Access Commercial WiFi Hotspots At Airports For Free
We all know the crushing defeat of logging onto an open WiFi hotspot at an airport only to discover that you need to pay to reach the internet. No more! If the portal has a space for promotion codes, go ask the gift shop if they have a coupon for free access. If they don't, you're not out of options...
From WiseBread:
Minutes later in the gift shop, I saw a stack of "15 minutes Free Wi-Fi" coupons from Boingo. Boingo provides Wi-Fi at over 500 airports, 17,000 hotels (Marriotts & Hiltons, etc) and 9,000 McDonald's.Hmm. The clerk gave me a Boingo card and I sat down to log on for free minutes.
The promotional code did not work, but I called the tech support number and the Boingo customer rep offered me a complimentary code that would get me online while I was waiting for my flight.
That did the trick. My flight was called and I had no need for the free pass.
How to Get Free Wi-Fi at Airports that Charge for Internet Connections [WiseBread]
(Photo: mastermaq)
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Comments:
Well you could get free passes or you could rise up against the idea of paying for Internet with this guide. [www.hak5.org]
@post_break: Perhaps I'm missing something here, but wouldn't that be theft of service? It seems not too far off from the practice a few decades ago of using a Blue Box to steal long distance service.
@SarcasticDwarf: Agreed. I find it rediculas in the first place that they want to charge you for something that is free pretty much every where else. Luckily, I have my phone. Take that Boingo!
I know San Diego airport has free wifi.
Worked well, just had to check of a checkbox that says you agree to their rules and your on.
Worked perfectly on 2 ipod touches and a iphone last Tuesday.
@henrygates: the same thing that entitles someone to charge 10+$/hr for something that costs maybe 200 a month to maintain.
@krztov: I don't think that's the same at all. I'm sure if you had a profitable business, you wouldn't be happy with your customers stealing your product or service from you.
I was at a place that had very limited free access. For instance, you could do a google search, but not access the web sites the search found.
No problem. Just looked at google's cached entry and it was good enough!
Looks like I'm a bit too late with this Wi-Fi thing. back then it seems that all networks were open and anyone could use them. now all the networks I get are secure or open but require you to pay to continue
i was always told that airports have Wi-Fi but only in a separate Business lounge. where only people with business class tickets could stay (so how do they stop the signal from going to the normal lounge).
Nice article but with this economy I don't plan to fly anytime soon. now if only cruise terminals had Wi-Fi
@SacraBos:
I've connected to networks on my iPod touch where the only thing it allowed me to do was find my current location and get directions . anything else like weather or YouTube would just keep saying that it's loading and then fail in about 50 seconds. still if you're lost and you find a Starbucks and you don't feel like paying for service, it's a nice feature.
@MauriceCallidice: That's a valid point of course. The guide I posted would essentially get you free service however if you can simply call the tech support and hop on for a day for free what's the difference (technically). It's not like I would ever use this guide to constantly suck down data at the airport. I would use this maybe once or twice every 5 years if that since I don't travel often and even then it's more of a hassle than tethering with my phone.
I just posted the link, it's up to the reader to determine what to do with it.
Phoenix Skyharbor (PHX) has free WIFI available throughout all of its terminals.
Another WIFI hack trick I have learned during my waiting for flight days is rearrange the URL.
With Boingo as well as other commerical WIFI providers, it would default you to their login page.
If you read carefully, the URL has two sections, the first is default login page, the second URL is redirect page. All user would need to do is delete the second part and substitute in the URL of desired page location.
That way, Boingo still thinks you are deciding if you are willing to pay for WIFI, in the meantime, you are surfing away from free.
If you really want to get creative, just use WIFI packet sniffer and use other users' login information.
@henrygates: Heh not to mention if they really wanted me to pay for the internets they would do a simple frame injection with some ads to pay for the little to no bandwidth I would use up.
@KTK1990:
So do Tucson and Phoenix, and IIRC, Salt Lake City.
San Francisco does not.
I really REALLY hate the airport pricing model (better to sell 1 at 500 percent markup than 5 at 100 percent). It's been spreading outside of airports (where it makes less sense, because your market is less captive) and it's been spreading to more things IN airports.
Just one more reason I loathe flying in this country.
@AppleAlex: Many airports have all sorts of WiFi, not just in their business lounges. Sometimes the airport itself offers it, then you have Starbucks, some airlines offer free or fee access, etc. Take a wifi sniffer through an airport sometime and you'll get all kinds of hits.
The business lounge access (which, by the way, is not always free either) doesn't have to restrict the signal, just the access.
@AppleAlex: They don't necessarily stop the signal. I've been in at least one airport before where I could get on a free wifi network from certain areas and the network name was something like "NWALounge"
my dad used to pick up wifi from the marriott atlanta near the airport when he was sitting at the end of the delta terminal. don't know if it still works but it did for many years.
he travels a lot and says if the airport doesn't have it, a lot of restaurants in airports do because it's incentive to choose them over competitors, so he just keeps scanning or checking for signs that advertise it
Boingo seems to be the place to go for free internet for airports. I signed up for a day pass a loooooooong time ago. Ever since then, if i'm at a T-Mobile hotspot (i.e. all of LAX) I can log in with the Boingo account as a free roaming partner. I'm assuming if I go to an airport where Boingo is the main WiFi service, I will have to pay, though.
So the blogger reports *one* instance of finding coupons with (non-functioning) access codes at a gift shop, which she was able to score for free, and *one* CS rep who was willing to give her a complimentary code. Can anyone else confirm whether this "hack" has general applicability?
