Articles

Public Wi-Fi hotspots are rapidly becoming common in coffee shops, hotels, convention centers, airports, libraries, and community areas - anyplace where people gather. In these locations, a Wi-Fi network can provide Internet access to guests and visitors. People can connect using their own Wi-Fi equipped laptop computers and portable computing devices, or by using Wi-Fi equipped desktop computers provided at the location. A single networked printer with a built-in print server can also be connected to the access point, to provide printing services to users.

Hotspots operate in various ways. A small public hotspot may provide free access to its guests, or it may charge a membership, per-time or data-use connection fee. Even if the venue is providing Internet connectivity as a free value added service, it asks customers to provide user and registration information before they can connect to the Internet.