Where is the Wi-Fi?

Is hoping on an open wireless connection like siphoning gas out of a parked car?

What is going on in town that everyone is using the password protection on their wi-fi connection? It used to be, like two weeks ago, that everywhere you went, you fabulously encountered the Internet. Open Internet connections were ubiquitous.

And now, computer owners have decided that someone “borrowing” your connection is equivalent to your siphoning gas out of their car. This is enormously inconvenient and troublesome to those many many many of us who enjoyed this free wi-fi throughout the city.

There are two issues here -- one is, did I damage any of the people whose connections I rode? Two – if private citizens won’t share, when will the city step in and make wireless the city?

One can organize, or join an organization – nyc wireless.
http://www.nycwireless.net/articles

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has plans to install wi-fi in parks throughout New York over the next 3 years.

Already service exists in Bryant Park, Union Square, Stuyvesant Cove, Tompkins Square Park, and many areas in the Financial District and Battery Park including: World Financial Center, City Hall Park, Wall Street Park, Vietnam Veterans Plaza, Stone Street, Battery Park, Bowling Green, and at 60 Wall Street.

You can check this map for the location nearest you, or get lucky and stumble upon one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/nyregion/16wifi.html?ex=1305432000&en=ecca166f048f3a8f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Or you can head to Starbucks.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of iphone , which will end the search all together.

Cheers,