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Well, it's a complicated thing, but I'd like to raise the issue anyway ...

Worldwide more and more public WiFi/WLAN hotspots pop up, being usable under different commercial and technical concepts

• free.fr operating 3 million hotspots http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/internet/connexion/acces-hotspot-wifiFree.html
• Deutsche Telekom plans a million locations http://www.telekom.com/media/consumer-products/180150
• fon.com provides access to 12 million locations https://corp.fon.com/en
• Eduroam provides roaming access to thousands of worldwide educational hotspots https://www.eduroam.org/
• iPass (www.ipass.com), Boingo, (www.boingo.com), Aicent (www.aicent.net) provide international hotspot roaming for the enterprise market

All such concepts are basically using just 2 technical concepts

• WISPr (unencrypted) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISPr
• WPA Enterprise (IEEE 802.1x in different flavours incl. EAP (-SIM))

The pity of the whole approach is, that (almost) all clients allowing automated Hotspot access, are proprietary and only available on certain OS platforms.

One of the reasons is, that WISPr and 802.1x allow different flavours of implementation within the hotspot system, so interoperability is not given. Clients have to "know" the individual network to a cewrtain extent, in order to allow automated access. Future might see "Hotspot 2.0", but until then a truly interoperable client could only be set up with the help of a community being able to provide testing and results within hundreds of networks worldwide.

So - as Chrtistmas just passed, I'm still dreaming of a hotspot client being so versatile/modular, that (like modern instant messaging clients) different accounts could be configured and the client automatically logs me into a hotspot as soon as it detects a suitable one .... don't know whether this is too far fetched, but I'm happy to learn ...

Well, it's a complicated thing, but I'd like to raise the issue anyway ...

Worldwide more and more public WiFi/WLAN hotspots pop up, being usable under different commercial and technical concepts

• free.fr operating 3 million hotspots http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/internet/connexion/acces-hotspot-wifiFree.html
• Deutsche Telekom plans a million locations http://www.telekom.com/media/consumer-products/180150
• fon.com provides access to 12 million locations https://corp.fon.com/en
• Eduroam provides roaming access to thousands of worldwide educational hotspots https://www.eduroam.org/
• iPass (www.ipass.com), Boingo, (www.boingo.com), Aicent (www.aicent.net) provide international hotspot roaming for the enterprise market

All such concepts are basically using just 2 technical concepts

• WISPr (unencrypted) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISPr
• WPA Enterprise (IEEE 802.1x in different flavours incl. EAP (-SIM))

The pity of the whole approach is, that (almost) all clients allowing automated Hotspot access, are proprietary and only available on certain OS platforms.

One of the reasons is, that WISPr and 802.1x allow different flavours of implementation within the hotspot system, so interoperability is not given. Clients have to "know" the individual network to a cewrtain extent, in order to allow automated access. Future might see "Hotspot 2.0", but until then a truly interoperable client could only be set up with the help of a community being able to provide testing and results within hundreds of networks worldwide.

So - as Chrtistmas just passed, I'm still dreaming of a hotspot client being so versatile/modular, that (like modern instant messaging clients) different accounts could be configured and the client automatically logs me into a hotspot as soon as it detects a suitable one .... don't know whether this is too far fetched, but I'm happy to learn ...

Well, it's a complicated thing, but I'd like to raise the issue anyway ...

Worldwide more and more public WiFi/WLAN hotspots pop up, being usable under different commercial and technical concepts

• free.fr operating 3 million hotspots http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/internet/connexion/acces-hotspot-wifiFree.html
• Deutsche Telekom plans a million locations http://www.telekom.com/media/consumer-products/180150
• fon.com provides access to 12 million locations https://corp.fon.com/en
• Eduroam provides roaming access to thousands of worldwide educational hotspots https://www.eduroam.org/
• iPass (www.ipass.com), Boingo, (www.boingo.com), Aicent (www.aicent.net) provide international hotspot roaming for the enterprise market

All such concepts are basically using just 2 technical concepts

• WISPr (unencrypted) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISPr
• WPA Enterprise (IEEE 802.1x in different flavours incl. EAP (-SIM))

The pity of the whole approach is, that (almost) all clients allowing automated Hotspot access, are proprietary and only available on certain OS platforms.

