

milnoc

join:2001-03-05

Ottawa milnoc Member What would happen What would happen if Starbucks did shut down the Wi-Fi entirely? Would they lose valuable customers? Or would they just lose the non-paying Wi-Fi squatters?

bugabuga

join:2004-06-10

Austin, TX 1 recommendation bugabuga Member Re: What would happen I think it used to be that you'd get WiFi access code on receipt that'd work for an hour or something like that.

For stores that have this problem, this'd be the best solution

ISurfTooMuch

join:2007-04-23

Tuscaloosa, AL ISurfTooMuch Member Re: What would happen Yeah, I seem to remember that. Struck me as a good idea at the time. Maybe they could even set it up so the more you spent, the longer your code would be valid for. Maybe 30 minutes for the first $10, and 30 minutes for each $10 after that. Spend below $10, and you get 15 minutes. That wouldn't mean you could only sit there for 15 or 30 minutes, but you'd only have that much connection time after your initial login. Of course, the receipt would only be valid for that day, so people couldn't hoard them for use later.



And it'd be quite entertaining to watch the freeloaders go rummaging through the trash looking for valid codes.

40757180 (banned)

join:2009-11-01 40757180 (banned) to bugabuga

Member to bugabuga

said by bugabuga: I think it used to be that you'd get WiFi access code on receipt that'd work for an hour or something like that.

For stores that have this problem, this'd be the best solution

When did they I just hacked it. Yes i admit i violated the law.



compuguybna

join:2009-06-17

Nashville, TN compuguybna to bugabuga

Member to bugabuga





The owner changes the wi-fi password everyday, and gives it to paying customers.



Her regular customers have free access always.



People can bring their ac adapters too. said by bugabuga: I think it used to be that you'd get WiFi access code on receipt that'd work for an hour or something like that.

For stores that have this problem, this'd be the best solution

The local SUBWAY here in town (in the wal-mart) has FREE-WIFI **with purchase**.The owner changes the wi-fi password everyday, and gives it to paying customers.Her regular customers have free access always.People can bring their ac adapters too.



FarmerBob

join:2000-12-21

Littleton, CO Calix 716GE-I

FarmerBob to milnoc

Member to milnoc

I get free WiFi via AT&T through my DSL carrier. I have never used it there because the tension is enough to cut with a knife. And the last time I got a muffin there, it was hard enough to break concrete. I'd be more than glad to buy all kinds of stuff to make it worth their while and be able to relax. But they are so over priced and quality is heading way down. They are basically pricing themselves out of the market.



In my area the smaller chains that have been able to hang on, are getting more business and are a pleasure to do business with. AND have the same if not better WiFi. Some are bars. That's even better.



How's the "rebranding" going SB?

Taget

join:2004-07-29 Taget to milnoc

Member to milnoc

If they shut it down entirely I'd probably stop going. Occasionally if I'm stuck somewhere for two or three hours waiting for someone I go to Starbucks and get a bagel and a drink and maybe work on something on my laptop. Old, large, and heavy without much battery life so I do value the plugs.



Perhaps I don't go to high volume locations but it has never really been a problem. Starbucks has always been very good at stuffing a large number of chairs into a rather small area. And they make money they otherwise wouldn't have.



Now in a high volume location where there is an actual shortage of seats for customers to sit some restrictions do make sense. Actually the way they did it before made a lot of sense. Only those with the starbucks debit card could register to login to wifi.



Cheese

Premium Member

join:2003-10-26

Naples, FL 1 recommendation Cheese Premium Member Re: But... said by jslik: If they limit my wi-fi, how am I to write my screenplay while wearing my bluetooth headset looking all important????





On your Apple, can't forget that



spewak

R.I.P Dadkins

Premium Member

join:2001-08-07

Elk Grove, CA ·Consolidated Com..

spewak to jslik

Premium Member to jslik

said by jslik: If they limit my wi-fi, how am I to write my screenplay while wearing my bluetooth headset looking all important????





You forgot the "Whilst' talking loud" part.



jslik

That just happened

Premium Member

join:2006-03-17 jslik Premium Member Re: But... said by spewak: You forgot the "Whilst' talking loud" part.

I thought that was a given with Bluetooth headsets.



jester121

Premium Member

join:2003-08-09

Lake Zurich, IL jester121 to spewak

Premium Member to spewak





and using words like "whilst".



defiant8

join:2000-09-04

Monroe, MI defiant8 Member Juice mooches Kinda related and thought I'd share... Saw a guy in a local McD's unscrewing a light bulb from a fixture so he could put in a 120v tap to connect his laptop to. Now, I've used nearby outlets before, but that was just plain pathetic to actually disable a light fixture.



