sharing boingo

What are you talking about? Boingo makes software to list existing sites, and supplys the name and billing services for hotspots... As far as I know, they have no "service" themselves.....

Yup.. thats what I thought.. They don't actually run any them selves, they just have Over 12,000 Boingo locations under contract. But they have more locations under contract than I heard in a computer rag (they said 4000 on January 7th), but it looks like they have something called "one click connect" software now, rather than just a list... Thanks.

The original post made no sense to me.. How do you "share" something that doesn't exist? IE how do you share a boingo AP when there isn't one?

I took it that he had a computer with a WiFi card, and wanted to share access with another computer to whatever hotspot it was connected to. IE sharing between computers, have no clue why he asked about sharing boingo..

Interesting thought... The new Verizon MO software doesn't allow sharing of the 5220 card (The one that does Broadband)... Anyone know if there are blocks in the boingo software?

Presuming that there is a commercial hotspot near you, you would want a wireless client to connect to it, not a wireless access point.

You could connect one normal client, and then use ICS to share to another PC via a wired connection. Maybe a bridge, but I don't know if those connect to Boingo WAPs.

Have a look. It's pretty obvious with a visit to

"What is Boingo" in the lower left.

So "connecting to a Boingo hotspot" has no meaning? You pay money to Boingo, you use Boingo software to look up a listing, you connect to a hotspot using boingo software.

The original post made perfect sense. What do you think he should have said?

The Boingo software has had the signal monitor and click to connect since they started.

He gets a Boingo Splash screen? He has a Boingo login that lets him connect to that WAP?

Almost correct, unless there was some limitation in the Boingo WAP software that would prevent him from doing it. Then general WAP sharing advice wouldn't have been much help.

There is only boingo client software that I can see, no AP software at all. They just appear to use existing AP's, and when contracted as part of the boingo network, change some of the settings to allow the client to connect. So I'm talking the boingo software (That is a client)

Which Boingo software would you be talking about? The PC client isn't needed to connect to Boingo. Or the Boingo WAP that you said didn't exist?

Fraid not.. We have both Boingo and T-mobile on our hotspot at work, they use VPN's, not special software on the AP. (they give work a small amount of money per month for allowing their users to access their VPN thru our free hotspot), but our users can access our own network no matter what vpn's are used to tunnel thru.

Fraid I never tried it/got too far into details.. We have had a hotspot up and running for about two years now at our computer shop with the DSL connection we use for work, and provide free to anyone near the store. T-mobile came in about a year ago and offered us xxx dollars a month if we allowed their users to access their VPN via our hotspot. Same about a month ago with Boingo. To be honest with you, all I care about is that our hotspot works just fine for our users, and the checks keep coming in from the t-mobile/Boingo people. Since I can access my hotspot with no special software, and none of our users have a problem, obviously they don't have any special software on our host or AP, or our system wouldn't still work and t-mobiles wouldn't still work.

The Boingo site says that you have to have the client to connect, but that implies that there is special software at the WAP to interact with the Boingo client.

So, back to the posters original question, "can you share Boingo?".

(...)

This may explain how Boingo is installed and works.

In Mar 2003, Boingo, Wayport, and T-Mobile announced some kind of joint service, where one client software package works with all of them. I'm not sure, but I don't think anything ever happened with this conglomeration.

Hate to burst some peoples bubbles, but I have done 8 hotspots personally, and used dozens more, all of them totally open and free. I have a handheld (iPAQ 4551, built in wifi, and the cirond pocketwinc sniffer) I am currently in a las vegas motel, and take it with every now and then when I go down the street. It can log up to 1000 open hotspots and their GPS coordinates... Three times now, I have taken it with me on short drives of 3 miles or less, going to local stores, and all 3 times I hit more than 1000 open/free hotspots, and overloaded the memory buffer on the handheld. I was in Dawson City Yukon (canada) this summer, at a place with dirt streets, and there was a free wifi hotspot across the street!. From other people I have talked to in other areas that have hundreds of free spots near them too, I can't imagine anyone ever paying for WiFi access. I'm just guessing, but I would suspect, that there are thousands of free spots, for every one that's fee based. I don't know if they still do it (was about a year ago) T mobile used to ask people that wanted their splash screen displayed, to optionally use the ssid of tmobile, so it would force the t-mobile users to ONLY user systems with an ssid of tmobile, and force a splash/login screen.

