Digital Maricopa

Sitting down to have a beer and watch some sports all while surfing the web has to be one of the best ideas ever.  That is why I looked forward to reviewing Arena Sports Grill here in beautiful Maricopa.  This local establishment boasts a decent price for food, lots of TVs for sports, and Wireless internet access.  Kids love eating here since they get ice cream after their meal and can watch their favorite sports team play. I am more interested in the internet access, so here is my review.

As previously discussed, I rate WiFi hot spots on 4 different catagories: cost of service, ease of use, speed of the service, and ambiance of the area.  Each one has a possibility of scoring 4 points. The higher the score, the better the spot.  Here is how Arena scores.

Cost of service: FREE!!  Can’t get much better than that.  Definate 4.

Ease of Use: When searching for the wireless access point at Arena, none of them specifically say “Arena”.  In fact, their were quite a few hot spots near by, including the college area next door that I was getting a great signal from by sitting on the far wall booths. The access point is marked as “Transcend Broadband”, the provider of the internet link.  I think that changing the SSID on the router would be a good way to not get confused and connect to a point near by.  Maybe Transcend is offering this to Arena free as a benefit to the customers, but their little WiFi sticker on the front or a nice start page would do better advertising for them.  I give Arena a 3 here.

Speed of the service: Here is where I test the speed of the network. This was performing in the evening so it should show some slowdown for people at home using their internet as well.  Transcend is the internet provider of this access point, and I am currently testing them against Orbitel as ISPs here in Maricopa.  Anyways, test results.







These speeds match up to the high tier Transcend Broadband package. Downloads and uploads were great. Pings were a little high for my preferences, but for internet surfing this won’t matter that much. Going with another 4 here.

Ambiance of the area: This is a bar and grill. I can see this getting loud on sunday afternoons, or during big games. Otherwise, it isn’t bad for getting your surfing done. If you get bored with surfing their are lots of games to catch, and even a pool table to help burn away the time. Food is prompt and the owner is very nice at greeting his guests and making sure they feel right at home. You won’t get bothered here while surfing. I give it a 3.5.

Totals:

Cost: 4
Ease: 3
Speed: 4
Ambiance: 3.5
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Final Score 14.5

Arena scores well with their WiFi internet access. They do a great job of combining a great sports bar, and wireless freedom in one spot. Also, kudos to the restaurant for having gift certificates available at www.restaurant.com. This gift certificates make for great cheap meals on a budget.