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Late to the party: WiFI ?
zhen_rogue
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Situation:
I have a notebook system with a wireless card.
I have an afternoon off from work.
I can't go home (realtor is showing our house).
It is raining cats and dogs outside.
WoW is installed, and I have xp to grind.
Solution:
Leeching bandwidth from a corporate american chain (e.g. starbucks, panera bread, barnes&noble).
Questions:
1. Will I need a password/login to access the free wireless network?
2. Will this type of network provide me with enough bandwidth for a program like WoW to run?
3. Will there be a firewall in place that will prevent online games from running all together?
4. Is an open network like this potentially unsafe for my system?
5. Don't the staff get pissed when you sit there and leech bandwidth for a few hours?
I have a notebook system with a wireless card.
I have an afternoon off from work.
I can't go home (realtor is showing our house).
It is raining cats and dogs outside.
WoW is installed, and I have xp to grind.
Solution:
Leeching bandwidth from a corporate american chain (e.g. starbucks, panera bread, barnes&noble).
Questions:
1. Will I need a password/login to access the free wireless network?
2. Will this type of network provide me with enough bandwidth for a program like WoW to run?
3. Will there be a firewall in place that will prevent online games from running all together?
4. Is an open network like this potentially unsafe for my system?
5. Don't the staff get pissed when you sit there and leech bandwidth for a few hours?
zhen_rogue on
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This discussion has been closed.
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It costs money, mang. When you first connect, you get presented with an internal website that lets you sign up to pay for the access. You can't get onto the Internet in general until you're paid up. It's not particularly cheap at Starbucks either, and you'd better bet they have the right to ask you to leave if they have customers coming in and looking for a place to sit and you're warming a seat without a beverage in hand.
Now if you're asking for help obtaining free wifi and leeching off of some poor sap's unsecured network, I'm going to give you, and anyone giving that brand of advice, an infraction. We don't roll like that in H/A.
Some places offer free wi-fi for paying customers. You're a prick if you use it without being one. And some places even have specific laws targetting that behaviour, too. So just don't.
As to the technical aspects of your question re: wow, you'll have a high latency connection, but bandwidth won't be an issue. So raiding won't likely work out so well, but if you're all using voip and raiding it up in a coffee shop, well... h/a can't provide the brand of help you really need.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
That said, I don't know how limited they are as far as programs. My wife was able to browse for a few hours one day while our internet was down at home, but she didn't try playing any games.
Go in, buy a soda or a bagel, and have at it.
Usually a major chain coffee shop will require you to register/pay for some service. Other independent places are free and open and require no registration even.
2. Will this type of network provide me with enough bandwidth for a program like WoW to run?
Depends on how many people are using it and what kind of connection is being shared out.
3. Will there be a firewall in place that will prevent online games from running all together?
It is possible, especially when dealing with a corporate network (as in a business/office setting) which you shouldn't be messing with anyway.
4. Is an open network like this potentially unsafe for my system?
Unless you're unlucky enough to be on the same network as some 1337 h4x0r who wants to mess with you (via man-in-the-middle attacks or whatever), you're no more vulnerable in that setting than on any connection to the intertrons.
5. Don't the staff get pissed when you sit there and leech bandwidth for a few hours?
If you don't buy anything, yes.
Hi Pheezer, thanks for the rash, insulting, and immediately offensive post.
Since you're a mod, i'm going to assume you're not always like this, and try to clarify a few points here:
1. Thanks for the info about the internal website and pay-per-use account, I didn't know how that works.
2. I guess I should have posted that I will be purchasing drinks or food at wherever I went, and leeching bandwidth did not imply stealing bandwidth. I'll clarify that here though, I will be a paying customer. But thanks for immediately insulting me and assuming otherwise.
3. Nowhere in my post did I ask or allude to the fact that I would be looking for someone's unsecured netowork to steal bandwidth from. I can see how you misunderstood my post to possibly mean I was going to starbucks to play and not buy a coffee... but to go a step further like this is unacceptable. I am really amazed you would insinuate this type of wrong doing against a small business or private residence, and immediately jump to this fabricated conclusion.
Again, thanks for the incredible insult here.
4. I do understand H/A is not a place to learn how to break the law. I have been a member here in PA since 2003. But thanks for the reminder, and for calling me a prick in the same sentence.
I guess you answered my questions about how the networks operate though, so thanks for that at least.
I got the same impression as Pheezer from your first post. His response, in my opinion, is a fair response to an interpretation which we both apparently found implied in your OP.
Bla bla. I guess you're a prick for standing near their front door to enjoy the AC they're blowing out the door, too. Or for hearing the music that is audible from the sidewalk? The wireless service is the same thing: to entice you to hang out. It's part of their business model. If the manager notices a lot of people hanging around with laptops and only 2/3 of them are drinking a coffee, she's going to think "awesome" not "damn that third guy what a deadbeat."
Two sites to help you find a nearby commercial wi-fi hotspot (free or otherwise):
http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/search.php
http://www.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm
You think a mod calling a forumer a prick, and then fabricating stories about possible criminal activity that wasn't part of the original post is a fair response in an on-topic forum like this?
Back on topic now. As I see it the questions asked are answered, but I'll wait for confirmation that zhen's problems are solved.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
A more apt comparison would be if you randomly walked in off the street, plugged in a telephone handset, and started calling your friends, all without buying anything.
And "Leeching" is what flagged it for me as "unauthorized use" in the OP.
Just because leeching means criminal to you, doesn't mean it's the same for everyone.
I could have used the words "used" or "tapped into" or "accessed", but I really don't see how these are any different than "leech".
I'm still using bandwidth from a network I don't pay for, and i'm still sitting in an enstablishment for a few hours (even with coffee/bagles) and wanted to know if this annoys staff.
It seems the crux of the issue here is: I didn't specifically state that I was not planning on stealing.
I honestly didn't think I needed to do that, but from now on i'll make that crystal clear in future posts.
Thanks again for insulting me in your second post though, I can see that objecting to being labled a thief or otherwise means I get insulted again for not shrugging off the insults in the first place.
I thought H/A had different rules than SE++, where I would expect insults and off-topic remarks starting from post 2 and continuing for a few pages.
I guess it just shocked me coming from a H/A mod, maybe the mods don't have to abide by the rules they enforce.
Either way, my WiFi questions have been answered it seems.
EDIT:
Wow, i just noticed you edited your original response to include VOIP raiding now as well. What else would you like to fabricate and add to my list of criminal charges?
Why stop there?
I edited my post 7 minutes before your first reply in this post
And that's kind of not at all what I meant. I think it's pretty obvious that I meant participating in a raid in WoW while using VOIP, as many guilds do.
Man fuck this. You know what? You just lost your H/A privileges.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH