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US McDonald's Wi-Fi Going Free In January
Knowzy writes "After five years behind a paywall, McDonalds plans to stop charging for its Wi-Fi in mid-January in the US. According to the Dallas Morning News, you aren't even required to make a purchase — 'free is free,' a spokesman said. It's also been widely reported that they won't impose time limits on your surfing. With around 20,000 free hotspots between McDonald's and Starbucks (who went free[ish] earlier this year), anyone still charging for Wi-Fi is going to look foolish, if not downright greedy."
Unsure how successful it has been in the UK though. Never seen anyone use it.
Not.
Free wifi won't make me eat a fried burger.
Flame Broiled, or nothing.
-JJS
You sit there long enough and a big mac and fries start to look pretty good.......
Hold up, wait a minute, let me put some pimpin in it
starbucks isn't charging for the WIFI. Some companies, however, are charging for the access. Panera does this - but I don't think they label it free wifi either.
So yeah, you have wifi, free and open, but it's still requiring a purchase at panera to just use the damn internet (which is horribly slow at their locations anyway).
For everytime I wished I had Wifi when I was at McDonalds... I'd have the exact same amount of money I do now.
You see, Coffee Shops like Starbucks make sense. Thats where you go to prop open your laptop, pretend to be a professional writer while blogging, while pompously talking to other "professional writers" over your Peppermint Mocha Extra Pump Extra hot no foam Chai Late Fusion Coffee.
There is nothing Arrogant or pompous about pretending to write while stuffing down a big mac.
Cracked account invalid? Dang it! --Stak
Holy happy hippy crap!
I can now use the McDonalds wifi connections to plan terrorist activities and download child porn!
Perhaps to use the wifi, but you cant sit in the building or on the lot unless you bought something. " parking for customers only"
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Is it just me, or free wifi from Starbucks is just some wishful thinking? I've traveled to San Deigo, Denver and Boston in the past week and tried on several occasions to get wifi signal. And in each case, Starbucks was requiring me to pay. I don't know why I thought it was free ... may be it was trumpeted in some earlier slashdot article?
Only terrorists......
---- Booth was a patriot ----
In my smallish city (200k people) we have had free wifi all over downtown for a while. All the businesses downtown are part of committee and they basically all agreed to provide free wifi; everything from Subway, to Starbucks, to some random bar. Seems like a good way to do it. If a business tried charging it'd just look ridiculous.
So McDonald's will achieve what my city government could not, and they didn't even have to force me to pay for it. There might be something to this "capitalism" idea.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Meh... please notify me when wi-fi is ubiquitously free at airports.
"Michael, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing - and it was everything that I thought it could be."
AT&T worked out a deal where the hotspots at McDonalds are partnered up with them, so iPhone customers can automatically get signed in and use them for free. It's been that way for months now. I've used the one in my neighborhood a number of times, as well as a couple of them when I was on a road trip.
Only complaint I've had, in general, with Mc Wi-Fi is, I think someone needs to do site surveys on those things and improve the reception! I've always gotten pretty weak signals that are still generally usable, but worse than I get throughout most of my house with my own wireless router.
Unrestricted free WiFi in places where one might be expected to be for some time (sit-down restaurants, conference rooms, hotels, waiting areas) makes sense. People are already sitting around bored and generally looking for something to do, so allowing them to get online with their laptop or smartphone and get stuff done or goof off is great.
Starbucks and McDonalds business models are based on rapid customer turnover. Get 'em in, get 'em fed/caffeinated, get 'em out. People taking up the generally limited space for longer than needed cost them money. What makes sense for these type of places is "free" WiFi with purchase. Every receipt has a code printed on it valid for that day at that location which allows one hour of access. Ran out of time? Go buy a drink or something. I'd also recommend they partner up with one or more of the nation-wide hotspot networks to allow subscribers of those services to get on as well, as long as the payout to the local store makes sense.
There are also a lot of McDonalds and Starbucks locations within a short distance of residential areas. I could see the local McDonalds' front window from my back porch at my last apartment. If they had offered purely open free WiFi, I'd sure as hell have tossed one of my cantennas up and used it as an extra internet connection.
