Public WIFI
 

A local mall nearby has Public wifi. My n800 detects it and connects however, it does not allow me to surf the internet, or in fact do anything thats related to the Internet.

I have connected to other various public hotspots and it usually takes me to their homepage where you agree to not abuse the network etc etc.

If it helps, the place I am talking about is Partridge Creek Mall in Clinton Township, MI in case anybody has tried

Any sugesstions on how to make this work?

Customer service just said consult your handheld device manual

I am running an n800 with OS2008

Re: Public WIFI
 

I've yet to connect to a wifi other than my own.

Everyone of them to date has failed and the "error message" is totally unhelpful :-(.

Re: Public WIFI
 

maybe a reflash of the current OS2008 firmware may help.

I have connected to a lot of different hotspots...public and private (unsecured of course) Including Panera Bread

Re: Public WIFI
 

I am assuming it does not assign an IP Address?

Re: Public WIFI
 

If you can attach to another site's wireless -- like your own -- then the unit is probably working properly.

It's probably some form of security. There's lots of reasons APs don't complete a connection to a wireless computer:

1. There's an encryption system in use you can't get into.
2. The access point only communicates with a certain set of MAC addresses and your unit does not have one of them.
3. There is no DHCP in use; all units are assued to statically assign an IP address.
4. The signal is weak and cutting in and out too much to sustain a good connection.

You said you can get a good signal and that it's not encrypted. So my guess is that #2 above is in place: your unit does not have one of the approved MAC addresses. If that's true, then you are SOL.

If it's #3 above, you could try manually assigning an IP address in a standard range, say 192.168.1.x. That's a needle in the haystack proposition, however. You are probably SOL there too.

Re: Public WIFI
 

I've never had trouble connecting to public wifi. Of course, the first thing you need to do is ask the people providing the wifi if anything special like a password is needed.

Re: Public WIFI
 

Same...I always get the "ip" problem... :(

Re: Public WIFI
 

I just noticed you are from Michigan. So am I. In Michigan, geneven's permission comment is very true: a news story on a local station here pointed out prosecution in Sparta, MI, of a man who "borrowed" WiFi from a coffee shop without having coffee. The same thing happened in London, UK; a previous thread in ITT talked about it.

User beware.

Re: Public WIFI
 

I know of the story. I am not trying to steal or borrow bandwidth :) The Mall at Partridge Creek offers free wifi as long as you are on the property because you are therefor a patron. I was just saying that for some reason It wouldnt let me browse. I went to customer service and they said that when you connect to their wifi it should go directly to the malls website. They also told me to consult my user manual LOL. I wish i had another wifi device to test it. But thank you for the advice and insight

Re: Public WIFI
 

Yes, try it with another device, like a laptop and see if it works. I have a similar problem at my local Starbucks, and will be testing it later this evening with my laptop to see if I'm getting the walled garden page that I should be getting on my N800. A friend of mine is the product manager for WiFi services in the telco that I work for, and has requested for feedback so he can address the problem.

Interestingly enough, he's able to connect it via his Nokia N80. I've tried other hotspots around the same mall and have no problems connected to a few free ones as well, so this could be related to the walled garden.

Does anyone know how microB identifies itself? I know that some walled gardens have browser detection so that might be part of the problem.

Re: Public WIFI
 

Bump for fresh eyes... I was at the airport the other day where they offer free wifi but could not connect, I searched and found a thread where it said that you have to changed the MAC address, is this right? How does someone accomplish this? TIA

Re: Public WIFI
 

No, no it's not.

Re: Public WIFI
 

some quick points, unfortunately not answering the OP's question, but FWIW

There is a wierd thing going around that I think has something to do with Ad Hock networking. Anyway, it says 'Public Wifi on your list but really is not a router at all. If you are interested, try doing a search on this here. There was a recent thread about this.
Also, sometimes I have been able to connect to an open wifi network that shows up as open but then I get the 'connection error' message. Simply by persisting and trying over and over again you can end up connecting sometimes.
Also, no unfortunately airports aren't free. But I noticed that the very inexpensive Boingo service ( only like $8 per month) includes airports and lots of other sites.
One last thing, it appears to me that chain stores are starting to add free WIFI. I found out, for example that Les Schawb (sp?) , a tire seller if not in your area, now has free WIFI.

