Wifi on the road.

[Lifemagician]

Thought it may be of help if we had a list of places where folk know wifi is available, on the road. Would probably be helpful if one knows if it is free, and if not, how much.

The free ones I already know of are:

Libraries
Starbucks
Panera Bread - 30 mins limit at lunch time
Perkins Restaurants
Starbucks
Home Depot
Safeway
McDonalds
Iowa Interstate rest areas - 30 min limit

Many of these are able to be picked up in the parking lot.

Truck Stops - pay for the day, month or year.

If you can, please add to this list. I am sure I am not the only one who is totally reliant on wifi.

Lifey

 

[WheelEstate USA]

We had a wifi service, but gave it up once we found there so many places to use free. There have been times when there isn't any, so we simply wait till we find a spot.

Some places we found with open wifi when parked nearby...

lots of RV parks (just outside)
schools/trade schools
some casinos
many fast foods (BK, Arby's, etc)
Denny's
sports bars
some motels/hotels
coin laundries

Margie's laptop has better wifi than mine, I guess. Often her's will work when mine won't.

 

[caseyc]

You might want to get one of these WiFi extenders that you can clip onto your laptop to better receive a signal. The Bear Extender comes in both PC and Mac versions.

Bear Extender Wifi booster:
http://store.bearextender.com/products/bearextender-for-pc


Margie's laptop has better wifi than mine, I guess. Often her's will work when mine won't.
[/quote]

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Several people have mentioned good results with one of those. I'll add that to my list of goodies to look for here in Q.

 

[owl]

Hey b-us, I think Len has those, if not one of his buddies is a cracker jack computer repairman and I'll bet he does.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Thanks.
We met Len the other afternoon. Nice guy with some good info on LED lighting. He showed us how to save a few bucks on what we thought we wanted vs what we really needed.
We'll check with him before we buy a wifi booster.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I'm on blood thinners and have to have blood drawn for testing once a month. Last time I was hanging out in the waiting room outside the lab at my local hospital, I checked for wifi with my android tablet.

I picked up more than a dozen different networks in that hospital. Most were locked down with WPA2, but a couple of them were wide open, presumably for people in the waiting rooms to use.

This suggests that hospital parking lots may be worth trying.

Regards
John

 

[van2be]

In addition to the places mentioned above, at least some locations of the following:

- Bashas, Albertsons, Krogers, Ingles, Whole Foods, Publix and other large/regional chain supermarkets (in some cases, the supermarkets' wifi comes from an in-store Starbucks)

- Dunkin Donuts, Ruby Tuesdays and other fast/not-so-fast food chains...

- some car dealership service departments

- Best Buy (and other electronics [super]stores?)

- Barnes and Noble and any other large bookstores that are left standing (maybe some smaller ones, too)

I poked around on some of the above's websites' "store finders" and the only one that caught my eye as noting which of their specific locations have wifi was Dunkin Donuts.

P.S. Not a shill here. I don't like their coffee...

ETA: Dang, left out Publix and Best Buy, and a comma...

 

[bruceduce42]

Food, water, shelter...and WIFI? You arent the only one. If you have a smartphone then it is pretty easy to find a free wifi hotspot. If not then you will need to use a database like the site below to find it before you leave your current wifi connection!

Free WIFI Finder App for apple deviceshttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-wi-fi-finder/id307217005?mt=8
Free WIFI Finder App for android devices https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jiwire.android.finder&hl=en
If you dont have a smartphone, no worries you can access this list via PC http://www.wififreespot.com/

 

[bvanevery]

Lowe's Hardware is consistent and wasn't previously mentioned.
Staples office supply is consistent. Probably the other office supply places too, but not sure.

Often it's not about finding a signal somewhere, it's about finding one consistently without a lot of parking, hunting, and sniffing. For instance, McDonalds is 100% reliable. The other fast food joints may have it but you can't count on it. Starting and stopping your car is a gamble that uses up that teeny weeny bit of your gas, and more of your time.

When I start exploring a new city I carry my iPod around to sniff for open wifi signals. I also plug the charger into any electrical sockets I find to see if they're live. I've wanted to find a tiny nightlight to do the plugging job instead, just in case the socket fries the thing I plugged into it. I haven't quite gone up the electrical testing learning curve. There are $5 testers at Walmart but they have caveats about what they won't diagnose, which makes me think in the worst case the socket could still kablooey my equipment, so not worth $5 to test anything.

 

[davem]

Meijer's recently announced they will be offering wifi in their stores. http://www.fierceretail.com/mobileretail/story/meijers-free-wifi-delivers-mobile-promise/2014-01-28

 

[Vagabound]

This thread is a bit old and dusty (2014 and older), but seems to be the best collection of free wifi spots in the forums.

This list seems to still be active and looks to have a lot of places listed:

http://www.wififreespot.com/

Any new places to add based on travel experience or Internet announcements, etc.?

Vagabound

 

[poncho62]

I dont see Walmart listed above.....All the Walmarts I have visited here in Canada, I could get WIFI out in the parking lot. Is it the same in the US?

 

[rvpopeye]

Yes at a lot of them but you have to install the walmart app to get online.

 

[Vagabound]

Yes at a lot of them but you have to install the walmart app to get online.

What sort of creature is this Wal-Mart app -- software designed to show you WM ads while you use their wi-fi?  

Vagabound

 

[DrJean]

Thanks for this info!  I'm about to look into VPNs... any ideas?  (ya gotta have it to secure your data when using public hotspots, right?)

 

[Matlock]

~'!^ cough ~'~` dusty fer sure....

^^^ so Doc, I'm reading that VPN's are not as secure as one might believe and there is usually some cost as well. I'm let to believe that a personal MiFi hotspot is more secure than a VPN, No?

 

[Txjaybird]

 Recently in a bank parking lot next to Lowes  used Lowes wifi.

Whatsa VPN....very paranoid  _____

Jewellann

 

[Matlock]

VPN = Virtual private network

First you login to a free wifi, then login to your VPN and it is suppose to encrypt your connection to that free wifi.

 

[Oberneldon]

I use Hotspot Shield VPN - there is a yearly cost for multiple devices

Brent


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