Google’s self-designed office swallows Wi-Fi “like the Bermuda Triangle”
Bad radio propagation means Googlers are making do with Ethernet cables, phone hotspots.
"Make do" with ethernet? Charlie Brown, ethernet is the superior networking interface. People "make do" with wifi.
It's absolutely making do. Having to plug an Ethernet cable in every time you take your laptop to someone else's office, break room or conference room simply doesn't work. Offices aren't designed for it.
Conference rooms, yes. Break rokms, yes. Offices? No. Use a docking station? Are you working solely from your laptop screen or do you dock and use monitors mouse and keyboard? Generally, there's ethernet attached, too.
Conference rooms should have ethernet connected to the USB-C dongle that's attached to the TV and the Jabra or whatever alternative you use.
Wouldn't want to take my laptop to the break room, I go there to take a break from work, not continue it in a different setting.
I'll agree on going to someone else's office, or using your laptop in a meeting where someone else is connected up, but that's where Wi-Fi works as the back-up.
Yes, but tell that again when you and 19 other people bring your laptop to a conference room and try to login on the network at the same time.
Different things have different strengths, and losing one of those things means your experience will be subpar.
So, I haven't worked in IT in a couple decades, but back in the late '90s/ early '00s, all the conference tables at the companies I worked for, had Ethernet ports built into the table towards the center, and a switch mounted under the table so that everyone could just plug in. Did they stop making those tables once WiFi became ubiquitous?
What do they think their precious wifi routers plug into?
An actual cloud?
When it rains are they terrified of losing their data?
And a lot of people do. Cellular and satellite internet is excellent for rural and certain business use cases. I have gigabit fiber, and I'm considering one of those in case the Internet goes out if fiber is hit or if we lose utility power (I have a battery backup system).
Yes. Those folks are scared when it rains too hard. The connection does become more unstable.
I still acknowledge that your point is valid for everyone else however.
I guess they’ll have to cancel their building like they cancel everything else they do.
Nah, they'll just add a chat app. Then destroy it.
But unlike a lot of the other products they cancel, I'll have actually known that this existed first.
This is why Wi-Fi is annoying, I'll take a wired connection over Wi-Fi any day.
The moral is – Wi-fi intensity study should be part of modern architecture.
I'm all for 👍 architecture. Just consider Wi-fi before building it.
For this structure, I wonder if the best solution is – Just add more mesh points. Not elegant but what if there's no better way?
That was my interest in the story. Technology is so ingrained in our lives. It's weird more furniture doesn't have power chargers and other cords better designed into them. It's weird our houses and electrical codes haven't caught up.
But this is just a huge step back. Unless I'm unaware of lots of other new and old buildings with similar issues.
In my country, from what I observed, not many study tables and work tables with power outlets. 1 may say, "Add usb-c sockets too." But the future is hard to predict. Will there be usb-d? Will 150-watt charging be the norm for phones? The safe thing to do is just outlets. Power bricks for phones are cheap anyway.
I fucking love 👍🏻 architecture, gotta be one of my favorite genders
The two genders: engineers and architects
I'm pretty sure the problem is the shape and reflections. This type of design creates echoes from many directions which makes it harder to pick up the signal at a distance
Googlers assigned to the building are making do with Ethernet cables,
If I'm working at a desk, then I'd definitely rather have a cable than rely on wireless, regardless of the roof structure.
lmao sounds like they just need to all stand right at the spot where the parabolas of the ceiling have a focal point.
Reminder: this is the company that holds a monopoly on the internet and dictates web standards.
I would say aws is super important too lol
Funny how there's a lot of wired vs wireless hate in the comments, can't really pin down the reason. Generational?
Wired will always be more stable and faster, whereas wireless is more ubiquitous. If you work at a fixed position, prefer wired. If wired is unavailable, well, you'll have to make do with wireless. USB-C dongles and docking stations are a thing, so the laptop doesn't have it argument doesn't hold.
Thank god for a lick of sense. I literally do low voltage and controls design, they both have their place. Building a cluster of cubicles for accounting? Yeah, run some Ethernet to their docks. Building a warehouse production floor? You better have enough WAPs to confuse Cardi B installed so the little manager with his iPad can edit processes on the fly.
Wired is not always faster. I have a WiFi 6 router at home that (only) has gigabit ports, and wireless speeds are often faster than wired. WiFi 6 is quite common in consumer electronics, but 2.5gbit is not.
Then that’s the fault of the device design, or using incorrect cables, and not of the communication standard. Using cheap CAT 5 cables that max out at 100Mbit instead of good quality 6a cables is going to mess up speeds too.
WiFi 6 offers ~9Gbps under ideal conditions, and that deteriorates with all the usual reasons for WiFi, and wired is 10 Gbps for whatever distance. The standard says wired is faster. Your particular device failing to meet those speeds doesn’t represent the communication methods.
I bet there is a strong WiFi spot a few feet above the building.
I actually rather prefer ethernet. Much more stable.
