Boingo Wi-Finder (for iPad)

Boingo Wi-Finder allows users to find available Wi-Fi networks and hotspots when 3G/4G connectivity is just not cutting it. Boingo Wireless added one item to its iPad app that I haven't seen in competing products: Boingo Wi-Finder has a built in VPN client to secure user connections.

While 3G/4G is readily available, there are still plenty of reasons to still need a wireless network from your mobile device. Perhaps the app is Wi-Fi only, or you no longer have unlimited mobile broadband plans and you don't want to be surprised with a bill at the end of the month. Wireless is better when trying to download big media files or accessing large documents. Maybe the cellular reception is poor and you need to get online. For whatever reason, you need to know where the nearest open wireless network is, and that's where Boingo Wi-Finder can help.

The free app is available on iOS, Android, Mac OS X, and Windows. I downloaded the Boingo Wi-Finder app from the iTunes store and installed it onto an iPad for this review. While it helps Boingo Wireless subscribers find the nearest Boingo hotspot, it can also be used by non-subscribers to find any open network.

Overall Look and Feel
The Wi-Finder opens with a summary status screen, where users see statistics about how much of their subscriptions have been used for the month. A coverage map using Google Maps shows what networks are available in the area. Zooming in on the map and clicking on a pin shows the SSID of the open hotspot, the name, address and phone number of the location offering the hotspot, and identifies the quality of the network as "Certified," "Trusted," or "Unverified."

The Wi-Finder displays information about all the free hotspots, whether or not they require the Boingo subscription. The verified networks refer to commercial hotspots that users can access with their Boingo account credentials. The non-Boingo hotspots are crowdsourced: the app logs successful connections to open networks and sends that information to Boingo Wireless in order to be added to the directory database.

Boingo Wireless offers subscription-based access to wireless hotspots in a wide variety of locations, including airports, coffee shops, hotels, convention centers, and retailers. There is no hardware to buy, and no contract to lock users in beyond the time you buy, which can be by the month, or even by the hour.

Once I've identified the desired hotspot, I could even get Google directions on how to get there.

I could search remote locations in order to find where the nearest hotspots were?so that I could perhaps scope out my network situation before leaving for a trip. Unfortunately, the app is unable to display this map if I don't already have some kind of a network connection. It would have been nice to have the connection map available in offline mode.

Watch Out for Open Hotspots
The problem with hopping on free wireless networks has always been the fact that you never know how safe they are. The networks can be malicious, set up as a rogue access point to lure unsuspecting users and harvesting login credentials and personal data, or there may be someone lurking and eavesdropping on your online activity. Boingo Wireless integrated a personal VPN service into its app: the Boingo Secure VPN.

After I click on "Secure Me!" in the app's settings, I get prompted to download the VPN profile from iTunes and install it. Once installed, the user has to manually go into the iOS Settings and turn on VPN. The app then uses the Boingo credentials to connect to the nearest Boingo server to create a secure tunnel. Despite using an open wireless hotspot, users are now protected because all their traffic is encrypted.

I often recommend using a VPN service, such as Norton Hotspot Privacy from Symantec, when using open hotspots. However, many services don't support mobile devices yet, so this is a nice feature from Boingo.

It would have been nice if there was a way to just turn on the VPN from the app, though. Right now, to have VPN protection, a user has to go into iOS Settings, go to VPN, and then manually turn it on. How many people ever go inside the settings page?

Having a big Turn On VPN app icon or a link inside Wi-Finder would have been nice, but iOS has specific limitations on the settings apps can access directly. Thankfully, most users who are concerned enough to install the VPN profile are the ones concerned enough to actually go into Settings to turn it on before surfing online.

Unlike many other VPN services, Boingo's VPN service doesn't allow users? to decide which server to connect to. ?If a user is in Europe, firing up the service will connect that person to a European server, and there is no way to switch to some other region. Users will be surfing via a protected connection, will be anonymous since the IP address would be different, but would not be able to hop on Netflix or access other region-specific content.

Different from Other Hotspot Finders
Sure, you can use the native features on the iPad to find the nearest open wireless network, but it's really nice to be able to see what services are available without having to sift through the locked ones you can't get to. It's nice being able to scope out a destination ahead of time, but not having offline access was a bit of a downer. The VPN protection is very reassuring, and makes it easier for users to protect their mobile activity. I generally prefer using native features instead of adding another layer of complexity to perform the same tasks, but the Boingo Wi-Finder from Boingo Wireless makes it easy to find a hotspot while protecting users in an unobtrusive manner.

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