Where can I download a hotspot list?

Its really hit and miss. If you travel a lot one of the best items you can purchase is an aircard or a cellphone that can do tethering. Works wherever you have reception and maybe even at your house.

What is an aircard?

Probably a USB connected device for your PC that allows internet access over the cell-phone network.

I am in the UK and so things may vary. Can be quite cheap here now, especially of bundled with another service or you accept strict dowbload limits. Not really for movies.

Many of the phone companies have hotspots in cities. Loads and loads of them. Can be very costly for short term use.

have some presence in the US now. Google was and may still be free but you either have to pay - MUCH cheaper than phone companies - OR :

If you provide a hotspot and it is logged on to the network use of other hotspots is free. You need a broadband connection and to buy one of their routers. (well you can make one but it is not for a beginner).

They have 250,000 hotspots worldwide but that is still a lot of square miles per hotspot.

You could try a google search for your prospective destination and "free wifi".

In the UK now all home broadband comes with a free router all set up with WPA so pretty much all home routers are encrypted.

It is a device you connect to your notebook either by using the card slot or USB which allows you to use the cellphone data network.

I disagree with this usurpation of the bandwidth of others. You are saying that you want to make heavy usage of the bandwidth of others who have chosen to configure their network insecurely. They didn't configure insecurely with the intention of you taking their bandwidth away from them and interfering with the best usage of something to which they are entitled. They configured insecurely either out of ignorance or out of a wish to provide a convenience to their clients to not require a WPA or WEP configurational disadvantage.

Your usage of someone else's bandwidth is not 'casual'. It is a heavy intentional usage which will impact on others, which heavy intentional usage you are making for downloading large files, which with the attitude of someone who takes something from others which doesn't belong to them, is likely to be copyrighted content.

What exactly is keeping you from subscribing to better bandwidth than dialup at home?

Too cheap or too poor, but then he just got a laptop.

Just to make my arguments clear; I'm not disagreeing with the basic premise of wardriving.

I'm also not disagreeing with his usage of the library's bandwidth and connectivity as long as that usage is appropriate.

What I am disagreeing with is his seeking out and finding some insecure network in his local neighborhood and usurping that network's bandwidth in a thoughtless, selfish, greedy manner. The idea that every insecure network is just there for the plucking of many many gigabytes to the detriment of the owner or clients of that insecure network by a selfish thoughtless usurper seems to me to be unethical and thus immoral.

The idea that anything that isn't illegal or, even if illegal, if you can get away with it, must be OK, doesn't suit me.

Agreed since he says he wants to d/l 15meg files. In which case he should go to a public hot spot like Perkins.

Lou

There is no local HI SPEED internet available. Just because those of you in the cities have it, does not mean it's available all over the USA. These farming areas have little to offer for internet. In fact until 2002 there was not even dialup available.

And I'm not stealing anything. The Library has it there to be used by the public and that is what I am doing. The only time I have tapped into other systems is when I travel, and that's when I have gone to motels and truckstops which also offer it free. Granted, I am not staying at those motels, but those few times a year I travel, is no big deal. And as far as the truck stops, the reason they have it is for travellers, which is perfectly legal. I have never hacked into anyone's private connections, which in most cases are locked anyhow, and if they are not locked, I can not get this thing to connect to them.

LM

This part is about tapping into some local broadband insecure network. There are a lot of ways to do that.

I was careful to not use that word.

Yes the library is offering you some of their bandwidth to share with others. I would advise you to not be a pig while you are sharing and to not behave in ways which are against the policies of the library.

When you are 'tapping' into the other systems, realize that if you soak up all of the bandwidth, then there is much less left for others, which truckers may have important data to be transmitting to or from their dispatcher in order to make a living.

We are not talking about legalities as much as we are talking about consideration for others needs. Downloading big files is like opening up a pipe and sucking all of the water out of it while leaving a trickle for someone else who might be thirsty and deserve the water which you don't.

The reason that everyone should secure their networks is to prevent the abuse of the bandwidth by binary file bandwidth hogs.

Sometimes a network isn't secured for either convenience reasons or for logistics reasons or for ignorance reasons. What an 'interloper' does with those insecure networks should try to be respectful of the rights and needs of others and not just think of himself.

... and change your under-diddley-ware daily.