ALE Winter 2003/04 No. 312 : Next section

Wireless Hotspots

Whether you're into compooters or believe they've no place in a pub, public wireless connection is highly topical.

Intel, which is championing public wireless access, has surveyed the UK and reckons the following Cambridge public places have such access:

Fountain, Regent Street
Graduate, Chesterton Road
Sir Isaac Newton, Castle Hill
Pickerel, Magdalene Street
Rosemary Branch, Coldham's Lane
Caffe Nero, Market Street
Internet Exchange, St Mary's Passage
but the survey misses out these D.I.Y. set-ups:
Elm Tree, Orchard Street
Kingston Arms, Kingston Street

The concentration on pubs is largely because wi-fi hotspot firm The Cloud has collaborated with various technology and entertainment companies to put access points in many pub games machines.

Exeter comes in at no. 1 in the ranking of hotspot counts and Oxford at no. 5.

On 26th November an expedition with a hand-held PC found no signal at the Fountain but the Pickerel does indeed have access, provided by The Cloud.

The way this works is:

no encryption or other special settings
set SSID='any' or 'MyCloud'
start your Web browser; this brings up a login page
if you have a subscription already with their partner BT Openzone, you can use that
otherwise you can make a phone call via your mobile to buy a voucher for, say, 60 minutes of access
enter that voucher's details on the login page
the clock starts ticking when you start to use the voucher; the clock doesn't stop when you log out though you can roam to another Cloud base station

-> BBC News 13-Nov-2003: Exeter named 'top wireless town'
-> Intel: Intel Jiwire -> UK -> Cambridge
-> www.mycloud.net
-> BT Openzone wireless broadband
-> Cotares wireless broadband and their Cambridge Public Fixed Wireless Access Trial

ALE Winter 2003/04 No. 312 : Next section
Cambridge & District CAMRA