How to take advantage of Free WiFi at Starbucks or Ramada, or maybe your friends house.

So you have been out to a Star Bucks or to a friends house and wanted use there Wi-Fi and connect to the internet to check your email maybe even update your Twitter or Facebook page, but you just don’t know how to make that wireless connection!

Hang on, and we’ll get you surfing and emailing in just a few moments.

I was in the middle of writing a much longer and more descriptive version of this post when a friend called and asked me how in the world they use a free Wi-Fi connection. So I decided to write this post and get it out there before putting out the much more descriptive version.

Well here is what I told her. I don’t care if you are using a wireless laptop (or tablet pc) or some Wi-Fi enabled handheld device, the basics are the same, the only real difference is how you get to the settings that need to be addressed.

First off we need to make sure that the wireless client is turned on in your computing device. Quite often on laptops and tablet’s, there is a switch or button somewhere on the outside of the case to turn on or shut off wireless capability. Most of the time there is a lit up icon somewhere near the keyboard or the front of the case letting you know if wireless is enabled or not.

After that we just need to make sure that wireless capability is enabled in the computing devices Operating System (OS). Basically you just need to go to the devices settings page or control panel, then go to networking, once there you should see your wireless client device.

Next we need to make sure that it can see the Wi-Fi signal, some where in the settings for your wireless client, you should see a scan button, that will tell the device to “sniff the air waves” for a wireless signal. This can take a few moments to complete. Once completed, it should show you a list off all of the wireless signals that it could see in range, and there current signal strengths. Each signal has a name, called an SSID.

Next you need to select the appropriate SSID for where you are at. So if you are at Starbucks, you should see an SSID called Starbucks, or if at McDonalds you should see SSID McDonalds. If you are at a friends house, you might see an SSID with there last name, or maybe the generic name given by there wireless router, like LinkSys, or Netgear, your friend should know the name of there wireless network. So select the appropriate SSID, and then you should see a connect button, click on that. If the SSID that you wish to connect to has an icon next to it showing a lock, or it may simply say secured, that means that you need to know a pass-phrase in order to establish a wireless connection to there network. This is commonly known as a Wireless Encryption Key. There are many types of wireless keys like WEP, WPA, TKIP, or what ever, the most common is WEP, but that does not matter at this moment, your client device should have already detected the type of encryption and display the appropriate pass-phrase box, what does matter is that you must know what the pass-phrase (or password) is.

If you are at a friends, they should know what they setup there pass-phrase to be, or at least have it written down somewhere. If you are at a public location, then you may need to go up to the counter to get information on connecting to there specific wireless network. Some public locations, known as HotSpots, will have an un-secured wireless network, and you will be able to connect to there wireless network without knowing and entering a wireless encryption key, but once you connect to there network, and you try to surf to a web page, you be interrupted and redirected to a special account page asking for your HotSpot account info, or sign up right there on that page. You may have to go up to the counter and sign up and get account info there.

In any case, if it’s a secured network, as soon as you click on connect you will be prompted to enter the pass-phrase (encryption key). Some client device software will require you to enter the key twice, and some only once. Either way, just make sure that you enter the key exactly because they are Caps sensitive.

Once you successfully connect, you should be able to open your web-browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Opera…) and go to a web page, try a few different pages, Google, MSN, Yahoo.com, or where ever. If all is well, you be able to check email and surf the web.

Some public Wi-Fi providers do not encrypt there wireless signals, so you will not need the know an encryption key or pass phrase to connect to there wireless network, but instead, when you first attempt to browse to a webpage, there system will redirect you to a special webpage that will ask for a password provided to you from the front desk. Once you enter that password, then you can freely browse the internet.

If you get DNS errors or pages just do not load, even after trying a few different pages, then there is an issue, either the encryption key was not correct (some software’s will allow you to enter an incorrect key and not warn you that it its wrong) or your main networking settings are incorrect.

While you are in your settings page for your wireless client device, check the TCP/IP settings, and make sure that it is set to Auto or DHCP, or some public places require that you enter specific or advanced settings in the TCP/IP area.

Just remember that not all Wireless Wi-Fi HotSpots are free to use, some do charge for the use of there wireless network. Make sure to ask the clerk for more details.

I hope this helped you out as much as it did for my friend.