The Cloud - useless Wi-Fi Hotspots - Update

but the zider wuz good..................which is the main thing.

It was!!

Are these places free as at McDonalds? Regards David

VPN ?

David

Virtual Private Network

In pubs The Cloud Wi-Fi is locted in the Video Games machines, e.g. It-Box. It isn't free but you should be able to connect to BT Openzone etc. and that account is charged.

I have seen some other Video Games machines, I think called Max Box which have a free Wi-Fi connection, and unlike The Cloud there is never a problem connecting.

I suspect in the next year or so you will always be able to get access to a free connection, so hopefully junk like The Cloud will just disappear down the drain.

Regards,

Charles

Just to expand on that in case we get questions on how to use the free McDonalds' WiFi.

Its free IF you are a AT&T DSL subscriber. Its $19 per month if you are a AT&T dial-up subscriber.

As you say dollars I assume you are in USA, I'm in the UK.

McD are equiping all thier UK outlets with FREE Wi-Fi by the end of year. I parked outside and used it free from my car. So I not even bought tea/coffee or Big Mac.!

It took me only a couple of minutes to be on my ISPs Home page.

I located the Wireless networks, the strongest was THE CLOUD, then there were 3 others one Unsecured even. I connect to the Cloud one and straight away I got The Cloud/McD home page which invited me to register, I did, then typed in my ISPS Home page and up it popped.

Thus I asked the previous poster if other locations, such as Weatherspoons are free. If not I think they might well follow McD.

Regards David

Charles

I think you were unlucky as in my experiance TheCloud is no better or worse than others. I assume it was a faulty router or it was getting too many connections or there was interferance from some other device.

WiFi is not without it's problems.

Hi,

I think there's more to it than that. Myself and 3/4 collegues have been using Hotspots for about 18 months, using a variety of Laptops, Pocket PC's and Palm Handhelds.

We have NEVER had any problems whatsoever in connecting to T-Mobile, BT Openzone and Swisscom (Premier Inn) in particular. Dosen't matter where we are in the UK, inside, outside in the car park etc.. etc.. never any problem very fast to log on and a very fast connection.

On the other hand we ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a problem with The Cloud, even if it is the strongest signal strength radio network in the area. Usually it is immpossible to wirelessly connect, never assigns an IP address, let alone get to any sort of log-in page.

Regards,

Charles

Makes you wonder why they are still in Business with all those hotspots and no connections to pay for their upkeep.

YMMV.

Sounds like you may have tripped some kind of outbound firewall rule. Perhaps The Cloud only allow HTTP/HTTPS traffic, and anything else is marked as suspcious? If you get another chance, try changing your MAC address when blocked and see if you get access again.

As most of their Hotspots are in video games machine who use a broadband connection for some of their gaming. I suspect it dosen't actually cost The Cloud that much.