Well, if McDonald's isn't going to do it...

Burger King
4351 Blue Parkway, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID:  BKHotSpot 

Perhaps, as Macenstein intimated in a recent post, it was premature to suggest that the decision of the Empire of the Golden Arches to give away its Wi-Fi would be a boon to underserved areas, given that (as I'm embarrassed to admit I'd forgotten) there really aren't many Mickey D locations left in those parts of town where the need is greatest.  

Therefore it's gratifying to note that this newest Burger King location, in the Shops on Blue Parkway center between Cleveland and Elmwood, is not only unwired but seems to have been designed at least in part with laptoppers in mind.  There are at least three pairs of power outlets along each of the east and west walls, so finding a seat next to one shouldn't be a problem unless the place is really crowded.  The only potential issue would be the windows, especially early and late when the sun is low.  At other times, you may simply need to let your eyes adapt for a bit.

Oh, by the way...

...I haven't seen anyone surfing on an iPad while out and about yet.  Has anyone else?

Nose...spite...face...

The depressingly long list of locations that for whatever reasons are purveying Wi-Fi via closed networks continues to grow, as a brief visit to a recently opened River Market coffeehouse yesterday served to demonstrate.  Maybe-just maybe-I ought to keep my mouth shut, but having had to dig out my old backup laptop to perform the Patch Tuesday ritual reminded me of an issue that I'm not sure many of the proprietors of these establishments have stopped to consider.

The Wi-Fi card in my old rig is a 2002-vintage model that can only support WEP encryption, not the much more secure WPA or WPA2 protocols that are currently state-of-the-art-which means that when the second Tuesday of each month rolls around I'm faced with the choice of whether to head into the den to harness the old gal directly to the router via an Ethernet cable, or hitch her to my slightly newer USB finder/adapter, which can do WPA, albeit only with difficulty and not all that reliably.

Which raises the question:  How many potential customers who might still patronize a business despite its Wi-Fi being play-for-pay are being deterred by their older equipment not being compatible with the WPA encryption virtually all of these establishments are employing? 

In other words, by closing their networks in the mistaken belief that doing so will increase per-customer revenue, how much money are they actually leaving on the table instead?

The devil (almost) made me do it.

I don't think I'll tell you exactly which hotspot I stopped by on the way home last night so as not to give the more nefariously minded among you any ideas. Anyway, just before closing up shop and heading for the parking lot I paused as I was about to turn off my MacBook Pro's radio and gave in to a long-held curiosity as to whether I could really connect to a Wi-Fi-enabled Hewlett Packard printer if its owner had inadvertently left its default peer-to-peer network named "hpsetup" running.

In a word, yes.

OS X quickly identified the printer-an OfficeJet model; I don't remember exactly which one-and installed the driver for it. Now if I'd wanted to be mean and nasty, I could have found an embarrassing image or some such and...oh, I just couldn't! Guess I really don't have that sort of thing in me when it comes right down to it.

So why mention this at all, you ask? Simple-as a warning to anyone reading this who owns a wireless-capable printer or multifunction device that you need to make sure its Wi-Fi is either disabled or secured lest someone not as resistant to temptation as yours truly happen to come within range. Flip Wilson may be gone, but Geraldine lives.

And if you're not old enough to remember Flip Wilson...well, that's why they invented Google, isn't it?

Oops, he did it again.

Back in September I took financial guru and radio/TV host Clark Howard to task for spreading the half-truth that activities which pose an identity-theft risk such as online banking and shopping are intrinsically more dangerous when done over an open Wi-Fi link.  Well...it's apparent he heard about that, because today when a caller asked him outright about the issue, he demurred a bit before breaking down and suggesting (drum roll followed by a rimshot, please) that she purchase a pay-as-you-go cellular aircard for her upcoming trip!

And now, once again, a brief pause for the facts.

Yes, it's true that someone sitting with a Wi-Fi capable device and the appropriate software within range of an open router can capture the data passing between your device and that router-just as it's true that someone tapping any network cable or monitoring any server between you and any remote host you're connected to can do the same thing.  It's this last point that continues to escape the Wi-Fi naysayers.  Locking down the access point will only protect you from someone sitting within sight of you (remember, they have to be within range of the access point same as you).  It will, in other words protect you only between your device and the router; it will do absolutely nothing for you beyond that-which is where, of course, a sinister interception is most likely to happen.

The only thing that can protect you there is third-party encryption that starts at the remote site and ends at your device and will, therefore, render any intercepted traffic unreadable, regardless of where the interception occurs.  Either a website protected by Secure Sockets Layer encryption (and in the case of banking online it needs to be the whole website, not just the login page) or a properly configured virtual private network will accomplish this.  What Howard and Co. need to be telling their listeners is that they need to ensure they're on an SSL-protected page with current, valid certificates (in other words, a good lock icon showing in their browser and no error messages) or have their VPN up and running BEFORE they send or receive anything sensitive-and they need to do it no matter how they're connected (yes, Clark, your caller will need to do it even if she buys that overpriced aircard and access). 

And since I'd lay odds that no bank or retailer in America that offers online access still does so without SSL or with only partial protection instead of encrypting every page on their site that shows or receives sensitive information, we can probably lay this fear to rest once and for all.

And speaking of the free world...

Stopped in at the Waldo Community branch of the KCMO Public Library this afternoon for the first time in quite a while, and what to my wondering eyes should appear just ahead as I passed the checkout desk but a nice long table with seating for perhaps five or six on either side and-you guessed it-two eight-outlet power strips running down the middle?  Bravo, KCPL, bravo!  I'm here with a couple of other laptoppers right now, so word has apparently gotten around. 

Now if they'd just fix that little issue with port 7000...but perhaps I ask too much.

Drip...drip...drip...

Call it Starbucks Cappucino Torture, I guess.

The latest on their "buy something else and we'll throw a little in" Wi-Fi offer, courtesy of Glenn Fleishman over at Wi-Fi Networking News:  Spend at least $5 and register your card, then you can get two hours' free access per day in perpetuity.

Why, Starbucks, why?  Why this agonizingly slow, kicking-and-screaming drag towards the free world?  What's the point of stretching it out like this?  What do you hope to gain?

I'd like you to give me one reason-just one-why anyone would drive past a McDonalds and its free and open access to come into one of your locations and jump through all your hoops for just two hours a day.

Because frankly, I can't think of one.