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The Starbucks/AT&T Deal To Change Perception of Public Wi-Fi?
ericatcw writes "According to ComputerWorld, with two hours of free Wi-Fi soon to arrive at Starbucks consumers should expect more hotspots to go free as well as more attractive bundles from the likes of AT&T, Verizon and providers. While T-Mobile is hurting, indie coffeehouses and chains such as Caribou Coffee, Tully's and others that already offered free Wi-Fi, insist they are not, saying their ambiance and superior brew will help them retain customers."
just announced today that starbucks here in KY is closing some of their shops. they are closing 100 stores across the country because they opened too many of them (and the economy stinks).
nature loves variety::society hates it get your variety at http://www.monkeypantz.net
Aside from airports* and some hotels, wireless is free everywhere that has it. (And what are you going to do, use another airport?)
Actually, yes. It's one of several reasons that, living in mid-NJ, I drive down to Philadelphia instead of up to Newark for my flights (the other being substantially fewer delays, of course). Philadelphia has free wireless (as does Pittsburgh), but Newark charges $8... someone would have to be really desperate to pay that.
E pluribus unum
"Up to two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day will be available for Starbucks Card holders"
If I understand this correctly, if you go get yourself a card, fill it up with a minimal $5, you pretty much can get 2 hours of free wireless anytime?
Sounds like a good deal, most of the time you really only need to check your mail or "look something up" quickly anyway... and with Starbucks being pretty much everywhere, this seems like a nice convenience. Great for people like me with an iPod Touch.
- Establish layer 2 connectivity (connect to the wifi network)
- Populate your arp cache with other MACs/IPs on the network (nmap -sP 192.168.1.0/24 works nicely..substitute the proper subnet of course)
- Pick a MAC/IP pair at random, and set your MAC/IP to these values, but don't use the MAC/IP of the firewall
- Test connection (ping google.com or try browser)
- Repeat the last 2 steps as necessary until you get past their firewall
- ...
- Profit!
The idea here is that you're going to keep tryign MAC/IPs on the network until you find a pair that belongs to someone that's already paid for a connection, thus their IP is already being let through the firewall. The MAC spoofing is necessary because eventually the firewall will refresh itself based on a list of MACs that are registered as having already paid for a connection. Enjoy!Now many McDonalds, Krystals, Atlanta Bread Companys, Burger King, Denny's, Dunkin' Donuts, IHOP, Jack-in-the-Box, KFC, Subway, Taco Bell, Quiznos, and Wendy's offer free WIFI.
'Bucks will start losing customers who want to surf and schmooze. I'm sure they especially don't want to lose that extra $6 cupcake sale when someone has been hanging around the store for an hour and starts to get hungry.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
$2? Where?
A tall(10/12 ounces) is about $1.67 I think. If you bring your USED Starbucks cup or a starbucks mug it's a $.35 refill. Did you know that?
Where are you getting $2???? I live and work in Boston/Cambridge area and that's what I pay. Well worth it for free wi fi. ALL StarBucks I go to the service is so friendly and helpful it's crazy. Places I go to routinely know me and are even more friendly. I don't even go everyday, I mostly brew starbucks or other brands at home. But when I have to go into a starbucks, I don't mind it at all.
Starbucks will always get my money because of the user friendly attitude and many other things they do right.
All these people talking about the Starbucks elitest mentality need to lose it. Not everyone gets a double fat chai triple shot espresso macchiato.
I won't even go into a Dunkin Donuts. Half the staff sometimes doesn't even speak ENGLISH and the coffee is NOT the same everywhere you go.
You know Starbucks always gets a bad rap for being too expensive. The regular coffee price is pretty competitive with the likes of Dunkin Donuts or Panera. The reality is that you pay a premium at SB because they treat their employees fairly well. They actually spend more on health care for their employees than they do on coffee beans on a yearly basis. I worked there because I could get a full health plan for a 20 hour work week. How many other part time jobs do that for you? I agree I always thought it was BS that they didn't offer free WiFi but it sure didn't hurt business.
Nah, I don't really agree. At one time, I would have sided with you on this one. But at least from what I've observed, coffee shops have evolved in recent years to become much more like restaurants. The idea of a coffee shop being a social hang-out is dying off. (Just like restaurants, they also figured out people are only going to drink so much coffee during a visit.) When you encourage people to hang around playing board or card games, reading books, etc. - you wind up with a place that's half full of people who are done buying things, instead of freeing the space up for the next round of customers-to-be, who are all ready to buy that first cup of joe when they walk in.
On the other hand, what I think *is* happening that encourages free wi-fi is a restaurant (or coffee shop) design with a variation of the traditional restaurant theme. Places like Panera Bread Company are good examples. They give just enough of a "personal touch" (things like calling your first name when your food/drink order is up, instead of giving you a number) to make people feel welcome there. They encourage the feel of "We give you more reasons to come here than the competitors do!" with bonuses like free wi-fi and wall outlets conveniently placed at the booths. Yet they still lay everything out so you feel a little "uncomfortable" if you spend TOO much time there. You have that distinct sense that you're taking up space that other customers want, and they're taking notice of you. They carefully avoid things like placing too many couches around their restaurants, since those encourage the concept of sitting around longer. They don't provide any reading material or other visual cues that it's "ok" to spend the rest of the afternoon there. Yet, you do feel like it's "the norm" to go ahead and pull out your laptop and check your email while you're eating your sandwich. THIS is the balance that makes it all fit together.
I live in the Seattle area, and I work from Tully's pretty regularly because it's free. The coffee is good too. But they're not absolutely *everywhere*. Starbucks is, and so it's the de-facto meeting place to do business. If you're meeting a client, partner, friend, study-mate or whatever in this town the standard is, "I'll meet you at the Starbucks at X-o'clock." Then it's usually, "Which one, there are 3 in that neighborhood." They're ubiquitous, and it's a nice atmosphere to be in for an hour or so. And you can have a treat. Imagine saying, "I want to pitch this idea to you, I'll meet you at the McDonalds." Yeah right.
Starbucks is doing well enough without laptop campers, but offering semi-free access must mean that at least part of their business is being taken by the shops with free WiFi. Believe me they don't make a move without studying the numbers.
rj
Only when using Euclidean geometry, I get sqrt(1) using taxicab geometry, assuming radius measurements were taken using a car odometer.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab_geometry
According to Google Bauhaus Books & Coffee(301 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122), and the startbucks located at 2200 Alaskan Way # 120, Seattle, WA 98121 are 1 mile apart but it would take 1.9 miles to drive between them.
Both of our calculations are based on the 1 mile figure being a radius,but measured differently, do you know how they measured? Would fifth graders know non-Euclidean geometry?
In fact, I've heard that a sure way to open a successful independent coffee shop is to open one right by a Starbucks. They've already done all the research on the location for you, and given a choice, I think a lot of people prefer to support the little guy and enjoy a less commercial atmosphere.
That is funny since where I live, Starbucks is the little guy. In Anchorage, AK the big coffee shop player is Kaladis Brothers. Kaladis has been offering free wireless to anyone since I came to Anchorage seven years ago. They also have a nicer atmosphere with big over stuffed couches and chairs, plenty of tables, and power outlets for computers every where. Most of the local restaurants and grocers feature "Kaladi Coffee" instead of Starbucks.