Wi-Fi Hotspot News

Our pre-paid Wi-Fi Hotspots rely on Internet Vouchers to allow access to your Wireless Internet. Every Internet Voucher has a unique 5 digit card and pin number on the rear under a secure scratch-off strip.

Our clever Wi-Fi Hotspot Software knows how long each Internet Voucher is valid for depending on the code they type in to the captive portal. When their time’s up, they get logged out of the Wi-Fi Hotspot. Simple. Internet Vouchers come in the following varieties at the moment:

• £3 – 60 multi-use minutes
• £6 -180 multi-use minutes
• £15 – 7 consecutive days
• £20 – 30 consecutive days

A multi-use Internet Voucher does not run out until all the minutes have been used. For example, if your customer buys a £3 Internet voucher and logs in to your Wi-Fi Hotspot on Friday. He uses only 10 minutes and has up to 20 years to finish it up!

With every PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspot comes great joy and happiness. However, we also send you some bright and beautiful Wi-Fi Hotspot stickers to advertise you’ve got a PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspot in your business.

You’ll also get some table tents and user guides to help you along. We’ll add you to a list of Wi-Fi Hotspot locations on qype.co.uk and finally, you’ll get a bright and bold PolkaSpots Rosette for your website!

        

A access code is a simple code that you give to your customers when they want to get online at a PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi Hotspot.

When you get your PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspot, your default password will be something short and sweet, like “blue”. Your customers will need to enter this access code in the box on the captive portal or login screens. You can read about Wi-Fi Hotspot login screens here.

You can login and change this password as often as you require – just make sure you tell your staff. You should also make sure you keep it as short as possible.

We know this sounds like more patronising IT jargon that’s confusing and misleading. Don't panic! A captive portal or Wi-Fi Hotspot Login screen is a simple page that appears when a customer tries to access to the Internet at a public Wi-Fi Hotspot.

Most professional Wi-Fi Service Providers, like PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi, use these to control access to the Internet. Instead of your customers entering a password to sign on to the Wireless Network, they need to enter valid login credentials. This gives the you more control over who is using your service.



The design of these depends on the Wi-Fi Hotspot and Wi-Fi Hotspot company. In some free Wi-Fi Hotspots, the user just has to agree to some terms and conditions by clicking a check box. Others require registration and or some form of payment to be made. Some PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspots use Internet Vouchers and others use a simple access code.

The PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspot login screens can be personalised to match your business.

You might assume that we've got it in for the UK government at the moment and you'd probably be right. With all the news about the recent digital economy bill, there's a lot to be upset about.

Talk of banning websites - since when did we enter the great wall of China? Super-fast broadband across the entire UK - a hasty and badly planned idea by Brown. Worst of all, banning public Wi-Fi hotspots - the end for Wi-Fi Service providers like PolkaSpots?

Well no, but if the plans are implemented, it will be the end to the DIY Wi-Fi Hotspots that are cropping up. It would mean only companies with the ability to track and record users would be able to operate.

As a Wi-Fi Service Provider, we've been able to do this for more than 100 years :) We appreciate not everyone wants to pay for their service, but a PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspot only costs £14.99 per month and if it's going to add value and protect your business, what more do you want? Is it worth risking it and trying to do it yourself?

I wrote this morning about the problems caused by Gordon Brown's recent announcements regarding 'Super-fast Broadband'. You can read my comments here.

Less than a day later, it seems the announcement has caused more than just a stir...

The general consensus seems to be that it's a good plan - of course it's a good idea to give everyone Internet Access! However, there are mixed opinions about the cost, deployment, time scale and ownership.

We particularly agree with the required speed - it is not essential that we're all connected at 50mbps. We need to decide on a base level that's acceptable and build from there. Surely, putting in good infrastructure is key to this?

As you know, PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi Hotspots all come with bandwidth management as standard. But what does this actually mean?

Most free WiFi Hotspots restrict the amount of time you can surf the Internet - this is great in some businesses however there's nothing more annoying than being disconnected half-way through an email.

At PolkaSpots WiFI Hotspots, we decided to allow unlimited time on our WiFi Hotspots but slow things down a little bit. This means your customers won't get cut of mid-email - nor do they get to use / abuse your Internet connection. For example, if you had an 8meg broadband line, they only get a percentage of this and more people can use your connection happily.

What about abuse?

We go to great lengths to prevent abuse. Here's how it works:

• Login screens - your customers need an access code to get online. A login screen prevents passersby from using your WiFi connection.
• Bandwidth management - we went over this above. Because we slice your Internet connection up, abuse of your Internet connection is actually quite hard.
• Content filtering - this blocks illegal file downloading and preserves your Internet connection.
• Quarantine queue - if we do detect abuse or someone trying to stream too much data, we put them in a slow queue. Handy. All this means you can get on running your business and not your WiFi Hotspot Service.

I want to restrict time. Can I do this?

Sure thing - if you don't like the idea of your customers having unlimited access to the Internet you can restrict their connection time with voucher codes. You give your customer a unique number each time they want to use the Internet.

Lots of things for you to do with your Wi-Fi hotspot then!

We've been doing this Wi-Fi Hotspot lark now for over 76 years - since 1911 in fact. Because of this we know that you'll be so happy with your Wi-Fi Hotspot system when it arrives, you'll want to lick it.

Here are the steps we go through to make sure every Wi-Fi Hotspot is happy:

1. Massage each Wi-Fi Hotspot before it goes out for three weeks (like kobe beef).
2. A team of 38 engineers puts each one though a set of extreme tests, including environmental challenges.
3. See whether they can complete a sudoku puzzle in less than 14 minutes.
4. See what they're like on general web activity, browsing, email, facebook etc.
5. Polka - they must be able to dance the Polka.

Only after we're completely happy they've got 10/10 in all these challenges will we send them out.

As a result, we offer a 14 day money back guarantee! If you're not happy with your little PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspot box - just send it back  and we'll send your money back.

The reason we limit this to 14 days is because our little Wireless Hotspot boxes are very sensitive and get very attached to their new owners (you). We don't want sad Hotspots back - they love you.

It's been an exciting week at PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspots. We're sorry that followers of the PolkaSpots News have been left out. We have a long list of blogs to write - prepare yourself for a barrage soon ;)

We've welcomed two new recruits to PolkaSpots Supafly Wi-Fi this week - Anthony and Filipe. Exciting times at PolkaSpots and a whole new office dynamic.

Anthony and Filipe have joined our close knit team to help with design and support projects that are keeping us busy right now.

Most importantly, they'll be helping out when you need help with your Wi-Fi Hotspot Service.

Since the beginning of time, Tuesday has always been the busiest day at our Wi-Fi Hotspots. 

For a short time earlier this year, it looked like Thursday was going be our busiest Wi-Fi Hotspot usage day. We're pleased that Tuesday's up there again.

What's everyone actually doing on Tuesday's? We're still not sure but suspect it's the early week blues that's forcing people out of their homes and offices into the cafes around the UK to use their PolkaSpots Wi-Fi Hotspot Service.

According to various sources on the Internet, Tuesday's is the busiest day for e-newsletters and Monday is supposed to be the busiest day. Not according to our statistics!