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
Nobody going into a McDonald's should be allowed to sit for more than the time it takes to scarf down the food.
In fact, all McDonald's should be placed at the top of long flights of stairs; or better, escalators running backwards.
What have they done! In five years, the stereotypical computer geek will be: 1) 30 pounds heavier. 2) Unable to stay away from the fast food restaurants. 3) Working on a small cluster made out of the bits of little toys given away in kids' meals.
So I guess all those folks living in apartment or condos right next to McDonalds will get free Internet access (albeit, minimal speeds). Or even better, a competitive fast food chain next door can set up an cantenna to leech bandwidth and then stick a 'Free WiFi!' in their window too!
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Sue McDs? Will McDs have any filtering?
I'm sure that they will still charge for Wi-Fi at places where a monopoly can be guaranteed like airports.
All AT&T DSL customers get "free" wifi too. At many McD, Starbucks, Barnes & Nobel, and a few others. Usually the SSID is "attwifi"
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
And the suburban version: McCrackerz.
For Starbucks to not have free wifi for ALL customers by now is dumb. I don't mean ATT or TMobile customers, and I don't mean the "Get 2 hrs of Free Wifi for using your Starbucks card" customers. I mean anyone who plops their ass down in the store after buying something.
Several mom and pop coffee shops in my hood offer free wifi, and if they can afford it so can 2-5 dollars per cup-o-joe Starbucks!
Unless McD's filters humor sites that started out by ripping off MAD Magazine, you'll still be able to log in to Cracked, SA, YTMND, eBaum's World, etc.
All McDonalds in Russia that do have wifi, provide it for free. As a result, a lot of people take their notebook, buy a small soda (or even nothing at all) and surf the net for hours. As a result, a lot of tables are occupied, especially on evenings and weekends, sometimes only a few tables are actually used for eating, forming lines of angry people with heavy trays waiting for a chair to sit on.
big mac and mac book unite. if i am mcdonalds, i start selling macs in a sleek shiny white box, to market the connection.
And the urban version: McBlackerz
I wonder how much of their bandwidth will be taken up by lol cats and tweens nabbing the latest $CurrentPopArtist Album?
Money down McDonald's will never get nailed by the *IAA's for people downloading content on their networks. If I left my wifi at home open to everyone and someone nabbed a movie or something off of it, you'd bet it'd be my ass that'd get in trouble.
I went to McDonalds in 2002 cause my girlfriend really had to use the toilet, and the squatters we were staying with had no working plumbing. They were pooing into bags in their non working bathroom then throwing them into church playgrounds. I bought a milkshake so she wouldn't have to do the poo bag thing. I went to a McDonalds on the champs de elysee in 1999 cause hey, wouldn't it be funny to eat at a french mcd's, especially in view of the arc de triomphe. (I had to look up both of those to spell them correctly.) So basically, if pooing or irony weren't involved, you couldn't drag me into a McD's. However, now the nytimes food critic says the angus burger is decent, AND they have free wifi. I find myself suddenly conflicted. But, because of my snobbish liberal elitism, I probably won't end up there, anyway. That and cause I'm a vegetarian. Why do I even read slashdot for fucks sake?
about talking pompously talking to other professionals.
Throw in the requirements that the laptop is an iMac, aluminum models only, while displaying in full view your iPhone as well. If your a young college age woman your allowed to sit outside underneath the umbrella with a cigarette. Please not that similar aged men may not appear with a cigarette if they have Apple branded technology.
If I had a nickle for every time I see this stereo type near me I would be...
Someone did a very good job of marketing coffee shops to college students.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Free for up to 2 hours (per-day, may not be split across multiple login sessions) if you've registered one of their Starbucks stored-value cards and you've used it to make a purchase sometime within the last 30 days.
So more "free with purchase"-style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRjebToJYGk
We've had this for years in Aus and there's no easy way to p2p, there's a nice filter stopping pretty much all mainstream porn sites etc.
..they will still charge for extra ketchup and McNugget sauces.