Otherwise, it's like a tip on how to get FREE MONEY...
...all you have to do is find a dollar bill lying on the sidewalk.
"If the portal has a space for promotion codes, go ask the gift shop if they have a coupon for free access. If they don't, you're not out of options..."
I'm not following what the other "options" are. This guy had a free code, and called the support number because it didn't work. What are you saying we should do if they don't have the free codes? Call support and lie?
My favorite free wifi airport is Las Vegas :)
It kills me that, apparently, since *some* places have free WiFi, citizens are therefore empowered/entitled to have it for free *everywhere*.
So WiFi is free in PHX...that's great, kudos to PHX. If MSP is a Boingo, or whatever, thing and Boingo wants you to pay to use their service...well, guess what - that's how Boingo makes money, and stealing is stealing. You don't get to say "well, PHX and all these other places have fee WiFi, so I'll just steal it here."
Getting a free code from Boingo, whether from a card or a service rep, is Boingo's decision to give you free service. Otherwise, you're not entitled to take their service for free just because you want it.
Sometimes people's attitudes just kill me. Imagine if whatever product/service your employer did was sometimes given away free by others...and then people just started stealing your product/service since they feel "entitled" to do so. Guess who's going to be a) pissed and b) out of a job soon?
Seriously, get a phone with unlimited data and tether it, or get a data card from your cellular provider. Then you legitimately can get internet wherever you are, and Boingo still isn't getting your money, but you also aren't stealing anything either.
I know, expecting ethical behavior out of other people. Shocking.
They aren't charging you for the bandwidth. They are charging you to provide a service. Some people are willing to pay $10 an hour. Some aren't.
@Tian (www.tian.cc): Ok, tricking the redirect is borderline unethical. WiFi packet sniffing definitely crosses the line. Bad consumer.
@KTK1990: Las Vegas and Tampa offer free wifi as well.
I volunteered to be bumped on an overbooked flight out of Tampa last January and entertained myself nicely with the free wifi. Were I to be bumped in any airport that doesn't offer it, I think I'd ask the gate attendant to hook me up with a free couple hours or the like.
You know, because $10 for 30 days of internet access at airports is far too expensive. (boingo's price for internet service)
@dieman:
$10 for 30 days?
who would need 30 days of airport internet service?. most I've waited at the terminal for a flight was 4 hours not 30 days. and I don't think you're allowed to yank out a PSP or an iPod touch and start surfing the web at the airport while waiting to go through customs (when you return that is)
@dieman:
Saying that something is "$10 for 30 days" when most people don't spend 30 days in the airport is just a way of distracting people when they're not getting a good deal. This weekend, I tried to log into wifi and Boingo offered me Internet for 24 hours for the low low cost of $7. What a great deal! If I had like fifty layovers, or I was flying to another continent. That would have been a total waste of money for my one hour wait. I surfed with my Blackberry on Bolt instead and passed up my Hulu.
@AppleAlex: Um, frequent flyers. I have friends who are traveling more than they are home and if you find yourself waiting for a plane frequently in airports under the same service, this could definitely payoff.
@Batwaffel: I find it ridiculous that you have as firm a grasp on spelling and grammar as a second grader.
I've found that if you remember the username and password you use to log in for your two free hours of wifi at Starbucks, you can use the same credentials "roaming" on Boingo or any other partner provider without difficulty. Has worked for me numerous times at the Detroit airport.
@psm321: How do you know this was a legit NWA network and not someone who had setup their own "free" WiFi network on their laptop like a HoneyPot so they could sniff all your traffic as it went through their computer?
yes I am paranoid, but yes this happens.
@Tian (www.tian.cc):
I doubt a packet sniffer would work for this as all the paid for wi-fi hotspots near me use an HTTPS/SSL connection for login details, and payment information. I doubt any major providers would use an un-secured connection for this data.
I've turned my windows mobile phone with a data plan into a free wifi hotspot. On a trip out to Ohio with a few friends for the fourth of july, I had 4 laptops running wifi off of my phone. It was amazing!
@TechnoDestructo: You are the kind of person I like to see arrested for stealing bandwidth.
It is a crime in every state, some by specific statute, some by incorporation in existing utilities statutes.
FWIW, the wi-fi in the airport I fly out of ... Bradley International (aka BDL or "Hartford/Springfield") is free. Or it was, last time I was there (3 months ago).
Iphone tether. It will change your life.
@OneTrickPony: That's exactly what I thought. One instance isn't exactly something to base a "How-To" guide on. Of course it's worth a shot to try it, and it might work again, but I wouldn't tout this as a way to get free internet wherever you go.
@feckingmorons: And how, exactly, is it stealing bandwidth to use the DNS service that they provide for free? Just because you're using it for a purpose they don't intend?
@microcars: I don't. There is the fact that they'd need to be pretty sophisticated to set it up as a managed network instead of ad-hoc, but sure that's possible. That's why I avoid doing anything too sensitive :) I'm just checking my e-mail usually, and I'm personally not paranoid enough to worry about them cracking https just to get to my e-mail (my email provider's webmail uses https by default)
@microcars: Actually, your post reminded me of something unrelated, but that's an interesting reas that I think you and other would enjoy. If you've ever seen the "Free Public WiFi" SSID as an ad-hoc network in lots of places and wondered where it came from...
I am very thankful that I have a cell phone with unlimited internet access. Since so few airports offer free wifi anymore (even my local one with all of two gates) it is easier to just tether through my cell.