# Free Public WiFi



## scootsandludes (Nov 28, 2003)

So I was playing with my iPhone in my apartment last night after work, and I noticed something I never seen before. Free Public WiFi in my WiFi settings. What this all about? I naturally logged in, but nothing really happened. Jumped on the MacBook and iMac to see if they saw it too. Low and behold yup it was there, but no actual internet connection. 

Is there a new public WiFi being setup in Toronto? When you connect, it's not like a typical connection, a different thing shows up instead of the bars, and when you want to disconnect you have to choose disconnect from FPW.

Anybody?


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## iJohnHenry (Mar 29, 2008)

Yep. Downtown is now a big hot-zone.


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## scootsandludes (Nov 28, 2003)

Any stories to link from? I'm assuming it's not setup properly cause even though I see it, I wasn't getting any actual web connections.


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

There is no global free wifi in Toronto. The only global wifi is run by Cogeco (bought from Toronto Hydro), and is called One Zone (http://onezone.ca/), and it is a pay service.


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## scootsandludes (Nov 28, 2003)

As far I knew you're right, this appeared yesterday, and I check my wifi availabilty everyday, and have never seen this before. Which why I'm curious about it, and wanting to know if anybody else has seen this? I noticed I walk a block and it's gone. 
It would normally not be a big deal, it's just that there's a process in logging on/off on it, which is really making me curious.


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## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

I have seen "Free Public Wifi" before in ottawa, never been able to get any internet connection even when connected the network. Wondering if this is fake or a scam.

Also have seen
"Free Public Hotspot"


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

"Free Public Wifi" and/or "Free Public Hotspot" are zombie programs being run on infected Win machines. They force-share the Win machine's internet connection and try to collect personal data from machines that log on.

Macs don't work with this system, so no worries (as usual), but caution your Windows friends -- these machines are ALL OVER THE PLACE. I most often seem them in airport lounges, waiting rooms, bus stations and other places that OUGHT to have legitimate free wifi and don't. Caveat Emptor.


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## ertman (Jan 15, 2008)

WOW!

I thought it would be something like that... but that still kinda freaky...

Glad I have a mac Now


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

I have seen "Free Public WiFi" all over the place. Downtown, York University, Pearson Airport. It always connected as a device so I stopped trying a while ago..

Thanks Chas that is some cool info!


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## scootsandludes (Nov 28, 2003)

That's too bad, I thought I was about to have a good thing going. I knew it as going to be to good to be true.

On the other hand, the free wifi connection disappeared the next day, but I did start to notice them in other public places as described by somebody else.


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## imobile (Oct 6, 2007)

*A little research on the "Free Public Wifi"*



scootsandludes said:


> That's too bad, I thought I was about to have a good thing going. I knew it as going to be to good to be true.
> 
> On the other hand, the free wifi connection disappeared the next day, but I did start to notice them in other public places as described by somebody else.



Free Public Wifi explained
Posted on January 31st, 2008
David Pogue points to a TechBlog post TechBlog: "Free Public WiFi"? Not! that explains why we keep seeing “Free Public Wifi” listed on available wifi networks. No, it’s not a fraud. No, it’s not a hoax. Yes, it is maybe the stupidest Windows thing ever. As TechBlog says, it’s viral without being a virus. Or, maybe it’s a virus that is all symptom.
In any case, I’m glad to have this clarified at last.

More 'educational reading' here....


Free Public WiFi SSID at WLAN Book.com

When "Free Public Wi-Fi" Is Bad

A word of warning about 'free' public Wi-Fi | Defensive Computing - CNET News


And finally... this blog!
MyMac Magazine • Macintosh • iPod • iPhone • Apple TV
"While traveling back from the US to the UK recently, I was sat waiting in an airport lounge, and I flipped open my MacBook Pro in search of the local WiFi service. What I found was a single service entitled “Free Public Wi-Fi”. Unfortunately, this was not the cut-price gateway to Internet connectivity you might think - and it is all Microsoft’s fault.

You see, when they were building the wireless network stack in Microsoft Windows XP, they configured it so that if it couldn't find a hotspot to connect to, it would rebroadcast a wireless network ID from the preferred networks list in ad-hoc (computer-to-computer) mode. Now, ad-hoc mode is a pretty pointless feature anyway, because it is much easier to use a flash drive for quick file transfers between computers rather than try and get a wireless network connection going. But, thanks to Microsoft’s even more pointless addition, we see “Free Public Wi-Fi” everywhere - someone connected to a network with that name once, and then turned their laptop on in a public place. XP rebroadcast the network name, and because the name is attractive to other users, they try and connect to it - adding it automatically to their own preferred networks list in the process. In this way, the network name has spread like a virus throughout the computing world.

As a Mac user, it’s pretty annoying, because Apple’s Airport is much more intelligently designed. Microsoft’s design decision with this ‘feature’ is hard to fathom, as it is hard to see circumstances where this behavior might be useful. They have patched XP to stop this behavior, but have never promoted the update or made it available automatically via Windows Update - and even if it is installed by a user, they have to further configure Windows to prevent the rebroadcast behavior.

If you are running 10.5 Leopard, you can spot these networks whatever the name - the Airport menu will have a little icon next to the network name that denotes the network type, and the icon for ad-hoc networks looks like a desktop computer. For users running older versions of OS X, the iStumbler utility allows you to spot these networks and easily avoid them. In short, connecting to an ad-hoc network will gain you nothing, and you can be glad that as Apple users we are not perpetuating the insidious spread of “Free Public Wi-Fi”!


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