Blogging in Sheraton Park

As I write this I am sitting in Sheraton Park, a public park located next to Doha's iconic Sheraton hotel. Sheraton Park is the first of what will eventually be three i-parks. (Al-Rumailah Park and Dahl-Alhamam Park will also be wired up.)

There is no charge for the connection, nor is there any need to register or use a Q-tel password. Despite this, I only noticed one other laptop user. The park, as usual, was dominated by families relaxing on their day off.

I initially had trouble connecting to the internet using my wireless connection and Firefox, but had more success with Microsoft Internet Explorer. After I connected, my browser took me to the Sheraton Park home page.

Signal strength started varied from weak to medium when I opened the connection. However, when I moved into the centre of the park the connection became strong. According to Internet Frog my connection, currently running at 647 kbps, is substantially faster than my home ADSL connection, which should run at 500 kbps but can run as slow as 40. (Just for comparison, British Telecom's standard broadband connection is now 8 Mbps - 16 times faster than Q-tel).

Never-the-less, the internet is still crawling – I'm writing this on word as I haven’t yet managed to log on to blogger, so my idea of blogging about blogging in Sheraton Park while in Sheraton Park may not work.

Still, Qtel’s internet service swings like a pendelum in terms of speed and at other times it may prove a real pleasure to saunter down in the pleasant spring weather and surf the internet (for free) for an hour or two on the pleasant green grasses of Sheraton Park.

Also See: Doha Guide

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Qatar Doha Middle East Sheraton+park i-park wireless+internet review