Boingo Wireless (http://www.boingo.com) has released a new version of its Wi-Fi app. The app not only logs customers onto more than 325,000 commercial hotspots around the globe with a single click, it also helps anyone find and connect to hundreds of thousands of free and open Wi-Fi networks worldwide.
The app includes the ability to search for paid or free networks and presents search results on a map. Boingo Wi-Finder is immediately available for Mac and Windows laptops, Android smartphones and iOS devices.
Boingo Wi-Finder is designed to help solve the problem of getting connected to Wi-Fi when there are multiple Wi-Fi signals in one place. Through connection logic, Wi-Finder identifies available networks and automatically connects a user to the best signal. The app’s logic also includes the ability to accept a network’s terms of service on the user’s behalf on a one-time or recurring basis to expedite connections to open networks.
The updated app includes location-mapping functions that allow users to search for Wi-Fi hotspots. The results will show both commercial Boingo hotspots and free hotspots in proximity with different color pins to differentiate the two types of hotspots. The current Wi-Finder app requires Internet access via Wi-Fi or 3G/4G to perform search functions, but future versions will include offline mapping capability, according to the folks at Boingo Wireless.
Wi-Finder also includes a full complement of backend services. When an open network is discovered, the app will automatically log basic network details like location (latitude/longitude), whether attempted connection succeeded or failed, and network quality (speed/throughput). This data will be returned to a central database and used to populate additional open networks in the mapping tool.