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Wifi on board of KLM?

I am writing this blog entry while on a KLM flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam. The flight is excellent: I booked economy class but got upgraded to business. So I am sitting on the upper deck enjoying the spacious seats. After becoming an entrepreneur I almost always fly economy, but I have to say that business class makes such long flights (almost 12 hours) much more enjoyable and much more productive. I slept for a couple of hours, read two Dutch newspapers and three magazines, plus prepared a presentation.

While working on my laptop I suddenly got a message that a wireless network was available. I was surprised, because I thought KLM was a bit behind other airlines in this respect. I connected to the network (I planned to give my parents a call over Skype), but was not able to get onto the internet. I suspected I might need a password, so I asked a stewardess. She told me there is no wifi on board, so I showed it to her. She looked at the screen, then at me and then immediately called the cockpit. She took my laptop to the flight deck (I was not allowed to go) and discussed it with the captain. He had no idea what it was, and said he had never seen this before. Well, I don’t know either, but the signal was quite strong, so there must be something on board. The stewardess asked me a couple of more questions (Were you trying to connect? Yes, of course. What else did you do? Nothing, just clicked on the available network), but then left it at that. The signal was still there when she left, but a few minutes later it was gone. Anybody any idea what might have caused this?

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  1. Hi Marc,

    A possibility is that someone else was using his\her notebook as well.

    There is an option to create a peer to peer network. So instead of a WIFI with a gateway to the outside world…..you would have connected to someone elses puter.

    Have a good time in NL!

  2. Hi Marc,

    Yes. I agree with Marcel. Somebody can create a network in adhoc mode. Compare it with people using bluetooth networks in a subway trying to meet new friends…

    Bye,
    Bas

  3. Thanks experts, that is likely what has happened. Cheers, Marc

  4. oh,oh, a bit of late. Someone already got the right answer:)

    P.S. seems people couldn’t depend on the technicians on those flights.

  5. hi Marc,

    I had the same on other airlines (emirates, etc). I think it has something to do with the video in the chairs connecting to the main video hub, I think they may also be wireless..

    Martin S

  6. I did AMS-JFK on a quite new 777 last week, in the entrance area there was a WiFi-Button, so WiFi seems to be nothing really new to KLM, they just don't use it