I read somewhere that back in the 80's McDonalds in the US inner cities had problems with crack addicts. They'd stay all day, maybe buy a coffee or fries occasionally. Hardcore crack addicts don't eat much but they need small amounts of water, salt, sugar, caffeine and fat which were supplied by the coffee and fries. They smelled bad and were abusive and scared away the regular customers who'd spend more and leave quicker. The revenue per table hour started to drop in the crack addict infested restaurants. McDonalds Corporate was made aware of the problem and asked for directions.
McDonalds is a bit like the bugs in Starship Troopers - lower level drones are able to implement policy and are interrogated about falling revenues but not trusted to make policy. That was done by MBAs - the McDonalds equivalent of Brain Bugs - in the headquarters. Now clearly forcefully evicting the crack addicts though possible would create a bad atmosphere. Studies were commissioned. It was found that crack addicts dislike bright lights but the good customers - people who wolf down this months's special premium burger supersize meal ("SwissMac Meal! With real Swiss Cheese!") and then got the hell out - weren't bothered by them. Or indeed anything else.
A decision was made to increase the ambient light levels. The crack addicts left and revenues increased. My guess is geeks leaching wifi will need to be repelled in the same way, and for much the same reasons.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Jesus when these go 802.11n there's going to be pretty serious municipal coverage.
Android users (and apparently Nokia n900) are experiencing seamless voip integration... looking bad for the telecos!
You, a professed drinker and gambler, moralize against what people eat. You flaming hypocrite.
If you don't like McDonald's -- to paraphrase yourself -- Stay the Fuck home.
Yeah, posting histories are a bitch.
I see you worship at the feet of Foamy, too.
NSFW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcwAwTPX3IQ
McDonald's WiFi has been free since late 2005.
All you needed was a Nintendo DS.
There are places in the US where McDonalds charges for Wifi? I've never seen one. I know all the ones in my town that offer wifi (about 3 of them I think) are all free, and have been for at least 3 years. Any other ones I've been to that I've bothered to check have also been free. Where is it that they've been charging for it?
I've noticed that, in general, the more expensive a place is the more likely it is to charge for WiFi. Hotels are especially bad about this. Inexpensive chains usually offer free WiFi whereas expensive hotels generally charge. Hiltons, in particular, often charge unbelievable rates: $15/night in some hotels. Far from competition bringing the price down, some have actually increased their rates over the years; $10/night used to be fairly standard. As best I can figure, they're targeting business travelers with expense accounts. For example, many hotels charge extra for the ability to use a VPN, which makes no technical sense but is a great way to price discriminate.
I've also found that the terrible WiFi rates at many high-end hotels actually make sites like Priceline less useful. Yeah, you might get a great rate on a 4-star hotel, but when you figure in the cost of WiFi and parking it often ends up being nearly a wash. I think in the end it'll actually be the cell phone companies that kill overpriced WiFi. If you can use your tethered cell phone, why pay for WiFi? Sure a tethered data plan might be $60/month, but that's for 30 days compared to just 4 nights of WiFi at a Hilton.
I also am finding it hard to imagine why you'd be so anti-social as to go out for a meal with your family and start coding during the meal.
The senior citizens understand that I am not familiar enough with the subjects of their random conversations to be able to chime in intelligently. And in restaurants with Wi-Fi, they ask me to look up Indianapolis Colts (American football team) scores anyway. The kids are playing with their toys; I'll play with mine until the one with the car keys decides it's time to go. I'd take the bus, but family outings usually happen on one of the 59 days of the year when buses don't run.
FAT PORN and WoW all in one stop
What is your Big MAC address? Have you enabled your Wi-Fry connection?
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
How can they block VPNs in a hotel unless you pay more? That makes no technical sense either, unless they got software that can detect the difference between "legit" traffic and tunneled traffic.
On the Internet, nobody knows you're chowing 255. Tell 'em you're at this very chic new place, the one in SF that has the $50,000 machine that's supposed to make the perfect espresso. They probably won't be able to track your actual location.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
With around 20,000 free hotspots between McDonald's and Starbucks (who went free[ish] earlier this year), anyone still charging for Wi-Fi is going to look foolish, if not downright greedy."