KrK

Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy

Premium Member

join:2000-01-17

Tulsa, OK KrK Premium Member Re: Juice mooches If I saw someone doing that, I'd ask them to GTFO.



defiant8

join:2000-09-04

Monroe, MI defiant8 Member Re: Juice mooches I thought about saying something about it, but it was plain as day what he was doing and the manager was within sight. Not worth my time...



heat84

Bit Torrent Apologist

join:2004-03-11

Fort Lauderdale, FL heat84 to defiant8

Member to defiant8

said by defiant8: Kinda related and thought I'd share... Saw a guy in a local McD's unscrewing a light bulb from a fixture so he could put in a 120v tap to connect his laptop to. Now, I've used nearby outlets before, but that was just plain pathetic to actually disable a light fixture.





What Bugabuga said is the best solution. Pathetic, but resourceful. Someone should make one of those for planes. How hard is it to take the cover off of one of those overhead lights anyway? Or perhaps a tap into a lavatory light.What Bugabuga said is the best solution.



defiant8

join:2000-09-04

Monroe, MI defiant8 Member Re: Juice mooches Yeah, get caught messing with a light fixture on a plane. Good way to have the flight diverted and spend the next few hours explaining yourself to TSA



vpoko

Premium Member

join:2003-07-03

Boston, MA vpoko Premium Member Re: Juice mooches Yup, though not TSA, they're not actually law enforcement, they just check your bags.



dvd536

as Mr. Pink as they come

Premium Member

join:2001-04-27

Phoenix, AZ dvd536 Premium Member Re: Juice mooches said by vpoko: Yup, though not TSA, they're not actually law enforcement, they just check your bags.

And grope you.



pianotech

Pianotech

Premium Member

join:2002-12-30

New Castle, PA pianotech to defiant8

Premium Member to defiant8

said by defiant8: Yeah, get caught messing with a light fixture on a plane. Good way to have the flight diverted and spend the next few hours explaining yourself to TSA

From a cell in Turkey.



Gbcue

Premium Member

join:2001-09-30

Santa Rosa, CA Gbcue to heat84

Premium Member to heat84

Most flights I've been on have power outlets. They are the EmPower port types...

iansltx

join:2007-02-19

Austin, TX iansltx Member Re: Juice mooches Depends on who you fly. I fly Frontier and Southwest 95% of the time and neither have 'em. For that matter, my US Airways, American and Continental flights taken over the past few years haven't had 'em either.

TheMG

Premium Member

join:2007-09-04

Canada MikroTik RB450G

Cisco DPC3008

Cisco SPA112

TheMG to Gbcue

Premium Member to Gbcue

said by Gbcue: Most flights I've been on have power outlets. They are the EmPower port types...





Right now Air Canada only has em on a few of their aircraft (mostly for overseas flights). WestJet does not have them on any of their aircraft.



Laptop can barely make it through one movie on fully charged batteries... I wish more aircraft were equipped with those.Right now Air Canada only has em on a few of their aircraft (mostly for overseas flights). WestJet does not have them on any of their aircraft.Laptop can barely make it through one movie on fully charged batteries...



ericn32

meh

Premium Member

join:2009-09-23

Costa Mesa, CA ericn32 to heat84

Premium Member to heat84

You'd probably fry it. Aircraft electronics run near 400Hz unlike usual AC which is at 60Hz in the US

patcat88

join:2002-04-05

Jamaica, NY patcat88 Member Re: Juice mooches SMPS couldn't care less. First thing the 400 hz power hits is a bridge rectifier.

xenophon

join:2007-09-17 xenophon to defiant8

Member to defiant8

said by defiant8: Kinda related and thought I'd share... Saw a guy in a local McD's unscrewing a light bulb from a fixture so he could put in a 120v tap to connect his laptop to. Now, I've used nearby outlets before, but that was just plain pathetic to actually disable a light fixture.







that's actually brilliant even though i wouldn't do it. if you use a 120v tap that has a light socket extender, you can keep the light on too.

watice

join:2008-11-01

New York, NY watice Member Re: Juice mooches aren't some light fixtures rated for a specific wattage? seems slightly dangerous



wattsup

@comcast.net wattsup Anon Re: Juice mooches Light fixtures with a rated wattage would easily be able to push a few hundred watts of juice. They have those warning stickers for those crazy hot 100+ watt bulbs that would melt their cheap plastic.



WattTF

@charter.com WattTF to xenophon

Anon to xenophon

Hey, my three-pronged plug won't fit in that one!

