WiFi hot-spots and similar facilities...

DeeGee

DeeGee

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Last year, as well as accumulating the most horrendous GPRS bill from Vodafone, I was able to use WiFi in a few places, some f-o-c. In one place, they allowed me to plug into their ethernet - broadband from there on in.

What would be really, REALLY, useful, would be a registry of such facilities> what, where, cost; who id'd it and when; any update on availability (so aged info could be replaced or tested).

Using mobiles abroad is not only extremely costly, but the phone companies don't care that you make a connection, start a download but it gets aborted, so you have to do it all over again.

Any support?
 
Sounds like a good idea - I was in Largs last weekend and they have a WiFi thingy set up, which for the moment is free. Could be a good excuse for a few more days aboard when you should be working...
 
[ QUOTE ]
There are a number of existing directories you can search, and also update, such as this one
http://www.wifinder.com

Do google search on wifi hotspots for many more (some are mainly US based, so you have to be selective)

[/ QUOTE ]Well, I had something a little more helpful in mind. A Scuttlebutt directory. For example your link tells me there is no hotspot in Dieppe, 76200, France, but there is such a hotspot.

With a yottie registry, not having any financial or sponsor implications, anyone finding a facility in Timbuctoo useful to others would enter it into the registry.

Maybe you're right - there is no need for such a thing, let everyone re-invent their own wheel ? /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
Really useful link, thanks....

[ QUOTE ]
Most UK wi-fi networks are set up by square mile - only UK but free at the moment at : square mile

[/ QUOTE ]Now, THAT is a really useful piece of info. Can you work the same magic for some more of the European coast, please? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Re: Really useful link, thanks....

A coincidence, but I PM'd Kim earlier today to ask for the same facility to be set up on here. It's not only square mile: iZone have a couple of access points at Northney which are free at the moment.

I'll report back from France on any we find as I haven't seen any response to my enquiry yet.
 
The thing about such a directory is that people have to input into them, and there is something of an over-proliferation of them at the moment, so that people don't know which ones to input into for most effect. I suspect if we all concentrated our efforts onto one of the better existing ones, we'd soon have much better coverage of them, than if we simply started a new one here, as people will invariably want to use their wifi laptops in many other areas than just marina and harbours, and there is already a wealth of information on where you can do this - the databases in question simply needed adding to
 
There are many many more free or paid wifi hotspots set up either intentionally or inadvertantly around many coastlines outside of marinas though.
 
Think you're wrong on this one Brendan though I understand the point about prolif

I'm only interested in coastal hotspots, ie where I can get access onboard whilst sailing. Can't think of a better forum than this for knowledge and experience
 
Point is though , that we only need one database, and there are several very easy to use ones (in terms of updating and searching) that have all the requisite database management already in place. Setting up such a database here, so you can search on lat. long, location, map etc would be a huge investment, and others have already done that.

The simple way of doing it here would just be on a forum like the fuel price forum, which is not easily searchable, and not as easy to use. There are liveaboards, cruisers, and forumites from all over the world on here these days, so ease of searching for location is going to be essential for many.

If we collectively choose on of the wifi hotspot websites to update enmasse, then it would be a useful tool in very short time. YBW could always link reciprocally with them, and make it a link in the website here, after all ybw don't provide weather and tide forecasts, these are supplied by an outside source.
 
[ QUOTE ]
.. there is something of an over-proliferation of them at the moment ...

[/ QUOTE ]Well, we have had one very useful link to one of them so far, any chance that you could post some links to this 'over-proliferation', as your previous links were correct, but not really useful, as they were too US oriented, I suspect. If you are right, and there already are enough directories/registries, then let's have them, and I will be a v happy bunny /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
There are so many it's difficult to know where to begin. have a look at this one as an example. Over 3million hot spots identified worldwide and growing fast (it was only about 2m at beginning of the year). You'd have to get a fair old number of forumites working overtime to get even a few hundred.

It's not perfect yet, as searching by address only works in the US, but you can search by map, which shows lat/long!!!! Have a look at this map for Europe, and then click to centre, zoom in, click to centre, zoom in etc

OK, not many of those listed are marina/port based, but if we all chose a single site like this one, then uploaded the locations we found to it, it would soon be a useable tool

https://wigle.net/gps/gps/GPSDB/onlinemap/?region=Europe&s=Show+Region

NB, you might not actually see this link unless you sign in with login name and password first. If that is the case, then create a log in, then click on the above link again.
 
