McDonald's WIFI Will Be Free

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AB4BF

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The free Wi-Fi will come with no time limits, all the better to encourage visitors to stay longer and buy McDonald's coffee drinks and hamburgers.

Will Ronald McDonald hijack your home page?

:p
 

N0IU

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Tell you the truth, I haven't been in a McDonald's in over eight years! I don't touch that crap.
"Want some Lipitor with those fries?"

It will be interesting to see what kind of restrictions they put on their firewall. My wife recently spent a couple of days in the hospital and they provided free WiFi service. While I could check my email through my ISP by connecting directly through it, but I could not log on to my ISP's home page. My ISP is my telephone company so I guess I would have been screwed if I had wanted to pay my bill online!

Another place that I used to go to was a place called St. Louis Bread Company (which is also called Panera Bread Company in some parts of the country). They also provide free WiFi service. So I was sitting there one day and tried to check into one of the many handgun forums to use (yes, I do have other hobbies!) and it was blocked! I wrote a letter to their HQ expressing my displeasure over this and they said it was because they block some sites that they believe might have objectionable content.

Funny thing was I could check into my handgun sites on the hospital's WiFi!

I am sure McDonalds will have similar restrictions in place.
 
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kma371

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I have a BlackBerry with broadband and WiFi enabled. Are you sure your Internet is coming from the WiFi connection?

Yes.

iPhones can be set up to automatically connect to McDonalds WiFi connections as well as Starbucks, both free if your an AT&T customer
 

mike_s104

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Too bad it won't make up for the quality of their nasty food. Free wifi and a free massive coronary. I haven't been there in about 6 years and I'm not going to go there for free wifi. Like others have posted, I have free unlimited Internet access on my HTC Imagio that I can tether to a laptop if I need to.
 

gewecke

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..then it's free for me. :lol:

Tell you the truth, I haven't been in a McDonald's in over eight years! I don't touch that crap.

I second that! I'd rather chew on my nails than eat Mc slop!:( If they learned HOW to put out a tolerable meal then they wouldn't have to suck you in with gimmicks!
N9ZAS
 

jhooten

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Ummmm, Guys you don't have to go in the place to access the wifi. As has been mentioned it has been free for AT&T users for years. Pull in the parking lot and connect away. So far I have not been blocked for any of the sites I normally visit..
 

K8PBX

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So if someone hacks into my home network (highly unlikely), does this mean I can have them arrested???

Maybe.

See here: Legality of piggybacking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ARRESTS

An Illinois man was arrested in January 2006 for piggybacking on a Wi-Fi network. David M. Kauchak was the first person to be charged with "remotely accessing another computer system" in Winnebago County. He had been accessing the Internet through a nonprofit agency's network from a car parked nearby and chatted with the police officer about it. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a fine of $250 and one year of court supervision.


In St. Petersburg, 2005, Benjamin Smith III was arrested and charged with "unauthorized access to a computer network", a third-degree felony in the state of Florida, after using a resident's wireless network from a car parked outside

In Sparta, Michigan, Sam Peterson was arrested for checking his email each day using a cafe's wireless Internet access from a car parked nearby. A police officer became suspicious, stating, "I had a feeling a law was being broken, but I didn't know exactly what". The man explained what he was doing to the officer when asked, as he did not know that the act was illegal. The officer found a law against "unauthorized use of computer access", leading to an arrest and charges that could result in a five year felony and $10,000 fine. The cafe owner was not aware of the law, either. "I didn't know it was really illegal, either. If he would have come in [to the coffee shop] it would have been fine." He was eventually sentenced to a $400 fine and 40 hours of community service.

In 2007, Palmer, Alaska, 21-year old Brian Tanner was charged with "theft of services" and had his laptop confiscated after accessing a gaming website at night from the parking lot outside the Palmer Public Library, as he was allowed to do during the day.
 

mikepdx

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"A Michigan man has been fined $400 and given 40 hours of community service
for accessing an open wireless Internet connection outside a coffee shop."

I'd venture to guess this Michigan man is now well aware of his right to remain silent.

I'd bet every last one of those convicted (in the previous post) implicated themselves by opening their big fat mouths.
I'd doubt any of them were found due to an electronic investigation.

He had been accessing the Internet through a nonprofit agency's network from a car parked nearby and chatted with the police officer about it.

If it would have been me, the subject of our chat would have been confined to the weather or sports.
 
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poltergeisty

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"Want some Lipitor with those fries?"

It will be interesting to see what kind of restrictions they put on their firewall. My wife recently spent a couple of days in the hospital and they provided free WiFi service. While I could check my email through my ISP by connecting directly through it, but I could not log on to my ISP's home page. My ISP is my telephone company so I guess I would have been screwed if I had wanted to pay my bill online!

Another place that I used to go to was a place called St. Louis Bread Company (which is also called Panera Bread Company in some parts of the country). They also provide free WiFi service. So I was sitting there one day and tried to check into one of the many handgun forums to use (yes, I do have other hobbies!) and it was blocked! I wrote a letter to their HQ expressing my displeasure over this and they said it was because they block some sites that they believe might have objectionable content.

Funny thing was I could check into my handgun sites on the hospital's WiFi!

I am sure McDonalds will have similar restrictions in place.


Google for one of the many VPN providers. No one is the wiser. Your WIFI connection should always be though a VPN or other tunneling method. In my case I have a router that has an embedded SSH server that I route traffic into. For security I use a port that isn't common like, 35432 and a few IP tables insure that it isn't brute forced. :lol:


Then there's the old hat method of sending data over DNS. But that's terribly slow and you need DNS records.
 

poltergeisty

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"A Michigan man has been fined $400 and given 40 hours of community service for accessing an open wireless Internet connection outside a coffee shop."

FOXNews.com - Michigan Man Fined for Using Coffee Shop's Wi-Fi Network - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News


My reply to officer nosey. "You mind! I'm writing my resume!" :lol:
Really, who says you have to say your using their WIFI? Like they have the FCC there to back up that allegation. :roll:
 
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