How To Find Wi-Fi Hotspots Anywhere in the World
Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:40PM EDT
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A reader writes: I want to use my laptop's Wi-Fi on the fly. How do I find wireless hotspots, free or otherwise, around the world?
The easiest way is to just go to a site such as JWire, which lists paying hotspots (those provided at Starbucks, McDonald's and Borders, for example) and free hotspots all over the world. Just enter a city and country or state and you'll get an extensive list. For a list of free hotspots only, go to The Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory.
Unfortunately, more and more public spaces seem to charge for Wi-Fi, but if you frequent places such as airports, train stations, or hotels, you might consider getting a subscription to Boingo Wireless (boingo.com) or Wayport. These two services have roaming agreements with hundreds of random Wi-Fi providers around the world, so you can easily get online everywhere from your local McDonald's to Chicago's O'Hare airport to that Haagen-Dazs in the Latin Quarter. Subscriptions cost around $22 per month.
Check out Dory's post on Wi-Fi hotspots at places like Starbucks and Panera. She also wrote about finding hotspots with your cell phone.
Alternatively, you can preemptively sniff out hotspots with the key-fob-sized Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter, a $54 handheld device that eliminates the need to boot up your computer and even indicates if a site is password-protected or not.
In addition, you can try a service like FON, which is essentially a worldwide organization of civilians who make their private Wi-Fi hotspots available to anyone within range. So, provided you make your personal hotspot available to other FON members who might be in the area, you will also get free access to any other FON member's hotspot anywhere in the world. Or, you can just pay $3 per day for "alien" access and skip the worldwide wireless lovefest. FON hotspots are to be found all over the world, with a big concentration in Europe, but I unfortunately couldn't find any in the apartment I was staying in during a recent trip to Berlin. Visit the website to see if there's a FON hotspot near you or wherever you need Wi-Fi access.
Some cities have their own hotspot directories, or even citywide Wi-Fi services. Do you have a Wi-Fi tip for your local area?
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2 Posted by twodimes_nickel on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:25PM EDT Report Abuse
When I moved to another city and changed ISP's I decided to go with a wireless network instead of running the cords everywhere up and down stairs. What I found was that I could not "connect" to my own network, that I got a better connection from somewhere else. Even with the help of the ISP I couldn't keep my connection longer than maybe a minute at a time. If you're thinking of getting a wireless router, let me talk you out of it, it's just a pain in the behind!
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3 Posted by kas54@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:47PM EDT Report Abuse
twodimes-nickel You never mentioned what city you move to. Sometimes if you have more than one virus protection running on your computer, It will make it go haywire. Delete them and reinstall only the one from your new ISP. That should be the only one running.
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4 Posted by m_leinoff on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:32PM EDT Report Abuse
Not to mention, you may need to switch channels if there's a lot of interference. Or, you may have too weak a router.
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1 Posted by dennyclu on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:41PM EDT Report Abuse
Is there a fast and non-invasive way to crack WEP's while on the road? Three years ago, few encrypted their WiFi access point. Today's, it's the opposite.