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How to Find Free Wi-Fi Hotspots

Stacy is a professional technology educator with over 25 years’ experience. She has published hundreds of articles, co-authored a book, and has appeared on national and local TV.

Jessica Kormos is a writer and editor with 15 years’ experience writing articles, copy, and UX content for Tecca.com, Rosenfeld Media, and many others.

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What to Know

• Visit retail establishments such as McDonald’s, FedEx, Starbucks, and Barnes and Noble to access free Wi-Fi.
• Call your service provider for a location map of areas that offer free Wi-Fi for customers who are away from home.
• Go to your public library or check out free Wi-Fi websites or apps.

This article includes locations for finding free Wi-Fi hotspots including retailers, websites, apps, service providers, and your neighborhood library.

How to Find Free Wi-Fi Locations

Find free Wi-Fi locations near you with this list of places where you can hop on your phone, tablet, or laptop and get free Wi-Fi. There’s a mixture of free Wi-Fi locations on this list, including restaurants and stores that offer free Wi-Fi, public Wi-Fi networks, and free Wi-Fi options through your ISP. These locations are found in most cities. Once you know where to go, you can get free internet any time you want.

Find Free Wi-Fi Locations Through AT&T

Lots of places use AT&T as their internet provider to offer free Wi-Fi. Some of these locations include McDonald’s, Barnes and Noble, FedEx, Starbucks, and numerous hotels.

There isn’t a hotspot map on the AT&T website to help you find free Wi-Fi, but they do suggest using a hotspot locator app like the one mentioned below.

Most of the AT&T free hotspots use the same SSID of attwifi.

Free Wi-Fi at McDonald’s

Over 11,000 McDonald’s locations offer free Wi-Fi through AT&T. You can find these locations through a hotspot locator app. However, if you want free access at McDonald’s only, and don’t need to look elsewhere, you can search for it here, too.

Find a free McDonald’s Wi-Fi location by searching for a restaurant. However, some owner-operators might disable Wi-Fi, in which case you won’t be able to access it.

To use the internet for free at a McDonald’s, connect to the network called Wayport_Access or attwifi_mcd, open a web browser, and then choose the Connect button.

Use a Starbucks for Free Wi-Fi Access

Similar to McDonald’s, Starbucks serves free Wi-Fi through another company, but instead of AT&T, Starbucks uses Google. It works in the U.S. and in Canada. Wi-Fi is free at all company-owned Starbucks locations.

When you give the Starbucks map your current location, it finds all the free Wi-Fi locations near you. You can also filter the results by service, such as for ones that offer mobile payment or 24-hour access.

The wireless network Starbucks uses for free Wi-Fi is called Google Starbucks. Select that network, complete the fields that display on the screen, and then choose Accept & Connect.

Get Free Wi-Fi Anywhere via OpenWiFiSpots

Tens of thousands of places with free Wi-Fi locations have been manually added by the users of OpenWiFiSpots, and there are a few ways to search for these hotspots.

OpenWiFiSpots can be used free through their website. The site finds free nearby Wi-Fi by city and displays it on a map as well as in a list. You can also find a location by type, such as airports, train stations, pharmacies, public parks, and shopping malls.

OpenWiFiSpots finds free Wi-Fi anywhere, including the United States, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, and other countries.

Search for Wi-Fi Near You Using Boingo

Boingo is another search engine where you can find places with Wi-Fi. Its database includes information on over one million hotspots.

Enter a city, address, or postal code to get a map and a list of locations. Once the search results show, you can narrow results by location type, like airports, restaurants, hotels, stores, or cafes.

Your search results can be exported to a PDF file that includes the location name, address, and Wi-Fi SSID for easy offline viewing.

Click any hotspot on the map for the name of its SSID and an option to see directions to that location from any other location.

You can also use Boingo to find Wi-Fi near you and get directions to any of the locations with their iOS app or Android app. It’s also available on Windows and Mac.

Boingo is no longer a free service, but you may qualify for the free service if you use American Express. Contact the AMEX service desk to inquire.

Use Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory to Find Free Wi-Fi Anywhere

Free Wi-Fi locations in the United States, Asia, Canada, the Middle East, and other areas can be found through The Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory.

You can look for locations by state, country, or region. You can also browse by special location, which supports looking for companies, hotels, airports, RV parks, and vacation rental property that offer free Wi-Fi.

This website isn’t as detailed as some of the others from this list, so check the sources from above first. Instead of showing specific locations and network names, you’re given a website link to the company, park, or hotel, leaving you to contact the business or go to their website for Wi-Fi information.

