Why bother to know where open Wi-Fi locations are? There are several reasons, but one of the biggies is to save money. If for example you have a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone or iPod Touch and a $2.99/month Skype account, that does mean wherever there’s Wi-Fi, you can place calls using that instead of a wireless carrier’s network. And if connecting Skype-to-Skype, that’s free. Or heck, you could even use Google Voice for 100% free texting. True, it’s SMS-text only with no multimedia ability (meaning you can’t send or receive pictures/video/etc.), but that’s not a big deal because text is the thing you probably use most.
One of the better internet Wi-Fi locators I’ve seen is Wi-Fi Maps by WeFi. It’s very good and very accurate – but is a bit creepy at the same time.
The good part is that WeFi’s map is truly interactive using Google Maps, and it’s easy. Drag the map around, find your Wi-Fi spots, make note of them for wherever you’re traveling, etc.
The creepy part is that WeFi’s map lists everything – including residential wireless routers.
To see an example of the creepiness, do the following: Load up WeFi maps, enter your physical address (or close approximate), then show all the locked choices by enabling that from the Filter at the top of the map by checking the box…
…and you’ll see pockets on the map of where large concentrations of wireless routers are.
I live in a particularly congested area, so there’s lots of Wi-Fi around me. When I zoomed in on the map, this is what it looks like:
I zoomed as tight as I could and hovered over each to see if my wireless router was in this list. Sure enough, it was.
When I clicked on the SSID name I knew was mine, I saw this:
Mr. or Ms. Guest, whoever that was, mapped my router’s relative location in 2010. And yes, there’s the ability to have it removed. This does require signing up an account to do so, but at least it’s an option.
For those of you in the Tin Foil Hat Club, it’s very unlikely that having your wireless router’s SSID on WeFi Maps will be of any information-leak danger to you. But if it really bothers you that your wireless router is listed there, you can remove it as shown above.
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Pretty cool. I tried it using the addresses I lived in recently, but I couldn’t find anything. I guess it works much more effectively in bigger cities.
Neat– but not necessarily what you think. Went t my address– which is pure residential neighborhood next to a mental institution.
It lists a Wifi Spot inside the Mental Institution as a ‘Hotel’ ROFL. It lists several ‘Barnes & Nobles’ on Residential Side streets. And Starbucks! fer chrissakes, that I know for a fact Do Not Exist.
And more warily– a few of the named OPEN WiFi Spots (ie: Starbucks) are invitingly named– but you’d be a FOOL to Log into them. My WiFi isn’t listed– and I’ve been here over 10 years, but then I only turn it own when I need to use it or guests come to the house.
I’d use this map as a tool to look for “Spider Traps”
Yeah you have to watch the proximity on what’s listed. The one for mine showed the point on a completely different property because of the guesstimated point of origin.
It’s not even close to being accurate, at least for where I live, but I can see a use for it if you are in an unfamiliar area and need to find WiFi access to the internet.