sharing boingo

No, we have (and usually hate, except when the check comes in the mail) nothing to do with them, we just negotiated to let their users use our hotspot to get to their vpn, as one of theirs, so they can add 1 more to the number of hotspots...

As an example, there are many hotels that have free WiFi in the hotel. They (usually) do the same thing... If you are a t-mobile/boingo customer you go straight to them via vpn, if not you just use the hotels system. No muss, no fuss, nothing special to do.

While you can make a case for shame on the proprieter rather than the big bucks companies, I still look at it as shame on the companies trying to make a buck... Lets see.. the proprieter gives something away totally free, a company comes in and talks them into no longer giving it away free, but only let their customers connect and they send the prop money....Hmmmmm free or get money....Remember the proprietor is in business to make money... why keep spending money on something free, when he can go over to the dark side and make money?

Just to be clear.... (numbers may not be right as of today, they are always changing), there are hundreds of thousands of free hotspots out there... T-mobile has about 400 (under contract to them only), and boingo has about

See for yourself at

Note this is *NOT* an ad, he asked a question, and I am replying with the simplest answer......

I have no idea, I never use em.

If a person doesn't pay for boingo or t-mobile.. that's what they see when they walk into the store with a laptop or pda with wireless... If you pay for service on a VPN we contract with, you see their opening screen (not anything to do with us)

As for no indication, if you are on WiFi, don't pay for stuff from someone else, and get that screen, don't you consider connecting and getting the screen an indication that there is WiFI?

We also have free ethernet, dial-up, and an internet prescence too.. You just did it over the internet. We use one page for our BUSINESS, no matter how you connect, So we have one page, that talks about our business, that is the same no matter how you connect. Why have different pages for different ways to connect?

Let me try my question again.

Your WAP allows someone to log in as a Boingo customer, a T-Mobile customer, or "free to anyone near the store".

I can understand how Boingo might recognize your customized splash screen and log a Boingo customer in, because of the negotiated agreement that you have with them. That customer would never know about the other two possibilities.

I wonder how T-Mobile is distinguished from the free hotspot. What does one of these "free" people see when they sit on the bench in front of the store? If it were Starbucks, they would get a T-Mobile splash screen, and log in to that screen.

How does someone log in to T-Mobile at your WAP, and why would they ever want to, if your WAP is free?

Where'd that come from? I didn't see the tie in.

Not sure what you mean.. If you don't pay for service, and only see a very small limited number of hotspots, how can you connect to any of the other

Just out of curiosity, have you ever used any of the 10's of thousands of free hotspots out there? From your q's, it sounds like you pay for service and have never used the free ones. And by the way, you don't even have to have a splash screen on a hotspot, I have one here at my apartment that doesn't.

That would come under the "thanks, no, take a hike", category. Or maybe not. Maybe the proprietor would consider it an opportunity to make money. That should be shame on the proprietor, not T-Mobile. Do you get to give Free T-Mobile temporary connections to your customers, or how does your free side work?

Boingo has client software that will login through your pre-existing service. T-Mobile does not require such a client. They do offer a connection manager, but I have never used it, and I have connected to T-Mobile WAPs and been presented with a login splash screen. "a customer launches their browser from within a T-Mobile service location and receives a log-in page to enter their user name and password" The T-Mobile connection manager is required if you want WPA encryption.

I also have no difficulty connecting to the free WAPs that I find.

What appears from your splash screen? You said it was free, so is there just some click-through? If there is a login, maybe T-Mobile customers "try" their login. Does your splash page mention T-Mobile or Boingo? Does your WAP show up as a T-Mobile location in their directory?

How would you know if anyone were actually doing that? Boingo will quite neatly connect to any free WAP. Any windows XP-SP2 user would neatly be offered a free WAP, but be cautioned against connecting because there is no encryption.

Some T-Mobile customers might have limited themselves to connecting to T-Mobile only, but if any of them have ever connected to a free WAP, including at home, that seal is probably broken.

There may be millions of open personal WAPs. Whether there are hundreds of thousands of commercial installations that are free to the public at large is less obvious. You can connect to them if you wish, but finding them is opportunistic. Not too many in airports, which is a shame, because you are pretty much stuck there. I turn on the laptop, and see what shows up, but I'll connect to a commercial spot if I find one, rather than wander around trying to find a free one.

T-Mobile claims 5342 T-Mobile HotSpot U.S. locations. Boingo claims over 12,000 Boingo Hot Spots under contract. An advantage of the commercial spots is that they are easy to find. They have stable "locator" directories, and in the case of T-Mobile, they are available in some obvious spots, like Starbucks and Borders Books.

How is your WAP listed in the directories for T-Mobile and Boingo?

Is that the first thing that someone sees when they connect to your WAP for the first time? There's no login or indication that WiFi service is available or provided on that page.

I don't see any Boingo or T-Mobile listing within many miles of Rathdrum. All I see is McDonalds.

So you don't have a splash page? Someone would have to navigate to dawghaus to see that page. If they had some other web page as their home page, they would never see your page?

I can't get to the splash screen for public WAPs if I am already connected to the internet. T-Mobile, AT&T, STSN, stayonline, and others all force your browser to a login web page, even if they let you click on something and continue for free to normal pages.

But since you are just wide open, there is no login, and I don't know how your WAP works as roaming partner as you've explained it.

If I walk up to a hotspot that has a splash page, like several hotels, whatever page you open goes to a login screen. Some just want you to key in a room number, and then you connect to the internet. Once you've satisfied that first screen, you can't get to it again. It's not accessible from the internet, even while connected to that WAP. It is only available as a login screen at that WAP.

Would that mean that your work WAP has an ssid of tmobile? T-Mobile says you need to set your SSID to tmobile, but that's not true. I might wind up with a profile named tmobile, but I didn't have to have one before I connected. You make it sound like you give up your PC by getting a subscription, and can't even connect to your home WAP anymore.

Yes. I travel quite a bit. I hit hotspots wherever I go. I don't subscribe to any of the pay services. I use them occasionally, but I don't subscribe to any because I couldn't decide which had the best coverage, and I usually have access in the hotel anyway, so I'm not shopping much.

I can't tell from that if you are talking about the personal WAP in your apartment, or a public hotspot run by the apartment complex. I don't consider your personal WAP a hotspot. If the apartment complex offers Wifi as a service, I would think they would have some login and user security to prevent abuse from poachers in the parking lot downloading kiddie-p*rn or sending spam. Your personal WAP could be used by me when I'm in town, but I generally don't work or stay near the residential areas where the personal WAPs are left unsecured.