Shot of technology

Trendy and urban Spokane Valley is not. But a technology associated with laptop-wielding college kids loitering in coffee shops seems to be popping up all over Spokane County’s biggest suburb.

Wireless Internet, which allows a computer to connect to the Web via radio signals, has recently come online at each branch of the Spokane County Library District, Spokane Valley’s new community center and Valley businesses from truck stops to taverns.

“I can sit here and show houses while I tend bar,” said Charlie Price, real estate agent and part-time barkeep, on a recent afternoon at the Peking Palace.

The Sprague Avenue restaurant and bar installed a small network about five months ago so patrons can browse on their laptops while they imbibe.

Some business owners have looked at the high-speed connections they maintain for their back offices and decided they may as well run it through wireless equipment as a way to draw customers.

“In a business like this you may as well share it,” said Craig Swanson, who owns the Rock Inn. “It’s been a good deal.”

About a year ago he put up about $500 for a commercial-quality network. It hasn’t brought in a lot of people, he said, but now some of the regulars show up with their computers.

Because he helps them advertise, Ptera Wireless Internet Services doesn’t charge for the Internet connection itself.

The company hooked up Percy’s Café Americana at the U-City Mall last week, and Ptera owner Jim Wilson said he has seen wireless networks at businesses become more numerous in the past few years.

“It’s easy enough to do these days,” he said.

Many laptops come with wireless hardware installed, and most others can be upgraded easily.The rest of the network is simply a special radio transmitter plugged into an Internet connection.

Having a network everyone can access has its drawbacks, though.

“They don’t really want people to come into their parking lot and use their Internet,” Wilson said. The idea is to bring network customers inside so they will patronize the business.

A more advanced network requires users to log in with a password. Other features also help protect users and the business itself from people accessing files on other computers on the network.

Users can protect themselves with firewall software like the kind that comes with newer versions of Microsoft Windows.

The Spokane County Library District introduced the technology at all 10 of its libraries in April. Although users can’t print documents through the connection and librarians aren’t trained to handle technical questions, regional manager Ellen Miller said most laptop users she’s seen are pretty savvy.

“Before we even had a chance to publicize it in any way, people were figuring it out,” Miller said. “They’re so pleased that it’s free and that you don’t need a library card to access it.”

Free wireless Internet is making its way into other parts of the public sector as well.

Spokane Valley’s CenterPlace community center, which opened last fall, has a network. The city even lists as one of its goals for this year to look into what it would take to create a wireless network covering the entire city.

So far, that’s just meant looking into costs and available technology and any network would be years off. But the City Council has shown a keen interest in its use as an economic development tool.

In Liberty Lake, laptops are a frequent sight at the Café Liberte, and there are even networks accessible from the food court at the Spokane Valley Mall.

Wireless technology has gained an even stronger presence in the hotel industry.

“It’s becoming almost a necessity for a lot of the business travelers,” said Lee Cameron, general manager at the Mirabeau Park Hotel.

Its wireless Internet has been up since 2003, and extensive renovations will include more advanced networks that will theoretically allow someone to walk through the hotel watching a streaming video without ever losing a connection, he said.

People also use the access in the hotel’s Max Restaurant.