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Tap into Windy City Wi-Fi spots: locations, how-tos, and more.

Thursday Jan 15, 2004.     By David Burn

Lifestyle Feed

When it comes to coffeeshop technology, Barbara Clifford is not looking to upgrade to a new espresso machine. As the proprietor of MoJoe’s Coffee Cafe in Roscoe Village, she’s looking to bring wireless fidelity, a 802.11 networking platform commonly known as Wi-Fi, into her shop so patrons can wirelessly “plug in” to the Internet and multitask to their hearts content, all while enjoying a muffin and cup of piping hot coffee.

As more and more computing is being done outside the home and office environments, laptops and handhelds, like the cell phone blitz that preceded them, are fast becoming a ubiquitous site in the public realm. The digerati are streaming into a cornucopia of Wi-Fi hotspots to check e-mail, send instant messages, and update their Weblog, or blog. Hotspots provide a radio signal that typically reaches 100 to 300 feet, enabling Wi-Fi-ready devices to tap into the local network and the vast Internet beyond.

Luckily, hotspots aren’t too hard to find, or too techy in nature. They’re now found in hotel rooms and lobbies, airport lounges, coffee shops, sandwich shops, public plazas, and increasingly in full service restaurants and bars.

While the proliferation of Wi-Fi hotspots is clearly an exciting advance from the technology addict’s perspective, a quick foray in to public wireless networking can also be a costly and sometimes confusing jaunt.

First time users will want to run through a checklist of possible snafus prior to heading out to the local Wi-Fi ready establishment. First, one’s laptop or handheld must be equipped with a Wi-Fi card in order to receive the radio signal being broadcast by the Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP).

Next, one needs an active account with the WISP, unless the Wi-Fi offering is free. Apple computer users will need to make sure the WISP’s offerings are Mac-compatible. Boingo, one of the nation’s leading Wi-Fi hotspot providers, makes Wi-Fi accessible via the Windows platform only, thus excluding a minority of computer users, but a vocal group that tends to be early adopters of new technology.

The other major hurdle with this developing technology is the fact there is currently no dominant player in the WISP market. If a visitor to Chicago were to check e-mail while imbibing on a caramel latte at Starbucks to begin the day, then again over a quick bite at McDonald’s mid-day, and finally while enjoying cocktails back at Lowe’s House of Blues Hotel, three separate WISP accounts would be necessary. Starbucks partners with T-Mobile, McDonald’s partners with iPass (or Surf Here by Toshiba, depending on the location), and Lowe’s House of Blues Hotel partners with Wayport.

Typically, WISPs structure their payment plans by the hour, by the day, or for monthly, unlimited use. Yet some progressive retailers are opting to cover the costs and supply free Wi-Fi, in hopes of attracting more loyal customers. Panera Bread is one such national retailer.

Chicago’s Fulton River District, a warehouse area west of the Loop and popular among Internet startups, is home to two local providers of free Wi-Fi—Jerry’s Sandwiches at 1045 W. Madison and Westgate Coffeehouse at 924 W. Madison.

Jerry’s Sandwiches is a small breakfast and lunch spot with a strong emphasis on high quality, fresh ingredients. Husband-and-wife team Mark Bires and Mindy Friedler (who also run a catering company out of the location) provide a simple to use, highly available Wi-Fi network for their patrons, much to the confusion of the occasional diner who asks for “Some of that free Wi-Fi on the menu.” In the burgeoning world of Wi-Fi, it may be some time before everyone realizes that Wi-Fi is not a food item. Bires said he installed a Wi-Fi network at home and then realized it would be a logical step to bring the same technology into his work environment.

Since he decided to forgo an e-commerce model as provided by Boingo and several others, his Wi-Fi set up was cheap and easy to install. He simply added a wireless router costing less than $100 to his existing DSL account. Bires’ generosity and enlightened point-of-view on free Internet access is further evidenced in his open-to-all, no sign-up or passwords needed, approach.