Looked at the site, but nothing useful shown in my area of interest and potential for information overload with most being cities. Remember I'm only interested in coastal/ports/marinas. Jersey looks well covered, but nothing shown on french coast. Bollx to Paris! I still reckon us forumites would build a better picture of regular destinations for sailors.

I'll kick the ball rolling by reporting any useful french hotspots on our impending trip and see where it leads. There may be none, of course. Will cross to the West country at some point and will try to monitor as we sail. That's if I don't go into laid-back-couldn't-care mode, and the odds are heavily stacked.
 
I think you are missing the point a little. I didn't expect there to be any information releveant to you, as I'd already pointed out. We can remedy that.

Really can't see the possibility of information overload, as you just check out the location you are interested in, not the centre of London, Paris etc. Being able to search geographically on an updated map based database, surely has to be easier than searching through threads of possibly misleadingly labelled posts, even on a dedicated forum here.

Try finding up to date and relevant information in the fuel price forum here as an example, you have to scroll through pages of information then read each thread and post to find the useful stuff. Surely ease of access to data has to be an important part of why people put the effort into updating the information.

I did say that the marinas and coast were not well represented yet, but can easily become so if everyone updated such a site, and then would be easier to search for all. Don't forget also that these days, many forumites are outside UK or mainland Europe. I'm not even suggesting that this site should be the one used, just trying to illustrate that a site where you can usefully search for location by map or lat/long is much easier to use to see if there are any hotspots available there
 
Not sure yet, there are so many it's hard to know where to start, so open to suggestions.

I'd suggest somewhere that

1) has worldwide maps for easy browsing of areas peeps will be visiting or cruising to (much easier to take in information in this way, and see if any hotspots nearby to location you are interested in),

2) is easy to upload information to, and

3) has ability to search or browse by lat/long, or possibly by name of location (less sure of searching by name of location, as people often enter some strange variants of local names rather than just town, or harbour or marina.

Eg Berthon Marina won't help anyone searching on Lymington, whereas the map would show this up instantly - so really need a searchable database that can actually show Berthon as being same as Lymington based on lat long or geographic information, though not sure if many do that at present.

Google maps and google local, certainly can - but not many wifi spots entered there yet, and no way of updating the information, they just search the internet to make their own list.

I'll have a good search tomorrow evening, and see if anything matches, but in the meantime the link I posted should possibly be the benchmark, as it has many of the characteristics listed, though not ideal, but has the advantages that it is non commercial, and the operators are keen to remove or update information, whereas many simply list legacy data that is out of date or irrelevant.

It may well be that in the UK we will have to make to with Map browsing, as the information to search to postcodes, street names and addresses is owned by Ordnance Survey, and they charge large amounts of money to use this information, so to pay for such searching, would require a pay per use site?
http://www.okfn.org/wiki/OpenGeoData
 
Victoria Marina St Peter Port

I seem to have a connection here. The SSID is 'default' on channel 10 with WEP disabled. I'm on D pontoon and receiving 45% on a Linksys signal strength and -80dBm signal to noise on netstumbler.

Not sure if this is the marina itself or if I'm hijacking a private facility. The staff were very vaguely aware of a Hotspot and gave me a password but I haven't had to use it. Confused!

Cherbourg saw lots of signal but unable to connect at all.
 
Finding wifi hotspots

Settiong up a yottie database seems to me a huge task and also trying to capture a very fast changing picture.

The best site I know is www.jiwire.com which is global, and moderately well updated. It can really only be as good as its input - so eg a lot of cafe hotspots don't function because the staff don't know how to work. Jiwire has a specific free wifi button on the front page which takes you to a country listing - showing 91 in the UK for instance. These are then listed by 'town', some of which are pretty small.

Most wifi I think is horrendously expensive in this country - £6 an hour etc. In UK it is always cheaoper for us to use GPRS on which I have an unlimited mb contract. But we always look for possible wifi spots because they're faster, if they're free.

I hope that eventually the prices will plummet, once the infrastructure is paid for, but there's a while to wait.

I subscribe to the US liveaboard list, which has just had a ghastly flame war about the propriety of piggy-backing private but unsecured wifi. No - I don't want that row here please. But in the course of that some pretty interesting technology has been mentioned, eg look at http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050714.gtwifijul14/EmailBNStory/Technology/ (I hope this pasting works as a clickable link, sorry if not).
 
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