Thursday, December 31, 2009
It's New Years Eve, 2009. "Free Internet" has been released for a few weeks now though no promotion has been setup for it as yet. The premise of the book is about how to get online for free by building cheap ($10 or so) high-gain WIFI antennas.
I've already sold several copies (How anyone found it with NO Amazon promotion is beyond me.) and people are sending me questions about projects they're working on.
Most of the questions concern logging onto a wireless IP without knowing who owns it. I'm not a lawyer, so anything I say should not be taken as fact. That said, as a rule of thumb, I try to track down the Internet connections I'm interested in.
Here's an example... there's a Subway and a McDonalds withing a few blocks of me that have FREE Internet advertised on their signs. I can pick up both of them using the WIFI CANnon. In fact, I have a Magic Jack running on one computer (old laptop) that does nothing but run my telephone. This works fine. I get about a 1.3 meg connection from the Subway's router. This is fast enough to give me a solid telephone connection. Since the Internet is free, all I'm really paying for is the $20 a year Magic Jack charge. That beats the local phone company's $22 a month charge hands down.
The connection to the McDonald's router is a lot better. If I take my laptop inside the building, I get a 5 mbps connection. From my home, (Three tents of a mile away by my speedometer.) speed tests average about 3.4 mbps. There are a lot of houses between us that really knock down my connection speed...but that's still pretty good, and considering it's free, it's GREAT!
Both of these businesses have banner adds that come up when you first log on. So there's no doubt as to who is providing the FREE Internet. And since their outdoor signs are telling me to, get online for free - I do! Almost all FREE Internet providers have some kind of advertising that will pop up when you first log onto their IP. They provide the free service as a way to draw in business.
My neighbor and I have a small wireless network. I have to turn my antenna to pick up his router but it's easy as it's just sitting on top of my computer. We like to play Texas Holdum and it works great over the wireless network. I can also get online for free using his Internet connection because he's given me his password.
If you bring up "FREE Internet" on Amazon's website, and look under "Customer supplied pictures" you'll see two screen shots showing the IPs I pickup with the WIFI CANnon aimed in just one direction. One screen shot is with the WIFI CANnon, and the other shows the results of using the USB adapter by itself. It's amazing how many more IPs you will discover with a simple devise you can build for about $11.
It's also amazing how many people leave their home router's encryption turned off. I think of the 21 connections in the screen shot, nine are 'wide open,' totally accessible to anyone who can receive them. The book also shows you how to encrypt your router so this won't happen to you.
If you have questions about how to get online for free, let me know and I'll try and answer them.
Here's a link to Amazon for the print version of FREE Internet.
http://www.amazon.com/FREE-Internet-internet-hundreds-building/dp/0967936136/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259787434&sr=1-14
Here's a link to the FREE Internet page on my website.
http://www.randybenjamin.com/html/free_internet.html
Have a great New Year...
Randy
I've already sold several copies (How anyone found it with NO Amazon promotion is beyond me.) and people are sending me questions about projects they're working on.
Most of the questions concern logging onto a wireless IP without knowing who owns it. I'm not a lawyer, so anything I say should not be taken as fact. That said, as a rule of thumb, I try to track down the Internet connections I'm interested in.
Here's an example... there's a Subway and a McDonalds withing a few blocks of me that have FREE Internet advertised on their signs. I can pick up both of them using the WIFI CANnon. In fact, I have a Magic Jack running on one computer (old laptop) that does nothing but run my telephone. This works fine. I get about a 1.3 meg connection from the Subway's router. This is fast enough to give me a solid telephone connection. Since the Internet is free, all I'm really paying for is the $20 a year Magic Jack charge. That beats the local phone company's $22 a month charge hands down.
The connection to the McDonald's router is a lot better. If I take my laptop inside the building, I get a 5 mbps connection. From my home, (Three tents of a mile away by my speedometer.) speed tests average about 3.4 mbps. There are a lot of houses between us that really knock down my connection speed...but that's still pretty good, and considering it's free, it's GREAT!
Both of these businesses have banner adds that come up when you first log on. So there's no doubt as to who is providing the FREE Internet. And since their outdoor signs are telling me to, get online for free - I do! Almost all FREE Internet providers have some kind of advertising that will pop up when you first log onto their IP. They provide the free service as a way to draw in business.
My neighbor and I have a small wireless network. I have to turn my antenna to pick up his router but it's easy as it's just sitting on top of my computer. We like to play Texas Holdum and it works great over the wireless network. I can also get online for free using his Internet connection because he's given me his password.
If you bring up "FREE Internet" on Amazon's website, and look under "Customer supplied pictures" you'll see two screen shots showing the IPs I pickup with the WIFI CANnon aimed in just one direction. One screen shot is with the WIFI CANnon, and the other shows the results of using the USB adapter by itself. It's amazing how many more IPs you will discover with a simple devise you can build for about $11.
It's also amazing how many people leave their home router's encryption turned off. I think of the 21 connections in the screen shot, nine are 'wide open,' totally accessible to anyone who can receive them. The book also shows you how to encrypt your router so this won't happen to you.
If you have questions about how to get online for free, let me know and I'll try and answer them.
Here's a link to Amazon for the print version of FREE Internet.
http://www.amazon.com/FREE-Internet-internet-hundreds-building/dp/0967936136/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259787434&sr=1-14
Here's a link to the FREE Internet page on my website.
http://www.randybenjamin.com/html/free_internet.html
Have a great New Year...
Randy
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