Fast Food Wifi: how?

I’m not very technical…

Say I’m in Carl’s Jr., where they have a banner that says Free Wifi. How do I connect? Do I need to ask them the login name and password? Or is it the same in all Carl’s Jr. restaurants? I looked online, both Googling and at Carl’s home page, and can’t find it. It’s gotta be easy, 'cause lots of people do it.

Just… How?

ETA: Motorola smart phone with Android.

On my iPhone, it automatically asks me if I want to connect to an available network, or I can do it manually in settings. Typically these networks aren’t password protected but you’ll be forced to click a disclaimer popup from the corporate website to connect.

You just… connect to the wifi. You have used wifi in the past right? Just open up the wifi list on your phone, and select the one called Carl’s Jr.

My laptop will detect any available wifi connections. I’d just look for a connection with a name like carljr. I’m assuming there’s no password protection so anyone can sign on if they’re within range. I know in my town, for example, anyone can sign on from the Burger King parking lot.

Actually, no… I’ve never used Wifi before. (I’m one of those “trailing edge” users. I was one of the last of my circle to move from a typewriter to word processing.)

But if it’s automatic (other than accepting a disclaimer) I’ll probably be okay.

Thanks, all, for advice. I’ll come back if I get stuck. Cheers!

As others have said, most of these wifi hotspots don’t have passwords. Just go to the connection manager and click on the name of the hotspot and you will be connected.

But that has another implication: The data stream between your computer and the wifi hotspot is not encrypted. That means anyone can read it easily (with the proper software). This is probably not a big deal if you are just reading SDMB or the news, but if you are doing something more private, you need to encrypt the data on your own computer before sending it out over wifi. For example, if a web page begins with “https” rather than “http,” then the data is encrypted end-to-end or if you use a VPN, then the data will be encrypted between your computer and the VPN server.

You could be more okay if you took a moment to figure out how your particular phone manages wi-fi, in case you’re ever in a situation where the automatic functioning doesn’t kick in.

It couldn’t be much more complicated than the Carl’s Jr combo menu.

Sometimes you have to click “yes I agree” on their wifi agreement page before you’re connected. Panera is like this. So you choose the network then open your browser and click “yes I agree.”

If you choose your network and go right to an app (that is not a browser), you’ll be pissed that the app can’t connect.

A lot of devices will automatically open the signon page for you if you connect to a wifi network that doesn’t immediately give you full web access.

  1. It won’t always be called “CarlsJr” or “McDonalds” or whatever. Most of the McDonald’s wifi spots I’ve used were called “ATTwifi” or something like that. My phone does not automatically connect to open wifi hotspots, but it does notify me if one is available. If yours doesn’t do either, open the settings and click “wifi” to see a list of available hotspots.

  2. You won’t need a password to connect, but you will have to agree to their terms of service, which are basically about McDonald’s disclaiming all liability if you hack the Pentagon, look at child porn or worse, download a copyrighted song. These terms can be viewed in a browser by visiting any site – the wifi will redirect you to their sign on page. You can’t do this in the facebook app or any other apps that require a network connection – use the browser to agree to the terms of service first, then the wifi will allow other apps to use the network.

Yeah, typically once you connect and then fire up a browser, it’ll make you agree to a disclaimer before you’re fully connected to the internet. Until then, you’re just connected to the Wi-Fi, and their local LAN/DMZ without being able to go further. That’s how a lot of hospital wi-fi networks work, and some retail places as well.

Some phones let you auto-connect to your carrier’s vetted wi-fi spots. My AT&T phone can (if I let it) automatically connect to AT&T hotspots in lieu of using 4G LTE. I think this uses your phone’s carrier credentials for login and verification. (i.e. they know you’re an AT&T subscriber when you connect, so they check that vs. your phone).

Definitely a good point. Doing online banking would not be wise.

In my case, it’s just a really big download, and I’m on the very minimum data plan, so if I can avoid having the data transfer counted against my limit…good. It isn’t sensitive data. Anybody who wants to read it…shrug. Feel free.

As with all things related to cell phones, just ask the nearest teenager. There should be one working at the counter.

Huh. I’m computer savvy, but the first time I used public Wifi, other than at a hotel, was yesterday when I was having tests done at the hospital. My phone was not connecting via its network. Anyway, when I went into my phone’s connection settings, I clicked on the one that had the hospital name. It pulled up a intranet page with a disclaimer to click on.

At hotels, there’s usually a card on the desk that tells you the password.

Your banking app probably does encryption. I hope anyhow. But people will be able to see what you post to the Dope.

Um, if it’s a really big download (how big is your file?), then there’s a chance it might not work or it will be slow. I don’t know if restaurant Wi-Fi throttles bandwidth and number of bytes. Even if they don’t, the wireless connection tends to be shared by multiple customers, so each user gets only a slice of the pie (so to speak), not the whole pie. For this reason, I tend to use restaurant Wi-Fi for general browsing and home/school/work connection for big downloads.

All the best. :slight_smile:

I didn’t want to go into unnecessary detail. Basically, my smart phone needs a LOT of apps updated. I’ve got 31 updates pending. I never bother with them, because the thing works well enough as it is. But my nice phone salesman recommended I perform the updates, and he said to do it at a Wifi spot, instead of having the downloads on my data plan.

I am not a techie… (Despite the fact that, yes, I am a techie! Life is weird that way.)

The idea of asking the nearest teenager sounds more and more attractive each day!

If you see a lock symbol next to the wifi name , then just ask the cashier for the password, at some places it will also be printed on the receipt. In general, I try to do just general email checking, Facebook, or basic web surfing. You’ll notice it will probably take forever to update apps.

If I’m not near home and need a speedier connection or have a lot to do online, I’ll find a hotel bar. They usually have decent wifi.

Sorry if I sounded too negative. I just wanted to give you a heads up. App updates shouldn’t be a problem. But if you are downloading a movie, for example, then that’s a different issue. That was the scenario I imagined. (Not that anyone would want to download a huge file like a movie on a phone.)

It will be great if you can provide more details on where you are stuck. The following steps are on my Android phone - it might differ slightly on yours, but hopefully not that different.

1- Locate the wireless symbol. To do this, swipe the top bar down (I have to swipe it twice on my phone). One of the icons should be the wireless ones. It typically is a downward facing triangular (or circular) wedge, like a pizza slice. My phone gives a description under each icon, in case you aren’t sure what a particular icon does.

2- Click on the wireless icon. It should open a list of wireless networks that are within the range of the phone. Some of them will have a little lock symbol - these networks are password protected. No lock means no password, yay!

3- Typically your phone will list quite a few networks that are in the vicinity, but not all of them will work, or the one you are looking for. They could belong to Joe O’Neighbour who lives on the adjacent building, for example.

4- Look for a network with a name similar to the restaurant name. “carljr” or the like. If not, sorry, you might want to ask the counter for the name of the wireless network. :slight_smile: In many places, the coffee shop or café would display the network name and password somewhere – on a little card on the counter, or on the menu, etc.

5- Say you found your network. Is it password protected? If not, then click it. It should automatically connect to the Wi-Fi.

If it is password protected, then also you just click it. Except that, now it will prompt you for a password, which you would have to ask.

Sorry, it all sounds very long and complicated when I write it this way, but it’s pretty simple really. Hope this was helpful. :slight_smile:

(Do you have a wireless connection at home? If yes, you could practice connecting and disconnecting from it, so that steps 1-3 are clear.)

And they could belong to Seymour O’Crook at the next table, who makes a handsome living creating web pages and hotspots that look like the Carl’s Jr. hotspots and fool people into giving up their passwords.