I've built many a pringles cantenna style device, have even had the odd guide to doing so published in various magazines here in the UK.

But the point I was trying to make in this thread was not about home made hacking alternatives to hotel wifi, rather the appalling quality of hotel wifi in the UK at least. If you have paid for the service you don't expect, nor should you, to have to hack your way into getting it...

Wi-Fi is actually good unless some illegitimate hotel, for enjoying the status of Wi-Fi offers it or try to do so but can't go long and ultimately the technology bears the brunt of not being stable or not being effective.
Go to a legacy university and ffind its use man!

its surprising how many small businesses don't have proper security on their wireless networks, for example where i work now (i wont name and shame them in the shame post lol) they have an epos system, office computers, handling payroll etc, reception computers, and a open hotspot on the same router! it amazed me how much sensitive data i was able to view without any hacking methods with just the laptop in my lunch hour, now anyone who had a wi-fi device could in effect screw-up the till system, view confidential files, one day they'll all learn :lol:

darren

i know my old school had no security either

Love It, and Hate It! Especially when Wifi is the hotel variety ...It's either really good ... or really, very, very bad. My back up is a cell phone and laptop or palm. And it's just to check on email.. And off to the hotel gym ... but that another story ..love it and hate it!

Yes, I have made one of those and it works quite well in my area. There are many wireless connections that are for the most part open and easy to jump onto right from my couch.

I have only used it during a period of about a week awhile ago when I was waiting for my DSL service to finally kick on (the DSL was purchased, set up, etc, but the company was having some "issues" as they told me and I was not going to wait one+ week for Net service)

It's a nice back-up to have for emergencies.

Regards,
sharky_machine

i left my pda in my pocket and went on a drive for about 3 miles and found no less than 47 unsecured wifi networks

I have used the number of open networks as a metric for the popularity of both broadband and wifi, which increasingly go hand in hand. Just 3 or 4 years ago I could wander around my village and there would not be a single wifi network, open or otherwise, picked up my my stumbler kit. Now there are dozens of them down every lane, and my village has less than a hundred houses...

i got neighbors and whats annoying is about 12 of them are in range and there all on the same channel as me, as well as thier cordless phones, so i get a crappy bandwith