Neil

Re: Public WIFI
 

Actually you can get free WiFi at many airports. My own local airport has free public WiFi, and I have found many others in my travels. In addition I can usually find a free open WiFi network by sitting outside one of the first-class lounges in those airports where there isn't free public WiFi. Most of the lounges don't bother with security when they have to deal with so many business travellers passing through.

Re: Public WIFI
 

Yeah, I can personally vouch for free wifi access at Philadelphia, Orlando and Atlanta airports; used it at all of them with my old Zaurus.

I do note that at some hotels here in TO where I have attended science-fiction conventions, the wifi security obliged you to log in through a webpage that was the first thing up when you opened a browser ... wonder if microB was unrecognised? That could be a bummer, and an added incentive to get Opera running on OS2008.

Re: Public WIFI
 

I remember reading that there is a way to see hot spots on google maps.

First I would like to know how to do this and second I would love to be able to port that info into maemo mapper :)

Re: Public WIFI
 

look here
I've been to lots of hotels with free but password protected wifi. The worst was one that changed it's freakin code every week and you had to log in thru it every time you lost a connection.

Re: Public WIFI
 

thanks for the info . I would make sure to refer to them for my future traveling .

Re: Public WIFI
 

While I tend to side with wifi providers (both the knowing and ignorant) in these situations, the Michigan case seems extreme. But maybe it all depends on how belligerent the guy was...

In my experience, Opera was more problematic in this regard than microb... by far.

Re: Public WIFI
 

Wow!!! Bdjohnso10 that picture you have is way way too Gay.

Re: Public WIFI
 

A little background on my avatar to clear things up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQmq5fjTG4o

his name is Hardgay :)

Re: Public WIFI
 

"free public wifi" is not an internet connection but something windows generates
i think i read about this first in another post here...

Re: Public WIFI
 

"free public wifi" is usually a windows machine that is infected with a trojan. It creates an ad-hoc network and when people connct it tries to spread the trojan.

Re: Public WIFI
 

I was walking through the Las Vegas airport last week when I spotted a guy working on a N810. I sat down and pulled out my N800. We both had no problem whatsoevr connecting to the FREE wifi connection offered at the Vegas airport. Had a nice conversation with him. He was using the N810 as it came out of the box - didn't even realize he could add more applications! I filled him in.

I have noticed in the past that sometimes I have problems connecting to airport, hotel, coffee shop etc open wifi networks. Usually if I just try again and again I eventually get in.

Re: Public WIFI
 

I have had the same results at shopping malls, Bob. I'm betting the multiple irregular surfaces and distances are a large factor. I would think more repeaters would help, especially in malls and airports.

Re: Public WIFI
 

I just recently discovered a site called jiwire.com which displays both free and pay sites on a google map. It looks impressive, but after looking at a few of the places they had on the map, some of those places no longer existed or offered any type of wifi. It's just one of many sites listing free wifi access, but I don't know of any others off the top of my head.

Re: Public WIFI
 

I was just down in Palm Beach at PBI where they have "complimentary free wifi". I could easily connect to it but the micro B browser kept getting server errors. I was never able to reach the web. Despite trying to surf at a few other spots since I had my n800, I have never been able to with anything but my home router. In the next couple days I will make an effort to seek out known public spots to see if this is a problem with OS2008.

Re: Public WIFI
 

Didn't bother reading all the replies so sorry if someone already said it:

The power saving feature doesn't play nice with all wlan. For example at home I can't use it at all because the N800 simply refuses to work. Sure it connects but that's it.. can't load web pages, can't do ****..

As soon as I disable it everything works perfect. In the middle mode it works for first few web sites and then stops..

So the next time some free wifi spot doesn't work for you try to disable power saving.. maybe it'll work then.

Re: Public WIFI
 

That's probably the one setting I didn't play with while wanting to max the battery life. I will give that a shot. Thanks.

Re: Public WIFI
 

if you suspect your not getting a connection to the internet just ping in xterminal.

"ping -w 60 www.google.com"

This is basic but ping is the command, -w is an argument says to exit the ping program after the next number which is in seconds, 60 obviously is the number of seconds for the -w argument, and www.google.com is the destination you wanna ping.

Since this is a network issue there are a whole slew of network command tools, I don't know if they are compiled for ARM OMAP but you can always compile them yourselves. Once I get a NIT i'll get all of the ones I sometimes use on my lappie to work.

PS N800 or N810?

Re: Public WIFI
 

"PS N800 or N810?"
N800 - Has 2 memory card slots. Radio chip too.
No Keyboard, GPS.

