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Top Free Wi-Fi Hotspot Locators - Find a Free Wireless Hotspot

By Bradley Mitchell, About.com

Numerous Web sites offer searchable listings of public Wi-Fi hotspots. Hotels, airports, restaurants and many other businesses now offer free or paid wireless Internet connectivity services via these hotspots.

Travelers can use these hotspot finder services to locate nearby access points. Each service listed below shows the location of free hotspots on a map and provides the configuration parameters such as hotspot name (SSID) needed to connect.

1. JiWire

The JiWire search engine supports dozens of countries and indexes both free and paid hotspots. Search by street address, airport code, postal code or SSID. Alternatively, browse the airport, hotel and cafe listings.

2. Wi-Fi ZONE Finder

The Wi-Fi ZONE Finder is a an official service of the Wi-Fi Alliance. This directory indexes only hotspot providers that have registered for the ZONE program. Such a certification system helps keep inactive hotspots, or hotspots of lesser quality, out of the index.

3. The Hotspot Haven

Hotspot Haven offers a large directory with clickable maps. Search by address and by service provider. A user rating service allows customers to score and rank the quality of these hotspots.

4. WiFinder

WiFinder is privately held company that indexes hotspots worldwide. WiFinder can be searched by location and by Wi-Fi protocol (802.11b or 802.11g). WiFinder lists fewer total hotspots than some competitive services, but it may contain some entries that other services do not.

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