotion engine
often times with my additional tekkeon battery pack feeding juice to my phs300 i can run the mobile hotspot for a few days. this means i can drop it in the bag and forget about it. only allowing internet access to my mac address range. the phs300 does have a ‘landing’ page that people trying to connect can get too and it has a simple chat box for people to talk you to ask for access. it is a pity that you cannot customize this part of the cradlepoint router however – having all your social feeds, rss and recent work in one place served up from the router or a computer on the ‘mobile’ network would be a great way of making new connections in the airport – even selling access for those that do not want to pay out $8.95 or more on 24hrs of airport access. think about it! – mobile social media working for you from your backpack!

an absolute lifesaver at large tech events
at sxsw 2009 i was lucky to give the tekkeon power supply and cradlepoint phs300 a good workout and ran it combined with an evdo card in my bag all day – the only unit that was actually hot after any length of time was the evdo card with the mobile router and power supply running cool. the tekkeon is polymer so heat is not an issue anyway – remember this was a lot of walking about in and outside in the hot and sunny austin climate. running your own portable hotspot is useful for touching base and if you have an unlimited bandwidth package can be useful to share with your mates around conference centers.