I love the way Slashdot articles say stuff that just isn't true, just because the submitter wishes it was. It's so adorable.
haha good one, though you risk being modded offtopic like I was, seems some /.'ers don't get the Mc references as well as the rest of society.
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
So you can only get to the really deviant porn?
Restaurants make money by turning tables. A customer sitting at a table sipping coffee for 2 hours over lunch might prevent several other people from getting a seat and ordering a full lunch.
I haven't seen a full McDonalds for years though. My guess is that they looked at their numbers, saw that there were almost always open seats, and figured they had more to gain than lose.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
First off the layout of a McDonalds is actually better than Starbucks. It's pretty hard to find a seat in most starbucks and even if you do you're sitting at some tiny round table and a small chair. Unless you happen to be one of the 4 people that can sit at the 'computer table' or in the big stuffed chairs.
McDonalds has booths and lots of them. Which provide more than enough room for a few people with laptops to sit at and work. Sure if you pick a McD's thats packed you're gonna be in for some noise, but the crowd that's there, unlike at Starbucks isn't looking to sit there for an hour and half and blog about the impact Software Piracy vs Somali Piracy as it pertains to the Nigerian bobsled team.
The new Mcdonalds coffee isn't that bad and the price is outstanding. Sure I can't have the ego boosting espresso a hint of Madagascar cinnamon, but if I want something to drink while working, it's a pretty good deal.
Living in Boston, I'm quite happy that some specific places charge for wifi. Especially in the Cambridge/Somerville area it can be downright impossible to try and get a seat at a coffee shop that doesn't charge for wifi. It's not uncommon to see hoards of people sitting there for HOURS during the busiest times of day with a laptop and a long-since emptied small coffee. There are plenty of places around that give out free wifi, and there should be. In places where there are so many users that they're actually losing business because paying customers can't find a table, they should certainly charge a nominal fee.
Been in a McDonalds lately? I was real surprised when I went to one recently. They have better coffee than Starbucks. Their food is better. The place is clean. I had pretty much written them off. They've changed from the top down.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
How fun will it be when the 3 strikes law takes out the McDonalds ?
By blocking ports and protocols related to VPN. Blocking all outbound tcp/1723 as well as GRE will block most PPTP traffic, blocking all outbound udp/4500, udp/500, ESP and AH will block most IPSec traffic, blocking all outbound udp/1701 will block most L2TP traffic just in case it isn't secured by IPSec in the first place. Decent firewalls can inspect HTTP traffic and make sure you're not using it to tunnel traffic. HTTPS traffic can be dropped once the connection has passed more traffic than you think could reasonably be a webpage, and so on.
Can you find some way around those rules if you know what you're doing? Sure. But it's not particularly hard to make sure 99% of all users you're going to come across are not going to be able to use VPN without significant outside help.
Some people in Paris bring multi-socket extension leads when they go to McDo's to ensure that everyone can plug in. WiFi has been free at McDo's in France for years.
Cruise the net while on Micky Dee's nationwide security camera
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
This is exactly right. And it's not only wifi, they charge extra for pool/health club access, no free breakfast, parking like you already mentioned, sometimes they even charge for airport shuttles! It really is insane. I always try to avoid those hotels if I can... Sure, they might have fluffy beds and fancy marble showers, but the rest of the service is just terrible...
Now how lucky are folks who live in apartments that but right up next to a McDonald's?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willingness_to_pay
If you willing to dish out $500+ per night for a double queen room, then you're probably ok with $13 per night wifi and $32 cheeseburgers (Actual prices from a hilton I stayed at).
I was sent on a short-notice (36 hours) emergency deployment to hawaii a while back; base housing was under construction so we had to stay downtown. I wound up living in the Waikiki Beach Hilton for about 2 months. That sounds great, and for the most part it was, but I was an E-5 living in an environment designed for the very rich. I had a nice view of the beach, yes, but like I said earlier the internet prices were outrageous. It turned out to be much cheaper to find a local t-mobile store and buy a usb wireless internet dongle. A month later I returned it and ultimately wound up paying only for the one month of service with no termination fee (under 30 days trial period).
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
I've never tried a BitTorrent or any other p2p app on McD Wi-Fi but they don't filter much on the outgoing side. I've used many services on non-standard ports, including SSH2 and cisco VPN and never had a problem.