One of the reasons is, that WISPr and 802.1x allow different flavours of implementation within the hotspot system, so interoperability is not given. Clients have to "know" the individual network to a cewrtain certain extent, in order to allow automated access. Future might see "Hotspot 2.0", but until then a truly interoperable client could only be set up with the help of a community being able to provide testing and results within hundreds of networks worldwide.

So - as Chrtistmas just passed, I'm still dreaming of a hotspot client being so versatile/modular, that (like modern instant messaging clients) different accounts could be configured and the client automatically logs me into a hotspot as soon as it detects a suitable one .... don't know whether this is too far fetched, but I'm happy to learn ...

Well, it's a complicated thing, but I'd like to raise the issue anyway ...

Worldwide more and more public WiFi/WLAN hotspots pop up, being usable under different commercial and technical concepts

• free.fr operating 3 million hotspots http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/internet/connexion/acces-hotspot-wifiFree.html
• Deutsche Telekom plans a million locations http://www.telekom.com/media/consumer-products/180150
• fon.com provides access to 12 million locations https://corp.fon.com/en
• Eduroam provides roaming access to thousands of worldwide educational hotspots https://www.eduroam.org/
• iPass (www.ipass.com), Boingo, (www.boingo.com), Aicent (www.aicent.net) provide international hotspot roaming for the enterprise market

All such concepts are basically using just 2 technical concepts

• WISPr (unencrypted) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISPr
• WPA Enterprise (IEEE 802.1x in different flavours incl. EAP (-SIM))

The pity of the whole approach is, that (almost) all clients allowing automated Hotspot access, are proprietary and only available on certain OS platforms.

One of the reasons is, that WISPr and 802.1x allow different flavours of implementation within the hotspot system, so interoperability is not given. Clients have to "know" the individual network to a certain extent, in order to allow automated access. Future might see "Hotspot 2.0", but until then a truly interoperable client could only be set up with the help of a community being able to provide testing and results within hundreds of networks worldwide.

So - as Chrtistmas Christmas just passed, I'm still dreaming of a hotspot client being so versatile/modular, that (like modern instant messaging clients) different accounts could be configured and the client automatically logs me into a hotspot as soon as it detects a suitable one .... don't know whether this is too far fetched, but I'm happy to learn ...

Well, it's a complicated thing, but I'd like to raise the issue anyway ...

Worldwide more and more public WiFi/WLAN hotspots pop up, being usable under different commercial and technical concepts

• free.fr operating 3 million hotspots http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/internet/connexion/acces-hotspot-wifiFree.html
• Deutsche Telekom plans a million locations http://www.telekom.com/media/consumer-products/180150
• fon.com provides access to 12 million locations https://corp.fon.com/en
• Eduroam provides roaming access to thousands of worldwide educational hotspots https://www.eduroam.org/
• iPass (www.ipass.com), Boingo, (www.boingo.com), Aicent (www.aicent.net) provide international hotspot roaming for the enterprise market

All such concepts are basically using just 2 technical concepts

• WISPr (unencrypted) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISPr
• WPA Enterprise (IEEE 802.1x in different flavours incl. EAP (-SIM))

The pity of the whole approach is, that (almost) all clients allowing automated Hotspot access, are proprietary and only available on certain OS platforms.

One of the reasons is, that WISPr and 802.1x allow different flavours of implementation within the hotspot system, so interoperability is not given. Clients have to "know" the individual network to a certain extent, in order to allow automated access. Future might see "Hotspot 2.0", but until then a truly interoperable client could only be set up with the help of a community being able to provide testing and results within hundreds of networks worldwide.

So - as Christmas just passed, I'm still dreaming of a hotspot client being so versatile/modular, that (like modern instant messaging clients) different accounts could be configured and the client automatically logs me into a hotspot as soon as it detects a suitable one .... don't know whether this is too far fetched, but I'm happy to learn ...

Well, it's a complicated thing, but I'd like to raise the issue anyway ...

