A dumb question about wifi...

Question

I'm not as 'literate' as some are when it comes to computer technology...but here is the question...If I walk into a place that has wifi and my iphone is set with wifi ON, how will I know if there is a charge for using the wifi? Will my iphone automatically kick into the wifi or will there appear an invitation to pay a fee to connect...and how do you pay and do you have to have a password and if so, how do you get that? I know....dumb question...Thanks.

Answer 1

Not a dumb question at all.
First of all, set your iPhone up like this:
1) Go to Settings on the main screen (looks like gears)
2) Click on "Wi-Fi" (second option from the top)
3) At the bottom of this page (Which should say "Wi-Fi Networks" at the top) turn "Ask to Join Networks" to the "ON" position.
Now when you walk into a place that has Wi-Fi, your iPhone will display a little window that asks you whether you want to join the network or not.
In some places, you may even see a list of more than one Wi-Fi network to join. This is quite common in New York City. The reason is because so many people have Wi-Fi in there apartments, and they all live so close together, that sometime your iPhone can detect multiple networks. The coffee shop near my apartment has their own network, but I can also connect to the Wi-Fi network in my apartment because I only live about 50 feet away.
Anyway, when you see the list of Networks to join, you may notice a little padlock symbol next to some of them. This means these are closed networks that require a password to connect to. (My network is "Closed", ie requires a password so that everyone in the coffee shop next door doesn't use my internet).
Networks that DO NOT have the little lock symbol are "Open" which means you can join them without a password. But there is a catch... A lot of coffee shops have open networks, but as soon as you try to browse the web, they redirect your browser to their own page, no matter what web address you enter. Basically, they are letting you connect to their network without a password, but not letting you browse the internet without giving them some money.
So (as the previous poster said) the page that the coffee shops redirects you to, usually has instructions, and of course a place to put in a credit card. Once you do all that, then you can browse the internet without getting redirected to their little payment page. Its sort of confusing because you don't need a password to connect to their "open" network, but you do need one to browse any web pages. How you get the password differs from coffee shop to coffee shop, but usually they give it to you right inside your web browser once you give them your credit card number.
T-Mobile provides wireless for Starbucks (at least in a lot of places they do). So once you have an account with t-mobile, you can use it in any starbucks or "T-mobile hotspot"
Now this all sounds kind of complicated, but more and more these days, you can just walk into a place, find an open network (one without a lock next to it) and start browsing without being redirected or dealing with credit cards. Basically these places are providing free internet to try to attract customers.
Good luck
P.S. Wi-Fi eats up battery life. If you aren't going to be using it to browse web pages, you can go into settings, then Wi-Fi, and turn Wi-Fi off. This will save you battery life, but you have to remember to turn it back on. Even without Wi-Fi on, you can still browse the internet if you see a little "E" at the top of your screen. The E stands for the AT&Ts Edge network, which isn't as fast as Wi-Fi, but covers pretty much everywhere that your phone can get a signal.
Message was edited by: erik graham