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I have to say that for all of our giving out in this country about how behind the times we are in some areas, when it comes to free WiFi spots, we are miles ahead of some places.

I, like most people have a data allowance on my phone carrier’s monthly package.  I have yet to go over it.

Well, I would have been able to say that before my trip to London last month.

While going anywhere around this country and stopping off in any public building, chances are that there is a public WiFi access.  It may be open, or you’ll have to find a reception desk/staff member to give you the pass code to get in.  Worst case scenario you’ll have to be a customer of the premises to gain access, McDonald’s and Starbuck’s spring to mind.

And I’ve no problem with that.

And for people who say that it’s only in the cities that you’ll find decent WiFi points, I was in a tiny pub in Meath last week that had wireless access.  Free too!

So imagine my confusion when I turned up in London (a place I hadn’t been to in at least 5 years) to find that every where that has WiFi charges for it.  Even if you are a customer!

Heathrow Airport – charge, if you can find out where.  And the restaurants and shops in there can’t have their own WiFi because Heathrow won’t allow it, meaning that you HAVE to pay them if you want to use your wireless.

And in London itself?  Forget about it.  The hotel was charging £12 per day for access, and there was a limit on how much you could use in that day.

Restaurants, pubs, cafe’s, shops you name it, they all had it but they’d charge you for the thought of using it.

Now, I get this.  It’s London, it’s massive and there would be countless numbers of people wanting to sponge your WiFi, but come on!  There has to be a happy medium!

This is why when I got to the hotel I had to call Meteor and get them to set up my roaming so that I could piggy back on T-Mobile’s service.  I can’t remember how much 1mb of data was, but I was left with a bill of over €100 when I returned.

The friends I was there to visit told me that they were shocked to come here and find that it was free everywhere!

So maybe we ARE behind the times.  And while I know that there are bigger protests in the country right now like the charges for water, rubbish, house taxes and all the rest, charging for WiFi seems a bit petty to me.

Which leads me to the whole point of this piece.

WiFi Finder is an to use easy, aesthetically pleasing yet functional way to find Wi-Fi hotspots. Whether you’re seeking a free spot to leach on or paid public Wi-Fi hotspots; this app can help you find them plus other pertinent information. Plus you can download the entire database for scoping Wi-Fi hotspost offline.

Pros

• Filters to allow you to search for free or paid – or both – hotspots.
• Filters to allow you to search by things such as the provider and venue type.
• A great interface that feels polished and professional.
• An offline database download for finding hotspots on the go.
• The ability to add hotspots not in the system already.

Cons

• The offline database download, while optional, takes up 55MB of storage space.

Features:

I’ve tried a few WiFi finders, and this one stands out in both its look and feel, and the sheer amount of data you can access with it. The app will allow you to filter results by the venue type, provider, free or paid, which makes it very convenient to find exactly the type of connection you’re looking for. To make it even easier, the app shows the locations on a Google Map, so you don’t have to guess how far away it is, or how to get there.

I like that the app also provides information about the network you’re currently connected to, including signal strength, MAC and IP address, security, etc. It will also allow you to pull up a “radar” showing you all the networks in range where you are right now, so you can easily see if there is a better option.

On both the good and bad sides, there is also an optional database download of WiFi hotspots. Good, because this means you can more easily find a hotspot when you aren’t already connected, making it more usable for someone on the go, rather than for someone looking for a place to go next, from a connection they already have established. However, the download is huge, at 55MB, so for a lot of people, it’s a bit impractical. I would like to see the option to download smaller chunks of the database for less space – maybe have options for hotspots in a 10, 20 or 100 mile radius, as well as the full database, so there are options for people with less memory to spare.

Via

I’ve actually tried it out and it’s a handy app to have around.

As you can see from the shot below, it will work in Ireland, with close to 3,000 spots listed (Most of them in Leinster though).  Green dots mark the free spots and the blue mark the paid spots.  Although they will more than likely be private office/business spots or customer only use spots for retail and service areas.

It’s free for Android HERE

And for iOS HERE

Not that I’m completely cheap and want to sponge off others, but this would have saved me a bundle from my trip to London.  I didn’t think that it’d be a problem when I got there, so I never bothered to look for it.

I can’t be the only one not in the loop about these things, so here ya are!