Why do all thing need to look like these soulless glass metal and concrete blobs. Like bruh, why not build something cool lime a Roman Temple, European Castle, Viking Longhouse, Ancient Chinese Pagoda ...
Epic (software company) has a really cool campus near Madison, WI where all of the buildings are different styles of architecture. One of them is a giant dairy barn.
Ok that is epic indeed
Those would be far more expensive to produce, needing specific skilled craftsmen. Not that glass production is easy, but compared to hand-carved wood and stone the labor hours alone is a staggering difference.
I think glass metal and concrete blobs are cool.
highly skilled labor shortage and time. eventually ai architects will 3D print incredible stuff that is completely unmaintainable.
These are done by architects rather than designers. Usefulness isn’t a consideration, only form and aesthetics matter.
Architects are designers.
The solution is more Unifi hotspots
Just make every ceiling tile and outlet have one and you'll have all the coverage you will ever need
ez solution. It just costs money for new design, hardware, installation and maintenance but holy shit google double check your build plans sometimes.
Those are great, installed them at the last place I was a trainee at.
I’ll take access point bombing for 1000 Alex. I see several in wall and wall-mounted varieties in the immediate future of that place… 😂
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Reuters reports that Google's first self-designed office building has "been plagued for months by inoperable or, at best, spotty Wi-Fi, according to six people familiar with the matter."
At launch, Google's VP of Real Estate & Workplace Services, David Radcliffe, said the site "marks the first time we developed one of our own major campuses, and the process gave us the chance to rethink the very idea of an office."
The roof is covered in solar cells and collects rainwater while also letting in natural light, and Google calls it the "Gradient Canopy."
All those peaks and parabolic ceiling sections apparently aren't great for Wi-Fi propagation, with the Reuters report saying that the roof "swallows broadband like the Bermuda Triangle."
Googlers assigned to the building are making do with Ethernet cables, using phones as hotspots, or working outside, where the Wi-Fi is stronger.
A Google spokesperson told Reuters the company has already made several improvements and hopes to have a fix in the coming weeks.
The original article contains 301 words, the summary contains 165 words. Saved 45%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Totally fits in the google idiotism that we got used to since few years. The enshittification started when that pichai become the CEO
Apple's first ever wireless access point prototype was initially painted with metallic color. Not a wave made it through.
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Its funny that one of the monuments of capitalism has bad WiFi because the roof had to be very fancy and imposing.
Glad to see Google is embracing evil even with it's architecture now
L o l
Guessing the building was designed by an artist and not an engineer.
The architecture world is crazy
One anonymous employee told Reuters, "You’d think the world’s leading Internet company would have worked this out."
You don't think that's exactly why they constructed that building the way they did? WiFi is much less secure than a wired connection. It makes much more sense to me that they knew it would make WiFi not work as well to get more employees to used wired connections for security reasons.
If it were for security reasons, they wouldn't allow work devices in the WiFi at all (which is a very reasonable policy)
Don't be evil
Tell me again why are C-level and VPs paid so much? 🤣
They're mostly soydevs, not network engineers.
"Googlers assigned to the building are making do with Ethernet cables, using phones as hotspots, or working outside, where the Wi-Fi is stronger."
How the fuck is a person that writes articles for a living not aware of the phrase "making due"? What goes through their mind when they write out "making do"? How the fuck does that make any sense to them?
I hate to be that guy, but come on. It's literally your job.
Edit: Now it's my job to admit that I was pretty damn wrong. Thanks chryan for posting this: https://www.grammar.com/make_do_vs._make_due
Confidently incorrect:
Internet culture is strong with this one
At least I learned now what an Eggcorn is
While writing this angry comment, did you stop to consider that maybe they did their job right and you're wrong?
https://www.grammar.com/make_do_vs._make_due
Unless you're living in the early 1900s, "make do" is correct for today's English.
Oh Geez. I didn't know this until just now?
I learned so much by reading literature... but I guess the idioms and spellings have moved on since they were written and I need to keep up.
Frustrating, but thank you for the link.
Ironically, they spelled Internet as internet.
hate to be that guy…
Are you sure?
Yep, still hate it... I realized now that make do is the accepted agreed upon spelling.
Are you from the 18th century?
Lol yes. This modern spelling and technology is too much for me.
I worked for a soda company once. Not going to say which one, but every Tuesday and Thursday I did have to make dew.
Was the dew you made of the mountainous variety? Did you have to make do with what you had in order to make due on your rental payment? Am I doing this right?
You think that's bad, you should take a gander at the official news sources in Jacksonville Florida. I don't know if they're still this bad, but as I recall they have not one, but at least two big news publications, both produce articles that look like they were written by grade schoolers. Anything that wasn't copy/pasted from the AP seems to be written hastily by somebody who dropped out before understanding English. I'm sure many other cities have the same issue. The one is called news five or Jax 5 news, and the other is first coast news. They'll hire anybody to write apparently.
Oof. Yeah, I'd doubt they pay very much there, probably have to take what they can get. Maybe I should apply🤪
lmao
