I was passing through Minneapolis airport (as you do), bored waiting for a connection, and their wireless was locked down to only allow you to access MSP's own information services.

I didn't want to shell out good money and buy access because I didn't know whether the authentication/access control system would work on the Z with the Opera or Netfront browser. Is anyone a regular user of these hotspots and can elucidate how they work with linux either on the Z or just on a laptop?

thanks

I've managed to authenticate with T-mobile on the Z using Netfront. You have to pay by credit card (although some hotels have complimentary t-mobile service). There are usually several payment options including a 24hr one. I don't recall the price (maybe $10?). It's usually not worth it but if you are stuck at an airport, bored and itching to go online it's not so bad.

Felipe

Same experience. No problems getting connected in airports or hotels. While there is usually a fee in the airport it works fine.

How do you go about doing that in general? I'm going to be at a science-fiction con this weekend and will want to log on to the hotel's network. (Ad Astra in
Toronto, if anyone is interested.)

I have authenticated using Netfront on the Zaurus to variois free and non-free networks - T-Mobile, Bryant Part Free Wifi service (NYC), Downtown Alliance in Downtown New York etc.

No problems at all.

All you do is firstly connect to the service (setup a Network setting for the said network with Essid, or 'free').
Then laucch the browser and just go to any site (I set google as my load page) - and it will automatically redirect you to the authentication page of the network you are connecting to. Do the necessary authentication and you are set to go...

After the authentication, even email, FTP and all other internet enabled apps start working.

Note : for email sending, you have to setup a SMTP server seperately - thats a whole different topic though.

The t-mobile hotspots use an ESSID of tmobile

If you are travelling through airports that have other wifi services and you're not sure of the name, configure your ESSID to be auto (any). (Note that different ROM's achieve the auto setting in different ways.)

t-mobile (and other) hotspots use a captive portal (see here f you want more details on what they are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_portal). A captive portal forces all dns queries resolve to a designated IP address (their web page) until you have logged into the service through a web browser. This means that you need to use a browser with javascript and HTTPS support to get logged in.

BTW, iff you are a t-mobile subscriber for voice service, they just announced that their hotspots are free for you on weekends. Check the t-mobile website.

Cheers,
Randall.

Thanks, that sounds easy enough ... I guess I'll have to try both browsers and see which works.

the free hotspot tip will be invaluable as I will stuck in Detroit airport for a few hours this coming Sunday... I just signed up to "MyT-Mobile" in anticipation.

it seems the USA are finally catching up with UK in terms of offering pay as you go services which don't cost a fortune every month - I paid US$50 to get a t-mobile SIM for my Nokia 6310i here in Arizona, including 60 days service and 120+ minutes. The irony is that I am a T-Mobile customer in the UK but the roaming costs are hideous - it's cheaper to get a local service!

I am also successfully using my Z as a sip phone with wifi to make calls to the UK via sipgate, and this is very very cheap.