Have you ever been working on the computer and out of no where you’ve lost your connecting. I have been in cities (usually the airport or a coffee shop) where I have to reset the connection sometimes every 5 minutes. I never quite understood why and figured my computer is junk and I need a new one.

I was just informed by a co-worker that it may be the host rebooting the router. This also happens at hotels when I am traveling and I never thought of it like this. Sometimes at work I cannot get online (yes, I am allowed to be on the computer when I am on a break) because too many other people are already online and there is not enough bandwidth to hold another user. Never really knew what this bandwidth thing was either.

So, these providers will try and keep their guests from using too much at one time to allow others a chance. If someone is downloading a large file such as a movie or music, it may be hogging up all the provided amount available. Peer-to-peer, or p2p, file sharing is one such example and is where the user makes available part of their resources to others outside. Some  examples of p2p file sharing is Napster where Internet users pay to download songs. Others have been created and may be part of a centralized or decentralized model.

This does not sound like a problem unless the person is downloading major amounts of information using a lot of the networks bandwidth causing others a problem, such as at the hotel.

I just found out actually that when I am looking at the list of available wireless connections and see ‘AD HOC’, that this is a p2p also. I have never been able to use said Internet connection even if it shows connected but perhaps that’s for the best since I have no idea who I am sharing with.  What I do know is that if I am having problems staying connected, I should contact the host of that Internet to find out if there is a problem or perhaps I really do just need a new computer.

I wonder if I can down load Julie & Julia from a site like Amazon but I think that I will not attempt it at the hotel!