*where are the free wfi hotspots in London?

[Choc]

thanks very much teepee. most helpful reply..

 

[jayeola]

I don't drive so I go for "war training", essentially war driving on a train. (??) Victora to Clapham Junction is mental. Also bus 137 from top of Totenham Court Road to Victoria is bonkers. You'll choke on the amount of "free" bandwidth out there.
(Hope that makes sense)

 

[Paul J]

I love this kind of thread.

A great way of finding hotspots for those of you with cars is wardriving (google it). You can do it with a normal PCMCIA card, but its best to crack one open and solder a bigger aerial onto the board, instructions are on google. here's a shabby one I made earlier, the aerial's magnetic and sticks to the roof of my car. Sorry for the tape obscuring the interesting bits.:



Then all you need is a program like Netstumbler (windows) from http://stumbler.net or Kismet (linux) from either http://www.kismetwireless.net/ or just 'sudo apt-get install kismet' if you use ubuntu/debian . Drive round and watch in amazement as you find upwards of 100 APs per drive. I find that around 80% are not WEPed. If you use a backpack, it would be possible to do this on a bike.

That looks well cool! Have you got a link to the site with the info for modding cards? Got one here I want to have a go at!

 

[Teepee]

That looks well cool! Have you got a link to the site with the info for modding cards? Got one here I want to have a go at!

Sorry, i lost the bookmark. There's no set way of doing it really, just look at how other people have done it and adapt it to your particular circuitry. when you take it apart there should be a notch in the circuit board between the printed aerials. solder the wire onto the copper strip leading centrally into that and the sheilding to the surrounding ones if there are any. It's intuitive once you get the plastic off. YMMV acording to the particular board.

 

[liberty]

im posting this on a pda phone at home with a choice of seven free connections

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Free wifi at the 24 hour diner Tinseltown (near Farringdon St on St Johns Lane), posting from there now!

 

[Janh]

Free wifi Forest Hill/Brockley

Jam Circus, Brockley Road, Crofton Park. Free wifi at this local pub/lounge, though take headphones for mornings as it's mum-and-toddlers-central.

Lewisham libraries have free wifi. When did libraries stop being places of quiet refuge?

Dartmouth Arms pub on Dartmouth Road, Forest Hill has free wifi, but crappy connection and the pub is a hollow, noisy shell.

 

[Janh]

Free wifi Euston Rd

I hear the cafe in the Friends Meeting House on Euston Rd has it.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

There's also free wifi at the city farm in Rotherhide.