Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
1–10 of 78 posts
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#2What is the source of this data?
As I see my tier 3 city also has few free wifi listed here.
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#3How do I zoom out?
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#4How do I zoom out?
Mousewheel.
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#5What is the source of this data? As I see my tier 3 city also has few free wifi listed here.
We aggregated from a bunch of private sources.
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#6A point of constructive criticism is that there are some inconsistencies in how large-scale public WiFi seems to be handled. For instance, in Ann Arbor, MI every University of Michigan building AFAIK has free public WiFi (as well as a private network for university affiliates). However, I only see a few listings for the "MGuest" network in the area. Is there a better feasible way of handling this?
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#7What is the source of this data? As I see my tier 3 city also has few free wifi listed here.
Probably gathered from the app of https://meshable.io/?
The website is light on details, but it's probably a commercial WiFi-sharing company, like a commercial version of Freifunk (a mostly german initiative where people openly share their WiFi, and meshing is used to extend coverage when a direct internet uplink isn't available), with the interesting twist that they're using an app instead of a custom WiFi access point firmware.
I wonder if they route traffic through open Wifis if any are in the vicinity and then charge for it.
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#8If an WiFi hotspot doesn't have a password doesn't mean it's free.
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#9Are those providing internet access, or just unprotected networks ?
Re: Show HN: 500,000 free WiFi hotspots plotted around the world
#10Searching by zip code zooms the map into areas 20-40 miles outside of the actual area code. At least that was my experience with the 2 that I tried.