If you are using t-mobile at starbucks, I'd bet your system has been modified to ONLY log in to systems with a certain SSID (tmobile).

At Mccarren Airport here in Las Vegas, they have an absolutely free WiFi system for people waiting for planes.. If you have a system set for paid only, you can't use it... :)

Wanna see what's really around you? go to

then downloads, and download the free netstumbler, and see what's around you. (it's totally free, and is a passive program that doesn't mess with any setting you already have set up)

I look at any company that is trying to get something free, turned into a private thing only for their users/financial gain, with a VERY huge dose of skepticism, and speak out about what jerks and theives they are, as often as possible. (sorry, that's my "hotspot/hotbutton".. I absolutely detest companies that turn free things into paid only).

The Boingo client automatically processes the login page of a particular hotspot, using Boingo credentials. The customer connection is not a VPN tunnel, although a VPN client to Boingo is available at extra cost.

Maybe the one at your work is an add-on to the existing T-Mobile location. Maybe T-Mobile is the same thing, but it seems self-contained to me.

So, if our friend wants to share a Boingo login, it might be because he already has a Boingo account. If there is a coffee shop down the street that he can connect to via a Boingo client, it might be providing a splash screen to people without the Boingo client. If our friend doesn't already have a Boingo account, a standard browser might show a different splash screen.

Or it could be a Boingo "hotspot in a box". That appears to be for a location that doesn't want to be a hotspot outside of Boingo. I don't know if one of those always has another underlying provider, or if it is Boingo-only. The Boingo web site suggests that they partner with Pronto.

This also explains the only objection that I ever had to Boingo. When I tried to use Boingo to connect to some networks, it didn't work. I've nevver had a Boingo account. The places that I tried to get a splash screen with Boingo must have had Boingo agreements, so that a Boingo login was superceeding my attempt to log in on to T-Mobile, for instance.

When I asked Boingo about it, instead of suggesting what the truth was, they feigned, or showed, ignorance.

Since you have both at your work... How does it authenticate? If I understand this correctly, a Boingo would just fail, because you don't have a Boingo account. If you disable Boingo, you would be presented with a T-Mobile splash screen, or maybe autologin, if you have a T-Mobile account.

If there was no additional WAP added for T-Mobile or for Boingo, then it sounds like both are in the categorey of automatic logins, using your pre-existing authentication structure.

How do you login in without T-Mobile or Boingo? If someone is not authorized at all, do they get your splash screen?

If I wander over to a Starbucks, I get a T-Mobile splash screen. That doesn't sound like it would work with your "free to anyone near the store". Is yours wide open, requiring no signin at all?

That page refers to the Linksys "Boingo in a Box" and is dedicated to Boingo. For an existing WAP that has some authentication scheme already, there is a different process.

The Boingo page mentions Pronto. If a Boingo subscription were usable at Boingo, Wayport, Pronto and T-Mobile sites, that would be a tremendous boon.

doesn't list T-Mobile, but Peter Pan's description sounds like they at least coexist with T-Mobile.

I might have to try a Boingo Month and hit a Starbucks. That kind of coverage would be worthwhile.

The answer might be "It depends". It might be as simple as [X]ing the box on the windows advanced setup page of your wireless network connection setup, which, unless boingo's client software detects and blocks, -should- allow the sharing of that computer's wireless connection through your LAN card (assuming you also have a LAN card in your computer). The downside to using Mickysoft's internet connection sharing might be that the LAN NIC you are sharing through will be set to IP address 192.168.0.1 and also use DHCP which might cause a conflict on your existing LAN setup. You didn't say how many computers you wanted to share the connection with or if you even had a LAN that already has a device or computer that must be set up to use ip address 192.168.0.1.

Sharing two computers with a crossover cable between LAN cards should be quite easy. You might even be able to do it with a IEEE 1394 connection or some other winders networking cabling configurations that allows you to network two computers together. IE his 'n her laptops from a hotel room. Is something like that what you had in mind?

If none of the above is answer, it also could be that you could get one of the free or quite cheap proxy server shareware software from

(Years ago, I used to use the free version of Wingate and tried out a few others ) that will allow you share your internet connection.