N810 - Only 1 card slot (the other is used by a internal 2GB which can corrupt sometimes). No radio.
Has transreflective screen, keyboard & GPS (although people report problems with it).

Re: Public WIFI
 

Dont forget the N810's FM Transmitter :D

Think I'll get a N800, to begin with... Just need to find the money. Oh well, hey I'll go and get a sock in put it in my mouth so I stop going over the same facts over and over again lol. :eek:

Cheers

Re: Public WIFI
 

I have had similar probs connecting with free public wifi on my N800/ITOS08. I get a message I am connected to the network but can't bring up anything after that...including the standard User Agreement page many sites put up.

I was sure it was a Tx problem so I reset the Tx from 10mW to the 100mW max setting. But, no joy. I have not looked into it further as I carry a Cradlepoint Travel/Pocket router and have an EVDO mobile broadband connection. But it might be nice to figure it out so I can save battery power on the router now and then.

Not sure the exact reason but I have had the issue at several locations. So, I am guessing it is some sort of config issue on my end. Since the UA page will not come up (even though the auto redirect URL shows in the address box) it's not a simple matter of a ping to another site...until you agree to the UA there is no access granted. Might even be a browser issue for all I know yet.

Next time I am at Von's (yup ours has a free wifi...weird huh?) or Staples I'll try a few things. Our Von's has a Starbuck's in it so I can sit, have a coffee and see what I can manage.

BTW: scumgrief excellent full answer to a question!! I think we all forget sometimes most users are not experts in any OS and leave out what has become trivial to us. Plus ya never know when what is simple or trivial to you might help someone who has experience...so very nice answer on how the ping command works. :)

Re: Public WIFI
 

I too frequently cannot connect to public wifi. Just today i could connect to an open wifi signal with my N800, but could connect perfectly easily with my laptop. This has happened on numerous other occasions.

I connect all the time at home, no problem, but there is definitely something amiss with the Nokia tablets connecting to public wifi signals.

very frustrating, indeed. Does anyone know what the root cause of this issue is???

Re: Public WIFI
 

EDIT: Just today i could NOT connect....

Re: Public WIFI
 

No idea - I can connect to any network I can find, as long as it's open. Are you sure these are open networks? I've never had a problem connecting, as long as it was a good network, not a spoof, and it was unsecured.

Re: Public WIFI
 

Don't know about that. But I can tell the following story:

a) Either "free public wifi" is related to the WiFi signail of the Nintendo DS game console (which can actually communicate using WiFi) or,
b) Another windows machine, with the symptoms stated above.

I turned on my N810 aboard an airplane (commercial airline) , in flight, at cruise level (when you are allowed to turn on computers) and my N810 started detecting that "free public WiFi" onboard and at 35000 ft !!!

A girl sitting next to me had a Nintendo DS turned on also, so I really thought this "free public wifi" was actually from her toy console....

Go figure ! Any comments ?

Re: Public WIFI
 

The "Free Public WiFi" that you see most often is due to a bug in Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista. If a laptop connects to an ad hoc (i.e. peer-to-peer) network once, then the next time it is powered up, it will advertise ITSELF as an ad hoc network with the name of the last ad hoc network it connected with.

To tell the difference in what type of network you are trying to connect to with your N8x0 look VERY CLOSELY at the ICONS in the list of networks found.

An INFRASTRUCTURE network shows as the WiFi symbol. These are OK to connect to.

An AD HOC network has the WiFi symbol with a little DOT OVER IT. Don't connect to these--chances are that the person who's computer is advertising itself as an ad hoc is either a hacker or has been hacked by a hacker. Either way, ad hoc networks are suspect.

Re: Public WIFI
 

Alas, i can tell this really isn't to go anywhere, but yes, I am sure the it is a real/valid/ functional INFRASTRUCTURE network that can be connected to by other devices.

As I've said before, I can connect to some signals, but not all, not consistently. Just b/c wifi connectectivity works with some access points some of the time does not mean it works. I am still 100% convinced that there is either software or hardware issue with the N800 (presumably n8X0) wifi.

I am going to try the power thingy mentioned earlier in this thread to see if that may help...

Re: Public WIFI
 

Problems connecting to open wifi spots are sometimes related to the fact the WAP is not running dhcp and wont hand out IP addresses to clients. This you would have to know what IP range is being used in order to connect to these type of wifi spot. This is where kismet comes in handy since its able to detect the ip range of such WAP`s :) I connect to a whole bunch of open wifi all around and never had a problem.