We arrived in Sydney today for a 2-day marketing conference/mastermind session, at the Novotel Brighton Beach. Lovely views of Botany Bay and the Sydney CBD skyline.

My plan was to do some work whilst I was here, both before and after session times each day. There’s plenty of work underway at the moment, and I’d mentioned to a client that I’d be working one partciular project during the trip.

I didn’t count on the sloooooow internet access speed.

This is like going back to the age of the dinosaur. At the moment, I’m downloading a 10Mb file, and it’s going to take about one HOUR to download. At an average speed of 3.0kb/sec, that’s about 1/60th the speed of broadband at our home office.

First off tonight, my brand new Asus notebook computer wouldn’t connect to the wireless service. After 1 hour of frustration (perfect full strength signal, but no response from the Azure.com.au network, I had to call tech support (and have them paged, and wait 30 minutes for a return call). It turns out the wireless technology in my Intel “Centrino duo” powered notebook is too new for Azure’s ageing hotel wireless equipment.

I then had to get a free “wireless bridge” from the hotel reception (free to use) and have that connected to my regular LAN/network port. I also had to figure out, without tech support’s advice, how to turn off my own wireless and enable the LAN port.

Finally, after nearly 2 hours I was online, but at dinosaur pace.

(NOTE: Day 2 and 3 of the trip have been faster — up to 35kb/sec — or about 1/5th the speed at home. That’s beyond modem speeds, but the low end of broadband: acceptable, but not outstanding).

The big lesson? Be very careful when planning your trip to make sure you internet access is both compatible and convenient. Despite having a computer only about 1-month old, this was a downside. Also, Azure’s network is both old and slow: my only choice. At dial-up speeds, it feels like being in a remote Pacific island resort, not overlooking Botany Bay and the Sydney CBD!

Next time I’m in Sydney I’ll be looking for a hotel with a better internet solution, especially as it’s a 4-day business trip!

Well, I’m now up to 97% of that 10Mb download completed, time to logoff and get some sleep! I’d planned to be able to that about an hour or two earlier than now!