Dreamwiser3

join:2009-12-18

Hamilton, ON Dreamwiser3 Member Re: Juice mooches

Just remove your ground.



PeteC2

Got Mouse?

MVM

join:2002-01-20

Bristol, CT PeteC2 MVM They are finally starting to get it... Free customer wifi at a hotel makes good sense. Folks are going to be at a hotel for a fairly specified length of time regardless, and wifi is a very cheap but appreciated service.



Free wifi at a restaurant/coffee shop never makes sense. It is a all-round loser. Whatever short term initial bump they got over free wifi, quickly became more hassle and fewer profits. I don't "hang out" at Starbucks, but occasionally stop by for a beverage. You see the same "campers" with their notebooks open all the time. They are not there spending very much money for the amount of time hanging out.



Is this necessarily "bad?"...maybe not, but it is not a paradigm that makes any sense in terms of running a profitable business.



pnjunction

Teksavvy Extreme

Premium Member

join:2008-01-24

Toronto, ON pnjunction Premium Member McDs wifi McDonald's around here are noticeably filled with laptop-toting cheapskates since they all put in free wifi around here.



Saw the manager at 1am tell a bunch to GTFO if they didn't buy something. I looked around and realized that on the entire floor there were 6 guys with laptops and only me with McDonalds food...



bemis

Premium Member

join:2008-07-18

Sharon, MA bemis Premium Member take a cue from the smokers... - Half your tables are "no electronics" zone ... of course if you're just checking your phone for a moment it's not an issue, but you aren't allowed to sit for 10-20-30-240 minutes at a time staring at your screen...



Or,



- Half your tables are "quick turn over" tables where you ask that people sit for no more than 10 minutes (yes, it requires policing, but if you're so crowded that you have this issue that shouldn't be a huge imposition on the staff)



Or,



- 20 mins free Wi-Fi with purchase... you buy something, you get a code on your receipt, you enter that into a starting page and your count down begins...



To be honest w/ cellular internet connections these days it's only the weekend warriors and cheapskates who need to hang around for free Wifi.



I'd also like to point out that every McDonald's now offers it... as long as you don't mind some snot nosed kid drooling in your direction from the ball pit it's not a bad place to stay and work. Typically I'll sit in my car in their parking lot and use the Wifi.



ArrayList

DevOps

Premium Member

join:2005-03-19

Mullica Hill, NJ ArrayList Premium Member AT&T gave me access to that wifi so eat it starbucks.

iFail 5G

join:2011-08-03 iFail 5G Member Who cares? . Im good to go! My MacBook Pro has a 7 hour battery life and I have a Verzion 4G/3G data card. Im good to go!



Killa200

Premium Member

join:2005-12-02

TN Killa200 Premium Member Thought I'd say a MAC time limit would help out more than blocking the power outlets.



Routers to do this aren't really that expensive, just set it up to X amount of hours per hour / day / week / month / etc, and after that amount of hours it stops working until the time allotment rolls over.



Sure is circumventable, but to an extreme so is blocking power outlets.



Even better, they make routers that have that ability, and throttling capabilities per MAC as well, so you'd be able to manage congestion from the squatters while they are there.

elray

join:2000-12-16

Santa Monica, CA elray Member They brought it on themselves When Starbux' Wifi required registration, it was self-limiting. When they lowered the difficulty level, the neophytes settled in. 99-weeks of unemployment checks didn't help much either. This is what happens when you make something "free" - the classic Tragedy of the Commons. McDonald's doesn't have the same problem - even bums have standards.



I think the best compromise I've seen involves strategically severing outlets, and floorspace permitting, installing larger group table(s) for laptop use. It wouldn't hurt to return to some form of token registration requirement, if they could make it work better than the AT&T system.

ISurfTooMuch

join:2007-04-23

Tuscaloosa, AL ISurfTooMuch Member Re: They brought it on themselves I like Kila200's idea of limiting time by MAC address. I can't imagine you'd need more than 30 minutes in a 24-hour period. That's enough to check mail and do some quick browsing. If you need more time than that, you need to get your own connection.



Of course, Starbucks could then sell you additional time in the form of prepaid cards. That way, if you really needed to stay online, you could, and at least they'd be getting something for their table space. The moochers will complain and threaten to leave, but they aren't generating much revenue, anyway, and their presence is keeping other customers out.

elray

join:2000-12-16

Santa Monica, CA elray Member Re: They brought it on themselves said by ISurfTooMuch: I like Kila200's idea of limiting time by MAC address. I can't imagine you'd need more than 30 minutes in a 24-hour period. That's enough to check mail and do some quick browsing. If you need more time than that, you need to get your own connection.



