Finding and connecting to open access points

Finding and connecting to open access points:

Types of wireless access points

On the whole, there are two types of access points: commercial access points (providing a service for some kind of monetairy return) and non-commercial access points (mostly people leaving their personal access point open for everyone). There are some directories helping you to find both commercial and non-commerical access points.

Commercially exploited access points

Where people are looking to get a need fullfilled, there are always people willing to provide the service in the return of some income. Commercial Wireless LAN providers are providing access to internet by providing wireless access points in popular locations like airports, railway stations, hotels, bars, restaurants and conference halls. Most want to be paid per minute, some just show ads when you switch website.

Private open access points

Some people share their wireless network unwillingly because they do not how to secure their access point (if you are one of these people, please refer to our manual for setting up your own wireless network). But more and more people are willingly sharing their own wireless network. Partially because the price of flatfee internet has dropped so far that sharing you connection is no cost at all, partially because many people see it as a kind of hospitality to others.

There is some legal controversy here. It is difficult to see if an access point is intended for public use or strictly for private use. Where in some parts in Europe accessing someone else's network is legal unless you do this by breaking any kind of protection, other parts of the world certainly have other opinions. Both in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and the US cases are known of people being arrested and convicted for using access points that were not secured. Many countries lack law in this field alltogether, so it could be up to the interpretation of the local law enforcement and judge.

Please be reminded that open or commercial wireless access points are untrusted channels and are capable of eavesdropping your e-mail and browsing communication. In order to prevent people eavesdropping on e-mail communication, please secure your e-mail communication

If you decide to use access points, the trouble is in finding these open access points. It is especially complicated because generally you lack the local knowledge and probably will not use the open hotspot on a regular basis. A great resource are the 'wardrive' maps that are maintained around the internet. Many contain a classification between access points known to be open by choice and the access points where its status is unknown. There are some tools to help you do this.

Finding Wireless LAN Access points  

WiFiFofum

WiFiFofum is a free application for personal use.
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