Question for Cheezy Mike & the jetset

[Darryl]

Hi guys
I was staying in a hotel resently for 3 weeks which had a wifi system installed, my work pals with airport or wifi cards on their laptops enjoyed the broadband thing whilst the rest of us had to go to our rooms and use the phone line (boring!)
As you travel through a lot of airports and hotels I was wondering how you hook up on the WiFi thing on a regular basis without having to buy the local 24hr card thing? Is it something you acquire through your service provider?
regards
Darryl

 

[Pthagonal]

they all cost

you cant get on to a wifi network in a airport or hotel unless you have been given access, either by buying a voucher or whatever
way it works..

when your wifi picks up the network it will ask for a usename and password.. and without this you wont get on..

unless you really really know what your doing and even then its difficult.. it depends on the level of security they have..

its easier to wander around a city and find other wifi networks and use theirs.. believe me there are loads out there..

some places have open networks and the security is shite.. there are sites out there with loads of info about where these open or unsecure networks are..

so have fun..

plus one more thing to remember, when you are on a wifi network, how secure is your computer? its suprising how many people on these networks have their own laptops wide open to anybody else on the network..

pthag

 

[mikeh501]

I wouldn't quite agree with that TBH. All public wifi hotspots which are located in most larger hotels and places like starbucks etc have a wifi system which isn't locked down by encryption/passphrase etc. If it was then you would never be able to get on without the correct details.

What happens is that you connect up to one of these hotspots with your laptop. Dead easy with Win XP, you just goto your connections and right click - it then shows a list of the ones it can pick up. You just click on one which looks promising i.e. 'public' or 'holidayinn' etc etc which doesn't have a padlock icon i.e public.

You now crank up your internet explorer and a page will appear telling you how to connect up to the net. Some places are free and you just click a button and away you go - these are usually in hotels where they do it as part of the service. Places like airports/starbucks etc you have to pay a nominal charge like £5 and you can then browse the net.

Oh, and before anyone tries to connect up to unprotected private wifi hotspots....dont. You are definately breaking the law under the computer misuse act.

plus one more thing to remember, when you are on a wifi network, how secure is your computer? its suprising how many people on these networks have their own laptops wide open to anybody else on the network..

That is one thing I would agree with though. I always run ZoneAlarm whenever on the net. AFAIK though most/all hostspots actually section every user off from each other so you cant go hacking other people using the same hotspot as you

 

[Cheesy Mike]

All I ever do is pay on the day and then claim it back from the company. USA hotels tend to be pretty cheap - around US$10/day but UK charges e.g. Hilton Hotels are priced by the hour and I avoid them like the plague.

The only free hotspot that I have ever found is in the Iberia executive lounge in Madrid airport.

Wi-fi hardware is getting so cheap these days that you're crazy not to have it if you use a laptop.

Mike