Locating wifi hotpots

I don’t know about you, but I am on a constant quest for free Internet… Right now I am evaluating the JiWire Hotspot Locator:

http://www.jiwire.com/hotspot-locator-laptop.htm

“JiWire’s Portable Hotspot Locator provides mobile professionals with an easy-to-use software application to find Wi-Fi access points (i.e. ‘hotspots’) around the world. Laptop-toting business travelers can search for hotspots by Country, State, City, Zip Code, Location Type (Cafes, Hotels, Airports…), or by specific Wireless Internet Service Provider. Once a desired location is found, users who have a live Internet connection can get maps and driving directions from JiWire’s website.”

Anybody have experience with this?

by Shinji Kuwayama at 2004-08-22 17:25:54 UTC (ed. Mar 12 2008 ) | Bookmark | | Report spam→

Haven’t used jwire, but I’ve had very good luck with http://www.macstumbler.com/. It’s Mac only, but works like a charm.

by Bob Houlihan | 14 Dec 2004 07:12 | | Report spam→

Yeah, MacStumbler is cool — we had some discussion about “stumbling” before:

http://lightstalkers.org/ls/post.cfm?post_id=200

by Shinji Kuwayama | 18 Dec 2004 12:12 (ed. Dec 21 2004) | | Report spam→

Oh, to respond to my own post — JiWire has proved pretty much useless to me. It only seems to catalogue pay sites, or sites located in hotels and airports, blah blah blah.

Turns out this is what I was looking for:

http://metrofreefi.com/

It’s great, I even use the WiPod dealie. It doesn’t work with my ancient iPod, of course, but I can just browse it as files. Good stuff.

by Shinji Kuwayama | 21 Dec 2004 16:12 | | Report spam→

Hey Shinji … have u seen the yahoo hotspot finder?
its built in on the maps page … and u can see the information of the wi-fi spot by clicking on the icon…

http://maps.yahoo.com/

first you type any address , than on the bottom of the map screen you select wi-fi hotspot

i hope it helps!

by [former member] | 24 Dec 2004 04:12 | | Report spam→

Hey Leo — yeah, the Yahoo thing is pretty cool. As far as I can tell, Yahoo’s getting its data from JiWire, but is definitely doing a better job of displaying it. I’ll try this out next time I’m on the road.

I think MetroFreeFi is still going to be more useful to me, though (in Chicago, anyway). I prefer free hotspots (natch) and I think free hotspots tend to be independent operations (ie, mom-and-pops), which don’t really make it into JiWire. JiWire’s strategy seems to be to get info from wireless ISPs like T-Mobile.

I’ll keep posting whatever I learn!

by Shinji Kuwayama | 24 Dec 2004 11:12 | | Report spam→

i just downloaded ji-wire for my palm and beforehand searched the site. i found several free mom-and-pop hotspots in mid-missouri, of all places — ones that metrofreefi didn’t have (metrofreefi only had a chain restaurant that ji-wire didn’t). perhaps ji-wire has upgraded their database, shinji.

in any case, i have a few sites bookmarked. if you can’t find something convenient with one, try another.

by scott tillitt | 27 Dec 2004 14:12 | | Report spam→

Hey Scott, thanks for the tip. It clearly depends on the area; it looks like JiWire might have a better overall national database, and MetroFreeFi has a better database in the Chicago area (where I am). One certainly does have to keep re-evaluating these things!

by Shinji Kuwayama | 27 Dec 2004 16:12 | | Report spam→

Hey shinji!!! look at these new toys .. im sure you gonna love them!
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,66120,00.html

by [former member] | 04 Jan 2005 03:01 | | Report spam→

I’m thinking about picking up one of these:

http://pctel.com/seeker.php

Anyone have experiences to share?

by Shinji Kuwayama | 04 Jan 2005 08:01 | | Report spam→