Big Bandwidth in the Big Apple

December 7, 2014 4:43 PM

I need to upload several GB of data fast while on travel to New York. How do I pull this off?

Every year I go to New York on business, and every year I face the same issue: how do I upload several gigabytes of photos, audio, and video?

Hotel internet is, honestly, a joke. At best I get 30-40kbps and so I leave my laptop uploading in the hotel room all day. The hotel internet usually times out mid-afternoon and I have to re-acknowledge terms of service and then continue the upload...

I have looked at next-day-mailing the memory sticks of data but this is on a Friday/Saturday and Sunday delivery runs about $300 from Fed Ex.

I'm willing to pay for fast uploads but not even sure what options I have. I've tried a half dozen Manhattan hotels and each seem to suffer the same bandwidth limitations.

Any help? Are there pro services that handle such things?

posted by arniec to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

A temporary office space like this one might be the ticket.
posted by ocherdraco at 5:02 PM on December 7, 2014

You may want to try an Apple Store. I've found the internet connections there to be very high quality.
posted by AaRdVarK at 5:26 PM on December 7, 2014

Hotels are for sleeping (... and other things) -- wifi is incidental.

You want to work. Here's one that will cost you $35 and claims to have two business class lines for high speed access plus a backup for redundancy:

http://nwc.co

Here's another:

http://www.alleynyc.com

Or post a MeFi job ad and borrow someone's home internet connection.
posted by Brian Puccio at 7:14 PM on December 7, 2014

You might want to see what the bandwidth limitations are at SIBL. If I recall correctly they have ethernet and wireless access there which might mean upload speeds are a little more reasonable. It caters to the "business" user so I'd at least check, it's in a pretty convenient location.
posted by jessamyn at 7:46 PM on December 7, 2014

I'd just find a cafe known for its solid wifi, most of the cafes on this list are great. Just take a look at some of the reviews on the listings, people will usually call out how good the wifi is.

This place looks very promising in terms of wifi.
posted by jourman2 at 8:01 PM on December 7, 2014

I'm not speaking from experience here, but NYPL does have free wireless if you're in a library branch. I have no idea if the speed is reasonable and you'd have to ask someone who has used it before.
posted by sciencegeek at 3:37 AM on December 8, 2014

Came across another site thia AM that I was trying to remember last night, Workfrom, which is specifically organized around finding places with reliable wifi to work from. Make an account to see specific wifi speeds.
posted by jourman2 at 7:46 AM on December 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hotspot/tether feature on your smartphone? I'm on T-Mobile with a plan that gives me 5GB of hotspot data per month (separate from data on the phone itself, which is unlimited). While this one instance might eat up that 5GB or more, you can purchase extra data in 1GB increments for a week. YMMV for options with your carrier, but that's what I'd do if I wanted to stay put in my hotel.
posted by bhayes82 at 8:42 AM on December 8, 2014