Free Wi-Fi at Your Local Library

Most libraries have free access to computers, and some also offer free Wi-Fi so you can bring your laptop or smartphone in with you to get free internet.

Public libraries that have free Wi-Fi access include:

It’s best to visit your local library or access their official website for information on whether they offer free Wi-Fi and for details on how to connect to their network. Some networks are open, but others require a password or a library card number.

A program called Library HotSpot is available at the New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library. This is a free service they offer to people who don’t have internet access at home. It works by giving out a free wireless modem that they can use for a limited time.

How to Get Free Wi-Fi Access Through Your ISP

Though it’s not strictly a free way to get Wi-Fi, if you’re a paying customer of select internet service providers (ISPs), you might be able to access free Wi-Fi hotspots at hundreds of thousands of locations around the U.S.

This works through Cable WiFi, which is a joint network name created by Cox Communications, Optimum, Spectrum, and XFINITY to bring free Wi-Fi to their subscribers. This means if you get internet at home through Cox, for example, you can benefit from your subscription when you travel.

Visit your provider’s website for location maps and more information on how this works. The free Wi-Fi network you should look for with these providers might be called CableWiFi but could also go by the company name, such as xfinitywifi or CoxWiFi. Log in with the username and password that you use with your ISP.

On the go and looking for Wi-Fi? Here are some free Wi-Fi hotspot locator apps to help you out.

Use a Wi-Fi app to analyze the network you’re on to see other devices that are connected to it or to see how secure the network is.

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How to Get WiFi Access from Remote Locations Anywhere as a Digital Nomad

It is very possible (and quite easy in fact) to get WiFi access from remote locations these days, no matter where in the world you are. If you are in an area where 3G or 4G phone reception is possible, then certainly WiFi is possible.

Whether you are working your way around the world or living in a rural area (be it in the UK, Costa Rica, Bali or wherever), there are solutions to get online. So let’s take a look at 5 key options.

1. Creating WiFi Hotspot Using Glocalme

Whether staying in a hostel in the jungle (Bolita Hostel in Costa Rica is a great choice for staying in the jungle by the way), sitting in a remote area in Nevada, USA or a rural location in England, if the area gets 3Gg or 4G communication signals then the Glocalme is a fantastic product to ensure you get WiFi.

With a Glocalme you have in your hand an extremely easy way to create your own WiFi hotspot and you can do so whilst only paying local data costs in whatever country you are in.

On the Glocalme (and in your own language), the device will find the best and most affordable local data plans and you can then buy the data plan through the Glocalme .

So you might decide, for example, to buy 10GB of data In Europe for EUR15 (10GB will be plenty, for example, if just checking emails and doing basic tasks over the course of a week).

You can buy data from the Glocalme website or on the Glocalme from local providers.

Once you’ve bought the data you use the Glocalme as your WiFi hotspot device and you can connect from up to 10 Devices.

Just set a WiFi password and connect your smartphone, iPad, laptop, or whatever you need to connect to WiFi.

2. Using Mobile or Cellphone and Tethering

Another option and one that is getting increasingly easy and affordable to do is to use your cellphone’s (mobile phone) data allowance.

I just signed up for 100GB of data a month, for example, for £20 p/m (about USD$27) with Vodafone and I can use the data in any of 51 countries. There is the option to pay a little more and to be able to use the data in 81 countries.

If you are traveling and only need to check emails and do simple tasks, then, as mentioned earlier, even 10GB or 20GB is likely to be enough for you, let alone 100 GB.

You will want to check that your phone allows tethering, meaning that it allows you to create a mobile hotspot.

Here’s how to set up a mobile hotspot:

If you are based in Europe or the UK, then this can be a great and very affordable option.

There are similar cellphone data packages though in the USA and in many countries globally if you shop around.

3. Using Coworking Spaces

Another fantastic option, and particularly if you are a WFA (Work From Anywhere) kind of person who wishes to travel and spend a few months in each exotic location, is the co-working and co-living concept.

Co-working spaces are hubs all around the world where you can use a joint workspace and find:

• High-speed Internet access
• Choose from your own desk to hot-desking (using a different desk each day)
• Tea and coffee-making facilities (often free coffee)
• Social events so that you can get to know the other co-workers and the locals
• Often you will also find organized trips and visits to local attractions (on weekends)

You might decide, for example, to work digitally from Costa Rica for 3 months because you can work from anywhere as long as you have a reliable Internet connection.

In Costa Rica, a great example is Puerto and Co where you can work with a high-speed Internet connection, in the open-air, whilst enjoying their vegan cafe and drinks service as you sit working.

Paul and Valeria wanted more freedom to travel worldwide and started ProMarketing, building on Paul’s 10 years in online marketing.

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