Hi
Been with BT now over a month and they say your ment to be able to log into BT Hotspots for Wifi.
I downloaded the BT wifi App and log ok into that. Using my iphone when i look for wifi i see lots of bt Wifi that says hotspot and when i click on them it has a tick next to it then drops out again and doesen' t log into it.
We have BT Infinity and thoght you was ment to get unlimted bt wifi while out and abaout.

Any ideas why this happens?
thanks

Have you opted into the wifi sharing scheme on the BT website?

I have noticed that some hotspots my phone finds will connect but cannot log into. I assume this is because they are using are third party router rather than the BT Homehub which is a bit naughty of them if they are signed up to use other people's hotspots.

Third party routers will not be creating the secondary WiFi hotspot with the "FON/BT-WiFi" SSID.

Yes, you are right, I hadn't thought it through. Still naughty if they are opting in to the sharing system though. It would help if BT auto-detected the non-presence of a HH and omitted it from their coverage map (and opted that user out of the sharing system).

Which leaves the question unanswered as to why you can physically connect but not log on. Understandable if the signal strength is marginal but I have seen it on a full strength signal.

HH2s seem to have a bug that means after a while they stop working properly on the FON side. If the hub is rebooted it starts working again.

Sorry don't know any more technical details behind this, it's just personal experience of three hubs all showing the same issue.

Doesn't really help when you don't have access to the hub in question to hit the reset button mind.

Does anyone know what sort of range a hotspot has? Just want to know how close you have to be to it to use it.

Have you tried seeing how far from you own wifi you can go before you lose connection?

Download the BTWifi app from the iOS App Store, Android Play Store or Windows Mobile store - enter your BT Infinity username and password (usually your BT Email address even if you don't use it).

Once in range it will automatically log in to available BTWifi, BTOpenzone or BT Wifi with FON SSIDs where available (and working!).

I've used mine for a while now and it works great.

Sadly the Windows Mobile version needs to be manually asked to login.

A friend lives in a block of flats on the 4th or 5th floor above a shopping centre and can pick up / use a number of hot spots from his living room some must be 70 or 80 yards away..

I've noticed on my PC it picks up WiFi from passing Stage Coach Buses, one today registered 3 bars for a while.

I must admit I haven't. I've only just got the app and was curious. I suppose it depends on local conditions.

I was wondering what the furthest distance away from it you could be. I looked at a hotel in Crete and there's a hot spot about 100 yards away across open ground and wondered if it would pick it up from outside in the pool area.

Doubtful. I use hotspots a lot while at work during slack periods. Parking just outside a house with a hotspot (by a blind wall to avoid frightening the natives) works and parking across the road from the house works. Once you get further away then it starts to get a bit pot luck. Depends if you want to just do a bit of browsing, stream radio or stream video.

although there are third party solutions out their, this is a router directly from fon https://shop.fon.com/en/product/fonera-1