Hi everyone. With the awesome wireless functionality in KeySoft 6 both for BrailleNote PK and other members of the BrailleNote family, there have been quite a few messages on this list about using public wireless hotspots, also known as WiFi. So as someone who travels very frequently and uses WiFi to get work done whenever I can find it, I thought I'd take some time to relate some of my experiences with WiFi so you might know what to expect. This might be particularly timely as many people get ready to travel to conventions in the US, and Sight Pillage in the UK.
Firstly, let me try and define WiFi. A wiFi hotspot is a public service designed to allow you to make an Internet connection in a public place. You may find this in hotels, airports, cafes, and only the other day I heard of WiFi being set up in a church! Some wireless hotspots are free, while others require you to pay to use them. When I am in a place where I think WiFi might be available, I take out my BrailleNote, and insert a compatible wireless card which I always carry with me. I go to the Options Menu, choose Connectivity, and then Wireless Ethernet. After enabling Wireless Ethernet, I press s to scan for available networks. While it is a good security measure to disable the advertising of a wireless network identifier known as the SSID at home, public WiFi hotspots obviously want you to connect to them, so if a network is available for you to use, it will generally be publicly displayed and your BrailleNote will discover the SSID of the network. In some areas, particularly in large airports, you may well find that you actually have a choice of hotspots to connect to. When I have found a network I want to connect to from the list of available networks, I press enter on the network name, and the standard connection configuration screen appears. Usually, all I do here is give the configuration a name. This can be a name of your choosing. Then I save the configuration. The first thing to do when you want to use a public wiFi hotspot is to try to go to a web page. Simply launch KeyWeb in the usual way, and choose your new connection when asked. In very rare cases, you'll be up and running with your default home page at this point. But more likely, you will be forced onto a special page by the hotspot. This page will ask you to do one of two things. Either simply agree to the terms and conditions for using the network, or provide payment details. Certain companies, like Boingo or tMobile, have hotspots all over the place, in which case you may well already have a user name and password from previous use which they will ask you for. Once you complete whatever procedure is required by the hotspot provider, which is almost always web-based, then you're good to go anywhere on the web, and clear your e-mail. Note that to prevent the abuse of SMTP servers by spammers, many Internet Service Providers will prevent you from sending mail without authentication if you are trying to do so from a network other than their own. In this case, you may need to find out from your ISP what authentication method they employ to allow a WiFi user to send mail. In some cases, it will simply be switching to SMTP authentication, which the BrailleNote family supports. I hope this is helpful. Jonathan.
