Some UK wireless info

B

bb_matt

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FREE Wireless Hotspots in London
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These are ones which I've found, it's pointless listing someone elses findings, especially as these things are subject to change.

The Natural Cafe, Wimbledon Village
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http://www.london-eating.co.uk/6259.htm

Free wireless, exceptionally noisy on weekends, loads of kids.
No problem, wireless is free. Coffee is "fair trade" organic and very good.
Fresh fruit juices and other organic foods.


The Globe Tavern, Borough Market, Southwark
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Aside from being a most excellent place to visit, http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/aboutus.html,
The Globe has free wireless access - what better way to enjoy a pint ?

Wimbledon Library
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Peaceful place to sit, just got here now to check - noticed wall sockets in various areas. Definately a place I could spend a few hours after the noise of the Natural coffee shop. In fact, this may become my primary access in the mornings for the next week or so.

---------------------------------

I will only list places I've personally visited and won't list those which cost, because there's millions of them.
There's also wireless networks at peoples homes all over the damn place, at the B&B I've just moved to, there's five secured networks visible. No point listing those either.
Also no point in listing free networks from other network list sites, because they will be unconfirmed by myself.


The old part of the message starts here ...
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OK, just to make you insanely jealous, I'm sitting in a quaint pub just outside Wimbledon Village that is part of "The Cloud" network - this is a group of wireless connection options from different providers.

At it's most expensive, you can sign up for a quick hour session for £4.50, which is over R50 or BT Openzone at £6 for an hour - yipes, R70 ! - yes folks, internet can be expensive in the UK too.

At it's cheapest. Boingo can be had for $21 a month with a current special of an extra month thrown in for free - that's around R150 - just signed up now, will let you know how it goes after my initial expensive hour is up - depends how many ciders I drink !

Boingo
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SPECIAL OFFER! $21.95 monthly membership fee for unlimited usage. 2nd month is FREE. No contract required. Additional charges may apply at some premium international locations.

BT Open Zone
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BT Openzone 24 Hour Voucher, GBP10 (inc.VAT)
BT Openzone 30 Day Voucher, GBP40 (inc.VAT)
BT Openzone 1 Hour Voucher, GBP6 (inc.VAT)

O2
--

We offer an unlimited access package for Wireless LAN called WLAN Max. This is available to all business customers on O2 250 or above for a monthly subscription of £30 (+ VAT).

Payment by Premium SMS
You can get Wireless LAN Internet access for 60 minutes when you pay by Premium SMS.

This service costs £6 (inc VAT) and will be charged to your next mobile phone bill. Please seek the owner’s permission before purchase.


WEroam
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not sure - can't be arsed finding out after 3 screens of looking

GBIA
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ditto


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Haven't checked out free hotspots yet, fact is, Boingo is so damn cheap for 2 months, who cares ! - unlimited usage too.

Time for another cider in this loverly pub - so cool that I can sit by myself and feel comfortable after walking up the road with a R8000 laptop without fear of being mugged.

Of course, in some dodgy areas, there's always the chavs or hoodies - haven't encountered these horrors yet, but I've been told I will and just have to ignore them and get away quick.

2nd day here and I'm already a mobile wireless UK junkie net user !
 
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I'm going over to the UK next month for two weeks and this is the kind of info I've been looking for, thanks bb_matt. Please do let us know about free hotspots if you can find out any info.

(Off Topic - Do you know if the B&B you're staying at has a website?)
 
bb_matt said:
OK, just to make you insanely jealous, I'm sitting in a quaint pub just outside Wimbledon Village that is part of "The Cloud" network - this is a group of wireless connection options from different providers.


At it's cheapest. Boingo can be had for $21 a month with a current special of an extra month thrown in for free - that's around R150 - just signed up now, will let you know how it goes after my initial expensive hour is up - depends how many ciders I drink !
Click to expand...
It's not at all necessary to "pluk hardegat":D
 
OK - UPDATE !!!!

Boingo is a damn rip-off - guess I had too much cider, but the reality is that they have Basic and Premium hotspots - no prizes for guessing which one is vastly more widespread.

Premium hotspots are charged out at an additional $0.25 per minute !!!!
Do the math - it works out at about R90 a bloody hour.

Emailed them to ask if they can refund and cancel my account - frikkin' irritating. Shoulda read the fineprint.

Will sign up with BT instead, for £40 a month.

Ya ya - internet is cheap here if you have a fixed location !

Time to start sniffing for wifi networks ... :D
 
Yeah - I know, this applies to virtually nobody, but what the heck, some people may be headed for this rainy island as total newbies, so more observations ....

Managed to cancel the Boingo subscription - definately not worth it unless your certain you will be staying near a Basic hotspot, of which there are very few.

Signed up with BT Openzone - this is also a bit of a catch, but is by far the cheapest temporary mobile solution I've found yet (aside from free hotspots)

If you sign up for 30 days, unfortunately, that doesn't mean you get 30 days, it just means your account lasts for 30 days.

Once again, I didn't see any fine print anywhere about this - no dought I either missed it, or it's buried somewhere in the terms and conditions.

What you get is 66 hours worth of internet access valid for 30 days for £40.
That's around R470 at current exchange rates.

Speed wise, so far, I've got around the same as DSL512, sometimes a little faster.

If your coming over to London for more than a month, it seems to be the cheapest option with freedom to roam around pretty much any hotspot citywide.

In terms of internet cafes, the cost varies, cheapest is £1 for an hour, minimum £1 charge, 25p for each 15 minutes after first hour.

If your on laptop and need a quick hour, cheapest I've seen so far is £4.50

There's a free wifi hotspot at Victoria - I managed to access it from a meeting in a sidestreet just off Victoria, oddly enough, I couldn't access it from the terminal building itself.

Plenty of secured networks - leaving those well alone, as the laws here are rather strict regarding that type of thing and you don't want to f@ck with the UK cops.
 
Thanks VQuest.
Editing my initial post to slowly build up a picture of wireless in London, could be useful for people visiting.
 
New free wireless spot found - Wimbledon Library.

You'll probably find a good percentage of libraries have free wireless access, not sure, won't list um here until I've personally checked.


reech said:
oooh - Love borough market - work round the corner from there!
Click to expand...

Awesome !
It is most definately an incredible place.

After my morning job hunting, I'm going of to Spitalfields market to check that out. Went to Chapel Road yesterday and wasn't that impressed.

http://www.streetsensation.co.uk/markets.htm
 
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hehe - I'm sitting in the Library right now, job hunting before heading off to a recruitment agency for more job hunting.

I may not be able to report much after another few weeks, as I'll be out of cash - it all depends on getting a job.

I found another free wireless spot in The Ten Bells in Spitalfields, but it was horribly slow and intermittent, even though the signal was strong. Figure it was probably an office in the area with a compromised router or something.
No point listing it.

If your into wireless hacking, heh, there's no shortage. I just haven't had the time to dedicate toward getting connected. I've got part the way there with Kismet, but to be honest, I'm making do without having to resort to something of questionable legality.

I now know how to make my BT Openzone 4000 minutes (66 hours) last a LOT longer, augumented with free access in various places, there's no problem.

I also snagged 6 1 hour freebie vouchers at a recent Skype demonstration - they had The Cloud vouchers valid until 31 December, I convinced them to give me more than one voucher :)

Internet here is just everywhere.
 
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