Wired without Wires

You don't have to steal someone's signal to get a free wi-fi connection. KS cases the legal hotspots.

It comes at different times for different people, but always comes eventually: that quiet, sad, panicky disconnect that hits sometime between the Arrivals gate at Kansai International and that first attempt at reaffirming ties with life back home via Internet. Because really – nowadays, being cut off from the World Wide Web means being really, really cut off. To hop back on the Net, most opt for the two easiest solutions: paying the hourly rate at Osaka’s ubiquitous (yet strangely difficult to find) Internet cafes; or handing out ¥5,000 and change for monthly home broadband service. A few pioneering souls, however, have eschewed these and made to leap to something considerably more interesting: WiFi.

So, WiFi. To avoid dissolving now into a blubber of techno jargon and eye-glazing nerdspeak, simply consider WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) a high-tech walkie-talkie system. By having a networking card installed in your laptop – generally, a ¥10,000 investment – and being in the general vicinity of a central “walkie-talkie” (also known as a hub), you can send and receive data over the Net with a minimum of effort and expense. And here, a “minimum of expense” generally amounts to “free.”

If that sounds too good to be true (like, say, Napster in 2000), it may be because the technology is still young enough to escape notice, co-option and eventual corruption (like, say, Napster in 2004).
For now, though, let the good times roll. And to start rolling, you will need:

A LAPTOP COMPUTER – Crucial piece of equipment, this. Late adopters are in luck here; nearly all of the newest laps have wireless capability already installed, so most of the heavy lifting is already done. For older systems, though …

A LAN CARD – is also needed. Consider it a modem with a radio antenna instead of a phone cord. Available for just about any system in just about any computer or electronics store, Local Area Network cards are vital to picking up the WiFi signals that’ll get you on the wireless Net. The final hurdle then, is …

A PLACE TO PICK UP A WiFi SIGNAL – Libraries, coffee shops, computer stores, lunch cafes, you name it. The number of legal locations (“hotspots”) in and around Kansai offering WiFi is big and growing by the day. Signals are currently up for grabs at Yodobashi Camera, the aforementioned Kansai International Airport, a slew of Seattle’s Best Coffee locations (though not Starbucks – just yet) and dozens more spots. Show up, turn on your WiFi-enabled computer and you should be home free.

However, this being real life, even free isn’t completely free – many places require passwords to use their connections (and that you pay for those passwords); most hotels require you to be a guest to use their WiFi services; and karma dictates that you’ll at least buy a cup of coffee or a sandwich at the eating establishments you surf in.

However – this being computer technology – services that are
not free can easily be changed to services that are free, by people
so inclined. (In the common patois, this is known as “stealing.”) Technically, it is illegal to use someone else’s network without
their authorization. Consider that the owner of that coffee shop “authorizes” you to use their signal when you enter their store, purchase a mocha java and grab a chair by the window. Consider
still that that shop owner is not authorizing you to do anything if
you merely sit in the parking lot with a signal booster, grab hold of
his connection and log on. (And this is shockingly easy to do; the curious may try typing “wardriving” into Google...)

While it would certainly be easy to hover around – for example –
a certain prodigious hotel in Namba and sniff out any loose signals flying around, it is far kinder to actually be registered as a guest of that hotel, and to log on like the lawful folk. Fair trade, and all.

For more info about WiFi and a map of legal hotspots in and around
the Kansai area, try http://www.wififreespot.com/asia.html.
(Search the listing for Japan near the bottom of the page).

Text: Jeff Lo