Free Public WiFI

[Divineshadow]

Round NYC im picking up alot of different wifi connections labeled as FREE PUBLIC WIFI. However, they dont have any DNS numbers. I cant connect to anything with it, and its not doing much other than draining my battery.

Is there a reason that this thing is picking up on my touch? How can I get this wifi to work on my touch? Ive tried entering the manual DNS numbers as stated in other posts and they havent worked.

[rockmyplimsoul]

What IP address are you being issued? If it is 169.(anything) then it is not a valid connection so entering a DNS will not help. You might be out of range to get a good enough connection, or the network is not fully configured for public use, or you could possibly have some issues with your Touch (but unlikely if you're able to connect other places).

[Divineshadow]

Just a quick thinking.....

I believe its a 205 number for the IP

[tmaxx445]

My dads DELL laptop puts out a network call free public wifi. I can be in my house and when his laptop is on i pick it up but if it is off i don't. I can't use the web with it. On a computer if you pick it up it says free computer to computer network. It won't let you do anything with internet.


tmaxx445

[DerekVOF]

If you are being assigned what appears to be a valid IP, but not being assigned a DNS, you can always try to manually type in a OpenDNS address - 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220

Read here for more info on OpenDNS - http://www.opendns.org/

[Divineshadow]

Ive put in those 2 addresses and they havent worked. Ill have to write down the IP and post them hopefully tomorrow.

[bobb-mini]

They are probly notebook connections that require 802.1x authentication.

[archurban]

anywhere if you see 'free public wifi', it is not for internet connection as we normally know. it's computer sharing via wifi. that's why you can't connect.

[shippensburg]

I had the same problem on Saturday. Tried to connect to a 'Free Public WiFi', it looked connected but Safari and Installer didn't work.

I can connect to other networks just fine, so I think archurban's right.

[jhollington]

Actually, be very careful of these hotspots that advertise "Free Public WiFi" -- most of them are "honeypots" to trap you into connecting to them. They rarely offer actual Internet service, but they do present a risk for having your computer hacked into by whoever is running the access point (a slightly lower risk for a device like the iPod touch, although if you've jailbroken it and have SSH running, that does offer a point of access).

In one case I connected to one of these that I found at an airport, just to see what would happen. My iPhone was immediately flooded with SSH connection requests from the other end (somebody obviously trying to hack into my iPhone).

Note that even some of them that do provide Internet service (or appear to) are actually just trying to sniff/intercept your passwords. I've seen some clever ones hanging around airports where they've actually emulated online banking sites in an effort to trick people into entering their userid and password (ie, "phishing" basically). These are almost impossible to track down in a busy setting like an airport terminal, since it doesn't take more than some guy on a laptop to run one of these.

Be very, very careful about connecting to unknown WiFi hotspots, and always ensure you have an SSL connection (ie, HTTPS) when logging onto any secure web site from a public hotspot. Note that even legitimate WiFi hotspots are generally unencrypted and your session can therefore be very easily eavesdropped upon.