Panera Bread Is The Largest Provider Of Free WiFi

ayb11 writes "According to this article, the Panera Bread chain of Bakery/Cafes (think Starbucks that bakes their own bread) is the largest provider of free WiFi in the US. Their web site says, " There are currently 573 Wi-Fi enabled Panera Bread bakery-cafes, from California to Virginia. More are added every day." (Even my retired dad takes his barely-used laptop over there so he can get free refills on coffee.) Their full list of hotspots is here."

Comments

Re:Allowed me to stop paying Starbucks/B&Noble

[Solder Fumes]

Yes, never do anything involving passwords or finances or sensitive corporate information while using an unsecured wireless connection, especially in a public place. If you have high-speed access at home, it takes very little effort to set up a simple Linux box you can tunnel your web traffic through to squid or some other proxy on the same box. Of course that means your home upload speed is now your remote download speed, but the peace of mind is worth the sacrifice. You might not get 300Kbps down on the public access point, anyway.

With a little more effort, or some collaboration with your employer's network staff, you can get a VPN set up for the same purpose.