Should Wi-Fi be free in all public places?

When you go on a vacation, you stop a fast food restaurant and get something to eat. But let's say you need to check email, for example, and while connecting, you get a message that says you need to type in a password. Not all fast food restaurants have free Wi-Fi, and there might be a good reason for it -- such as a customer doing something malicious over the connection.

But wouldn't it be nice if you could always connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi for free? Or is that asking for trouble?

wifi public free

asked Aug 03 '11 at 19:55

Jared Nelson
331●45●55●59

edited Sep 19 '11 at 17:57

Fogarty ♦♦
11.7k●12●27●38

8 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

2	I believe it is up to the owner's of the establishment to decide that. answered Aug 03 '11 at 20:14 JordanV 4.1k●62●82●124

1	I'd say it's up to the owner, however, it's good move as long as it's secure. I don't mind when you have to buy something to get the code -- in fact I think it's best that way. answered Aug 03 '11 at 20:19 Streek 151●1●2●8

meh with 3g smartphone and tablet devices wifi everywhere is not quite needed as much anyway plus it is very insecure to just connect to a network

answered Aug 03 '11 at 19:59

mellis1995
91●6●6●10

Data caps change most peoples perspective than you think. I'm pretty positive most people would rather not use their data if there was an option for free wifi. Even if it was a "membership" like the t-mobile hotspots.

(Sep 19 '11 at 18:56) sillymansam

0	They should offer an encrypted network with a password, but publicly display the password. We don't need any more people using firesheep. :D answered Aug 03 '11 at 20:09 korin125 576●2●5●12

0	Sometimes the wifi isn't even connected to the Internet. I know that sounds strange but the password may be there to prevent interference with their network. answered Aug 03 '11 at 20:40 Pizzscn 1.5k●62●72●88

As a consumer, I think that internet should be as widely available as possible, with high speeds, and for free. In the real world, it is quite different. If I want to use internet on an airplane, it costs $10 more, for a very slow connection. However, if I really need to work on something, I have no choice but to pay this fee. The airplane companies aren't stupid though. If the service was $1 or $10, the sales aren't going to change a lot, but the revenue will sure be a lot more. However, if the service was free, then it would get used a lot more.

answered Sep 19 '11 at 18:52

KylePolansky
2.0k●4●8●39

It should be left up to the establishment, its their business. I would include it if I ran a cafe and I would certainly make it secure. The password would be publicly displayed, however. Why? Because simply by encrypting your wireless access point using WPA-2, you separate each computer connected to the network from one another. This stops attacks like Fire sheep and packet sniffers, which is the most common exploitation. I would also make two networks, one for private use by employees and a public one which would be completely independent and given a bandwidth limitation as to prevent abuse.

answered Sep 19 '11 at 19:38

Alastor Moody ♦♦
6.5k●11●35●60

0	I believe that wifi should be a free service offered by businesses to customers. answered Sep 19 '11 at 20:56 wordkev 676●10●15●23 edited Sep 19 '11 at 20:58

Your answer

toggle preview

community wiki

Follow this question

By Email:

Once you sign in you will be able to subscribe for any updates here

By RSS:

Answers

Answers and Comments

Markdown Basics

*italic* or __italic__
**bold** or __bold__
link:[text](http://url.com/ "title")
image?![alt text](/path/img.jpg "title")
numbered list: 1. Foo 2. Bar
to add a line break simply add two spaces to where you would like the new line to be.
basic HTML tags are also supported

learn more about Markdown