Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Free Wifi in Paris, France

One of the WiFi networks I can apparently try to connect to is called FreeWiFi. When I try to connect to this network, it sends me to:





http://wifi.free.fr





which requests a user name and password.





Anyone familiar with this network? Is it free? How can I get a user name and password?





I assume the username and password is only necessary so they can make sure you aren%26#39;t doing anything illegal with your access.









Is http://wifi.free.fr the same thing as:





www.paris.fr/portail/Economie/Portal.lut…





It looks like, if I could read this french site, that I could get a username and password for a free, Paris wide, wifi network.





Is this true?





If it is a wifi network, but isn%26#39;t free, how much does it cost?





Is it possible to get this information in English?



(There is an English link on the top of the page, but click on that link does not send me to an english translation of this page.)









Does anyone have any recommendations on generally Paris wide wifi networks (either free or paid)?









Does anyone have any recommendations on accurate websites containing listings of businesses in Paris offering free wifi access?









Virtually any comments on accessing the internet via wifi in Paris would be welcome.









Thank you.




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Free.fr is not free, it costs 29€/month, but there are many sites where you can find free wifi in Paris. Many cafés offer free wifi; you will just have to ask the waiter for the password. Parks in Paris have free wifi, although I have found these signals to be quite weak.







Try: http://www.cafes-wifi.com/




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There are lots of hotspots in Paris. If you really need Internet, why don%26#39;t you get or bring a 3G card.





SFR offers cards for limited usage:



1 hour 7 EUros



1 day 9 Euros



8 hours over 15 days 26 Euros



Their website is all in French: sfr.fr/internet-mobile/…




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The free wifi Paris offers is, I believe, mostly available in outdoors/public areas.. maybe some apartments or hotel rooms could happen to be near a free hotspot. We used it in one of the little %26#39;pocket parks%26#39; a couple blocks from our hotel, but it wasn%26#39;t available in the hotel.




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I read somewhere that McDonalds in Paris all have free wireless - I hope this is true as I don%26#39;t intend to pay 18E to use the wiFi at my hotel lol.




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Can you be more specific about where exactly you%26#39;ll be in Paris? That way maybe some of us can come up with suggested spots based on personal experience...




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Yes, McDonalds has free wifi for its customers. Use is simple: just open your browser, you will be directed automatically to a webpage where you need to accept the terms of use, and after doing that you can surf. I think the terms of use contain some restrictions regarding porn sites, etc. (not unlogical).



The free internet access offered by the city is available in about 260 public places: libraries, museums, parks, etc (during opening hours!). You can find their locations via the website mentioned above, under %26quot;Localisation des points Wi-Fi%26quot;. At those locations, you should see the Paris WiFi-logo near the base station. On your computer, you should select the Orange network. When you then startup your browser, I understand that you%26#39;re directed to a page where you need to select the %26quot;pass Paris Wi-Fi 2h%26quot;, for 2 hours of free internet use.




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Quite a few cafes will give you a passcode for 30min-hour or so, with purchase of a cup of coffee... Cafe du Metro/rue de Rennes was one.





The Columbus Cafe chain of coffee shops have Wifi (free).





columbuscafe.com/columbus-cafe-paris-et-ile-…





http://www.cafes-wifi.com/




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Most Paris hotels have free WiFi, some charge it - which of course is utterly stupid, I wouldn%26#39;t book a hotel so business unconscious that it wouldn%26#39;t offer it. Unfortunately that still includes some very nice venues.





Every McDonald%26#39;s has free WiFi, and there are around 400 free hotspots managed by the city, in every park and public buildings. Here%26#39;s a map, sorry I couldn%26#39;t find it in English :





www.paris.fr/portail/Economie/Portal.lut…





These don%26#39;t require any password, but work only between 7AM and 11PM, sometimes less - if a park closes at 8PM, the WiFi shuts domn too.





As you can see on the map, it%26#39;s not just the %26quot;major parks%26quot; that are equipped - basically any place with a few trees has its spot.





Wherever you are in Paris you will find supposedly open-access WiFi, usually by free.fr or Neuf Telecom, but they are in fact for their patrons only. These operators have a %26quot;network%26quot; where all users can borrow some of the bandwidth of their fellow subscribers anywhere.

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