You'll never get to listen on incoming port, though, so you'll always be a p2p leech on McD Wi-Fi.
Also, the network is centrally managed by AT&T Wi-Fi (formerly Wayport). It's not like they're just throwing up a $50 router and forgetting about it. Certain activities may get their attention...
WiFi has always been free at our McDonald's here in Podunk, Ohio.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
Free as in Free Beer?
"...I'll have a large Big & Tasty meal and a McMillerLite."
When traveling, I usually stop at a Panera, where I can pretend to enjoy the coffee (free refills till you shake), pretend that I like the better bread, pretend that I like the general relaxing atmosphere.
Gosh, I am so pretentious. But I have to admit, that if I had any desire to feel like an important reporter covering a war, typing in the story in hostile territory, while constantly under the threat, that someone might be throwing something at you, I would for sure prefer to sit at a McDonalds.
Yeah, you might get a great rate on a 4-star hotel, but when you figure in the cost of WiFi and parking it often ends up being nearly a wash.
People pay for hotel WiFi? That's the whole point of MAC spoofing. Run your favorite sniffer until you see a MAC passing a lot of traffic, make sure it's not the WAP itself, then change your MAC to it. OK, so you and the person you're borrowing from will get each other's packets, but your network stacks will drop packets they aren't expecting.
Or so I've read.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
"free is free"? man, that's profound. who was the genius that thought that one up?
probably the same guy that is implying that mcdonald's isn't greedy anymore. greasy, maybe.
Some airports that have free Wi-Fi have seen an increase in people setting up Wi-Fi from the parking lots in an attempt to go on a Phishing expedition. They basically take advantage of people that don't really pay attention to what network they are connecting to.
Anyone really expect McDonald's customers to check such things?
McDonald's is simply making this as easy as possible. Buy a cup of coffee in the drive-thru, go back around to the parking lot, bait ya hook, and start Phishing.
I think you are right. It's only a matter of time before free WiFi access becomes obsolete. In my country it costs $12/month for 6 Mbit/s internet connection through the cell phone or $6/month for 0,3 Mbit/s. It's only when travelling by train that I find it useful to have WiFi since the cell phone may loose the connection in some places.
we now have nationwide wiFi Coverage!
Back in my day people went to an eatery to eat. Damn that must have been so long ago, probably like last century or something.
Even in the little Canadian hick-town where I live, McDonalds' wifi access is free.
That's the effect of having most of your clients be business travelers. If they can expense it, chances are they'll buy it. So if they need WiFi to do work, they just charge it and the company pays for it. Companies don't care, so the hotels win.
http://angryee.blogspot.com
Been free for ages here in Australia and stacks of people use it. Especially loved by poor students everywhere...
sudo mount --milk --sugar
Hiltons, in particular, often charge unbelievable rates: $15/night in some hotels.
I had heard they were promiscuous socialites, but had no idea they were hookers.
I went to a university that happens to be in one of the fanciest parts of one of the most expensive cities in the world. They owned some nearby houses, which were rented to first-year students.
It was cool to have a Lamborghini parked outside my window for a year, next to the Porsche and the line of BMWs and Mercedes. But the novelty wore off when I realised the nearby shops charged 50%-100% more than elsewhere (even the food shops -- although in their case the prices were the same, but they only stocked luxury brands).
The problem solved itself though, as there was no way I could afford to rent a place nearby for the rest of my course.
Porn movies in your face!
Free music peer to peer,
Download without the fear!
And don't forget the kiddie pix,
Craigslist and turning tricks!
McDonalds is your kind of place...
(apologies to Ray Kroc)
Ask Me About... The 80's!
Flame Broiled, or nothing.
Get off your butt and generate the flame part with your own damn propane. About the least complicated actual cooking there is. :)
(although I admit I'm too lazy for charcoal.)
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I know "regular" restaurants do often include burgers on their menu, but there seem to be places inbetween: better burgers than the fast-food joints, but not quite the slower service or higher prices of regular restaurants.
Bill Gray's and Tom Wahl's are, for me, local examples.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.