Free public WiFi access provided by Ben at 7 Tarius Close. No usage limits or sign-ups required with up to 20/5mbps speeds.
There's access points outside No. 7 on the front and back (up on the eaves). These provides good coverage while in line of sight but once walls/cars are in the way, performance will suffer and there may be no coverage at all on the opposite sides of houses. It works outdoors all along the road as far as the houses opposite on Braemar Road and also across to the Esso petrol station.
Up to 20mbps down and 5mbps up per device depending on signal strength/quality. This is fast enough for most basic things.
No limits on usage within reason.
There's a lot in the news about people struggling to pay their internet/mobile phone bills. Even if you're not one of them, feel free to make use of it. I think internet access is a right so am happy to donate some of my bandwidth for anyone to use. I also have a genuine interest in computer networking and equipment so enjoying tinkering with this stuff.
I don't provide any guarantees.
You could also run an access point. I use the TP-Link EAP225-Outdoor. It would improve coverage for yourself and the people nearby. You'd need to buy the hardware and keep it powered and find somewhere to mount it outdoors within line of sight of another access point. There'd be no need to provide your own internet, it'll be passed on via the other access points. I think it'd be great to expand coverage. You can alternatively "buy me a coffee" on KoFi if you wish. Contributions towards the hardware, bills and time are very much appreciated.
This is the old network name. It's exactly the same as ftwfree.uk. It's still there so devices that previously connected to it still may use it but broadcast is turned off (so it doesn't appear when searching). You can remove ftw_free and connect to ftwfree.uk.
It is some online gamer term meaning "for the win". You'd say "X ftw" replacing X with something. My personal home WiFi network was named after this.
All traffic is directed through a VPN connection with Mullvad, an attempt to distance myself from naughties other people might use the connection for. Some websites block connections from VPNs due to the amount of attacks originating from them. Assuming it's not a dodgy website, I can add exceptions for specific websites - just let me know. Alternatively, you could complain at the website owner for blocking VPNs.
They probably don't support 5GHz WiFi 5 / AC on DFS channels. Some devices are much better than others at picking up weak WiFi signals too.
The reality is that 5GHz WiFi just doesn't pass through objects very well once the access point is further away and you'll need extra hardware to bring it closer to you. 5GHz WiFi on DFS channels may also disconnect briefly to change channels when weather radars are detected but this doesn't happen frequently in this area. Please check "How can I get better coverage/signal indoors?" under Technical below.
You can try but every device is isolated from one another on the network so they may not work, even if they connect (a lot probably won't support 5GHz on DFS channels).
You can pass along the device(s) MAC addresses to me and then can be blocked from connecting. The MAC address usually buried in the device's settings somewhere. Some more recent devices randomise this (for privacy) and can't be blocked without disabling this feature first. If you need help, just contact me.
It depends. The connection to the WiFi access points is unencrypted (so anyone can connect without a password) so there's nothing to stop anyone in WiFi range from snooping with know-how. The web has shifted towards encrypting everything so a lot, if not all, of your traffic is encrypted regardless. So your connection to the internet is not encrypted but most of your individual connections to remote services within it are already anyway. WiFi 6 supports open networks with encryption but the hardware isn't cheap enough yet.
You could contribute by running a closer access point yourself. See "How can I help?" in General. A universal repeater is unlikely to work as many don't support the DFS channels used. But if you can find one that does, feel free to use it but any issues will be yours to deal with. It will be classed as one device so the speed limit will be for everything connected to it instead of per device.
There's not much bandwidth (space) on 2.4GHz and it's very busy. Because of all the noise from other access points along the street all shouting at devices, performance and range on 2.4GHz was very, very poor outdoors and wasn't worth bothering with. I know this excludes a lot of devices but they'd barely work at the distances needed anyway. I tried standing at the end of the road and could still get 100mbps on 5GHz DFS channels but 2.4GHz would barely acquire an IP address.
Perhaps your question wasn't answered above or you're interested in helping out. Please feel free to contact me by email on ben@ftwfree.uk or by knocking on my door.