As far as a commlink goes, the whole of Chicago is a massive dead zone. Without a satellite dish and a clear sky, it's going to be a wired-only matrix. That's not to say that you can't run a commlink on the old wired LTG/networks where they're still in service, just, don't expect it to be too helpful in the wasteland.
Even with Chicago being a dead zone, there's nothing preventing us from setting up our own mesh networks and tacnets, or hacking into others we come across, correct? I mean as long as our signal strength is sufficient to bounce from relay to relay, we should be good for running our own networks, right? I guess I was making the assumption that despite the area being a dead zone we'd still probably be running into other private mesh networks or folks with commlinks from time to time in the developing locales. I mean, I'm guessing most stuff is signal 2-3 and in the under 1 km range, but are folks like the Mafia and ABC and the Destroyers
not running their own networks? Feel free to not answer that and let us find out. That's just what I'd assumed given the world background as I'd read it so far.
I'll let you know if something you try to do goes soundly against world-logic, such as trying to smash through a reinforced door with a jacked up 40-pound robot. 
Thanks for that! I didn't realize that increased availability for higher grade 'ware wasn't in the core rules. Hope I don't regret not taking the "common sense" quality. Full disclosure: I'm still learning all the SR4 rules. I grew up on SR2, but never really liked the way SR3 had changed things up so I pretty much stopped playing. Only found SR4 recently, and so far I'm loving the SR4 rules and how the game has evolved. I have SR4A, RC, UW, SM, AS, AU, and just picked up Feral Cities and WAR, so feel free to tell me to RTFM if I get something wrong. I haven't played PbP before, but I used to play on the old Shadowrun Seattle MUSH way back in the last century, so I get the basic principle, and the pace of this game fits my life nowadays way better.