Of course, Starbucks could then sell you additional time in the form of prepaid cards. That way, if you really needed to stay online, you could, and at least they'd be getting something for their table space. The moochers will complain and threaten to leave, but they aren't generating much revenue, anyway, and their presence is keeping other customers out.





While its popular to judge the "campers", the real congestion is the result of the iPad crowd - who were mostly too incompetent to deal with the old system, but now no longer give up and depart. A 30-minute limit would have little impact.



As for whether one "needs more than 30 minutes", that's completely arbitrary.



There are some days where I "need" two hours; I'm happy to pay for it. Starbucks isn't concerned about the table space / moocher arguments. They prefer the lobby to be full - their money is made on takeout, and they want a crowded scene; at least, that was the corporate philosophy during the expansion years.While its popular to judge the "campers", the real congestion is the result of the iPad crowd - who were mostly too incompetent to deal with the old system, but now no longer give up and depart. A 30-minute limit would have little impact.As for whether one "needs more than 30 minutes", that's completely arbitrary.There are some days where I "need" two hours; I'm happy to pay for it.

pkorx8

join:2003-06-19

San Francisco, CA pkorx8 Member Peet's Peets coffee has a simpler wifi model:



Any purchase gets you a 2hr wifi login code.



battleop

join:2005-09-28

00000 battleop Member Free Wifi, not Free Power They advertise free WiFi and not freepower. I can't see that starbucks has anything to lose by pissing these cheap asses off.



compuguybna

join:2009-06-17

Nashville, TN compuguybna Member Re: Free Wifi, not Free Power EXACTLY! bring your own damn battery. If your battery lasts only an hour, then that's the extent to your usage!

pabster

join:2001-12-09

Waterloo, IA pabster Member What a joke... If you can afford to eat/drink at Starbucks - and regularly at that - you can afford your own damn internet. I'm so tired of freeloaders, that's why this country is going down the toilet. I'd do the time-limit by receipt thing and pay someone to keep watch over the trash receptacles so the bums aren't scrounging for receipts.

horkboy

join:2005-05-18

Honokaa, HI horkboy Member Re: What a joke... said by pabster: If you can afford to eat/drink at Starbucks - and regularly at that - you can afford your own damn internet. I'm so tired of freeloaders, that's why this country is going down the toilet. I'd do the time-limit by receipt thing and pay someone to keep watch over the trash receptacles so the bums aren't scrounging for receipts.

Agreed. If people want to save money, then stop buying stupid, enormous, obnoxious cups of coffee every single day.



Gbcue

Premium Member

join:2001-09-30

Santa Rosa, CA Gbcue Premium Member Charge for Power Insert quarter for 10 minutes of power.



AlphaOne

I see

Premium Member

join:2004-02-21 AlphaOne Premium Member Would be funny ... if people starts bringing Solar chargers.

But then, they could turn the WiFi off totally if they notice people are abusing it.

talz13

join:2006-03-15

Avon, OH talz13 Member Re: Would be funny ... They should close the blinds and turn the lights down. That'll teach them!



Transmaster

Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus

join:2001-06-20

Cheyenne, WY Transmaster Member What is so bad about it..... is it ruins things for the people of don't abuse the system. These people purchase a cup of lattidadamochaloocha sit down read their e-mail and leave. The people that complain are nothing but leeches.



aaronwt

Premium Member

join:2004-11-07

Woodbridge, VA aaronwt Premium Member If it listed as free.. and they don't impose a limit, you can't complain about the people using it indefinitely. The store needs to have a policy that limits the use. It's the stores fault for not having a policy in place to limit the use of the WiFi.

tom thomas

join:2010-11-04 tom thomas Member blocked outlets not the right approach blocking outlets does not necessarily get rid of the freeloaders. it gets rid of the people with old laptops with weak batteries, while the snobs with brand new thin battery efficient laptops get to sit for hours on a charge.



bring back the outlets, but set a daily limit on wifi based on mac address.



compuguybna

join:2009-06-17

Nashville, TN compuguybna Member Re: blocked outlets not the right approach said by tom thomas: but set a daily limit on wifi based on mac address.

There ARE routers capable of doing that . . . but most are linksys routers in the stores, and probably don't have that capability.



AVD

Respice, Adspice, Prospice

Premium Member

join:2003-02-06

Onion, NJ AVD Premium Member Re: blocked outlets not the right approach starbucks does not use linksys routers.