If you’ve got time to kill at the airport, wireless can be a life saver. In most terminals, however, wireless isn’t free, and three out of four of the available providers charge an arm and a leg for service. So what’s a cheapskate to do to access his Facebook account without paying through the nose?
Steal wireless, of course. Most people know that if they stand with the proximity of an airline lounge, many of the clubs have unsecured wireless networks. Other open signals can proliferate through the terminal as well, and its not uncommon to see people wandering around the empty halls, holding up notebooks to the sky.
Another way that one can score free wireless comes by using a loophole in the Boingo “sponsored ad” service. Many (not all) Boingo hotspots offer a few minutes free for those willing to jump through a hoop or watch an ad or try out a free service. In JFK’s terminal 8, one can get 20 minutes of free service by trying out Microsoft’s substandard search engine, Bing.
Boingo and your web browser calculate this time using what’s called a cookie, a small thread of data that’s stored on your computer. And cookies, like all security tidbits, are removable. All that you have to do is clear your cookies, reload the Boingo page a few times and reclick the free service ad. In Firefox, it goes like this:
- Connect to the Boingo hotspot.
- If you don’t immediately see an ad for sponsored service, reload the page or navigate around a bit on the Boingo website. It’s possible that this market doesn’t have a sponsor, so don’t be disappointed if nothing pops up.
- Jump through the hoops for free service.
- Update your Facebook status, Tweet what underpants you’re wearing and stalk your new love interest online.
- When you run out of time, click Edit|Preferences|Privacy|Show Cookies
- Ignoring all of your embarassing stored cookies, navigate down to “boingo.aero” or anything with boingo in it.
- Click “Remove Cookies”
- Reload the Boingo connection page. If necessary, disconnect from the wifi network and reconnect.
- Repeat
Easy as pie, and before you know it, it’ll be boarding time. Happy browsing!