Find Wifi before your connection poops out
On my first night in St. Pete, which I am visiting to attend a week-long blogging seminar, the Internet service in the hotel goes out. Fabulous! So many bloggers in one place we crash the Internet connection.
If I had been smart enough to predict this I would have checked out HotSpotr, which helps you find Wifi connections in thousands of cities across the country.
You can search for a WiFi "hot spot" by entering a city, address or zip code in a small box on the lower left hand side of HotSpotr. The site displays results on a Google map. Spots that cost money are marked with a red $, other results are green. You can also narrow the hot spots down to places that are good for working, non-chain locations, and cafes only.
Here's the map for Tampa, Fla., St. Pete's bigger neighbor, which I saved in case my Web lifeline goes out again.
3 Comments
Leave a comment
About The Bargain Hunter
Daily News staff writer Julia Scott loves to find bargains on everything from groceries to Gucci. Her tips will help keep your hard earned cash where it belongs - in your pocket.
My Facebook Profile
Julia, I'm using the sweet,free Starbucks/AT&T Wifi right now.
This Starbucks is so Wi-Fi'd up, you can use AT&T or TMobile.
I think you get something like an hour a day for free from Starbucks, and you can of course pony up $19.95 a month for unlimited AT&T Wi-Fi. If I had regular access to an AT&T "hotspot," which pretty much would mean I lived at Starbucks (and it only seems that I do), I'd consider paying the toll for such solid access.
As it is, I'm content to use it for free. You do need a Starbucks gift card (even if you have to gift yourself) and must have used that card in the past 30 days. ... Then you need to sign up via the Starbucks Web site for an AT&T wireless account (yep, another login and password to add to my six-dozen others).
I tried the free WiFi at Coffee Bean a few days ago, and that service mercifully requires no login or password.
My favorite free WiFi is still that at the Los Angeles Public Library, the only negative being that the coffee there is lousy (if only because they don't have any).
And yes, I will be writing about this very subject for Saturday's Tech Talk column on Page 2 of the Faith section. (Yep, Faith on one side, Business on the other; what do you think that means?) It should also appear next to my ever-smilin' face at http://www.dailynews.com/technology some time early Saturday morning.
Another thing we should all remember:
Wi-Fi is lousy at protecting your Web session from prying eyes. It's easy for others to intercept the signal and see every darn thing you're doing.
I checked my e-mail just now. Shouldn't have done that; my login and password was sent "in the clear," and the connection wasn't encrypted and secure.
Surprisingly enough, if you do your banking over the Web, you probably were pretty safe doing it even over WiFi. As long as you are 100 percent sure you're at the real bank Web site (yes, these things can be spoofed to steal your login and password; don't use WiFi networks you don't ABSOLUTELY TRUST), you are generally logging in over a secure, encrypted connection (look for https:// instead of http://), you are very safe.
But the many Web-based e-mail systems that don't allow for end-to-end encryption are not suitable for use over public Wi-Fi. If you can choose a secure login AND session, you'll be protected. Google's Gmail does offer this (use https://gmail.com instead of http://gmail.com), but I've heard that the system uses cookies to make your session go smoother, and those cookies are vulnerable over Wi-Fi. Yahoo Mail has a secure sign-in, the session itself is unencrypted.
If you're using corporate e-mail, either with client software such as Outlook or Thunderbird, a Web-based interface or an Exchange server, find your network/e-mail administrator and ask him or her if your system utilizes an end-to-end secure session. With the bandwidth and processing power at our disposal, there's no excuse for unencrypted e-mail, but way too many of us suffer with it.
Bottom line: Public Wi-Fi is great for general browsing, very good for interactive apps with totally secure/encrypted connnections, and horrible for interactive apps out in the clear; you are at risk. So be smart (and be encrypted)!
ATT wifi is free for you if you have one of the upper-tier ATT DSL service at home. You can use your DSL login and password.