Worldwide more and more public WiFi/WLAN hotspots pop up, being usable under different commercial and technical concepts

• free.fr operating 3 million hotspots http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/internet/connexion/acces-hotspot-wifiFree.html
• Deutsche Telekom plans a million locations http://www.telekom.com/media/consumer-products/180150
• fon.com provides access to 12 million locations https://corp.fon.com/en
• Eduroam provides roaming access to thousands of worldwide educational hotspots https://www.eduroam.org/
• iPass (www.ipass.com), Boingo, (www.boingo.com), Aicent (www.aicent.net) provide international hotspot roaming for the enterprise market

All such concepts are basically using just 2 technical concepts

• WISPr (unencrypted) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISPr
• WPA Enterprise (IEEE 802.1x in different flavours incl. EAP (-SIM))

The pity of the whole approach is, that (almost) all clients allowing automated Hotspot access, are proprietary and only available on certain OS platforms.

One of the reasons is, that WISPr and 802.1x allow different flavours of implementation within the hotspot system, so interoperability is not given. Clients have to "know" the individual network to a certain extent, in order to allow automated access. Future might see "Hotspot 2.0", but until then a truly interoperable client could only be set up with the help of a community being able to provide testing and results within hundreds of networks worldwide.

So - as Christmas just passed, I'm still dreaming of a hotspot client being so versatile/modular, that (like modern instant messaging clients) different accounts could be configured and the client automatically logs me into a hotspot as soon as it detects a suitable one .... don't know whether this is too far fetched, but I'm happy to learn ...

Well, it's a complicated thing, but I'd like to raise the issue anyway ...

Worldwide more and more public WiFi/WLAN hotspots pop up, being usable under different commercial and technical concepts

• free.fr operating 3 million hotspots http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/internet/connexion/acces-hotspot-wifiFree.html
• Deutsche Telekom plans a million locations http://www.telekom.com/media/consumer-products/180150
• fon.com provides access to 12 million locations https://corp.fon.com/en
• Eduroam provides roaming access to thousands of worldwide educational hotspots https://www.eduroam.org/
• iPass (www.ipass.com), Boingo, (www.boingo.com), Aicent (www.aicent.net) provide international hotspot roaming for the enterprise market

All such concepts are basically using just 2 technical concepts

• WISPr (unencrypted) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISPr
• WPA Enterprise (IEEE 802.1x in different flavours incl. EAP (-SIM))

The pity of the whole approach is, that (almost) all clients allowing automated Hotspot access, are proprietary and only available on certain OS platforms.

One of the reasons is, that WISPr and 802.1x allow different flavours of implementation within the hotspot system, so interoperability is not given. Clients have to "know" the individual network to a certain extent, in order to allow automated access. Future might see "Hotspot 2.0", but until then a truly interoperable client could only be set up with the help of a community being able to provide testing and results within hundreds of networks worldwide.

So - as Christmas just passed, I'm still dreaming of a hotspot client being so versatile/modular, that (like modern instant messaging clients) different accounts could be configured and the client automatically logs me into a hotspot as soon as it detects a suitable one .... don't know whether this is too far fetched, but I'm happy to learn ...

Well, it's a complicated thing, but I'd like to raise the issue anyway ...

Worldwide more and more public WiFi/WLAN hotspots pop up, being usable under different commercial and technical concepts

• free.fr operating 3 million hotspots http://www.free.fr/adsl/pages/internet/connexion/acces-hotspot-wifiFree.html
• Deutsche Telekom plans a million locations http://www.telekom.com/media/consumer-products/180150
• fon.com provides access to 12 million locations https://corp.fon.com/en
• Eduroam provides roaming access to thousands of worldwide educational hotspots https://www.eduroam.org/
• iPass (www.ipass.com), Boingo, (www.boingo.com), Aicent (www.aicent.net) provide international hotspot roaming for the enterprise market

All such concepts are basically using just 2 technical concepts

• WISPr (unencrypted) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WISPr
• WPA Enterprise (IEEE 802.1x in different flavours incl. EAP (-SIM))

The pity of the whole approach is, that (almost) all clients allowing automated Hotspot access, are proprietary and only available on certain OS platforms.

One of the reasons is, that WISPr and 802.1x allow different flavours of implementation within the hotspot system, so interoperability is not given. Clients have to "know" the individual network to a certain extent, in order to allow automated access. Future might see "Hotspot 2.0", but until then a truly interoperable client could only be set up with the help of a community being able to provide testing and results within hundreds of networks worldwide.

So - as Christmas just passed, I'm still dreaming of a hotspot client being so versatile/modular, that (like modern instant messaging clients) different accounts could be configured and the client automatically logs me into a hotspot as soon as it detects a suitable one .... don't know whether this is too far fetched, but I'm happy to learn ...