Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users

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Listen up you lowlife leaching laptop losers! After years of making a living off you guys buying $7 coffee drinks, things are getting tough so you losers with laptops better move on before you get bum rushed outta here!

Amid the economic downturn, there are fewer places in New York to plug in computers. As idle workers fill coffee-shop tables -- nursing a single cup, if that, and surfing the Web for hours -- and as shop owners struggle to stay in business, a decade-old love affair between coffee shops and laptop-wielding customers is fading.
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Wouldn’t it be funny to bring in a desktop and set it up really quick instead? Then ask them where it says “no desktop computers” and video tape the whole thing? Now THAT would be funny.
 
Your $7 coffee with free refills doesn't entitle you to free wifi access for hours while taking up a table or chair, which could be used for other paying customers. That is what the owners are upset about... :rolleyes:
 
I'm only seeing this as a problem if they have to turn down customers because of 1-cup loiterers.
 
I drink Starbucks all the time because it's in this building I work in (what you say?!) and they don't cost $7 :-P

But yeah I see people loitering with their laptops all the time. I would come down for coffee first thing in the morning and come back about 3 hours later for a refill (their regular coffee is cheap), and see the same people with their laptops. I would even dare assume some people run their businesses under Starbucks' roof.

There's a lot of tables outside my building though, so if Starbucks start ejecting loiterers, they'd just sit outside and leech their wifi from outside.
 
Actually we really do have this problem at the bookstore near my work. A couple full-force losers come in regularly to set up their obnoxious 25" Cinema displays to show off the hardcore power of awesome. They always ask other customers to move, then make a huge scene and leave a huge mess. Yes, arrogance has a logo.. This kind of rude creates a strong desire to cut off the wireless.
 
Yoda4561 said:
I'm only seeing this as a problem if they have to turn down customers because of 1-cup loiterers.
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this.





What I do find funny about the article though is how people are complaining "I need to use the free WiFi for my business..." Seriously? How good is your business doing if you have to hold meetings at Starbucks while you leech free WiFi?
 
Simple, secure the wireless and change the WEP key every 30 minutes. Only way to get the new key is to buy something from the store and the key is on the receipt.
 
OK... Sounds like the WSJ is trying to start some coffee shop <--> laptop user civil war shenanigans. Around here, there are no issues like this at the many many places that offer free wifi, including the coffee shops. They seem to like the extra biz that comes in. Now if you are playing WoW over their wifi connection, yeah that's different LOL.
 
HydroBudz said:
Simple, secure the wireless and change the WEP key every 30 minutes. Only way to get the new key is to buy something from the store and the key is on the receipt.
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Right, so if the key changes on the half hour and you buy at say 3:29....

Not a good plan
 
This is an easy way to fix this. Make it so the receipt number is your login and limit the session to 45 minutes or so. That way if they want to compute they have to buy a new cup every 45 minutes.
 
Just setup one of those pay / day gateways that many hotels use (or course lower the price a bit)...
 
HydroBudz said:
Simple, secure the wireless and change the WEP key every 30 minutes. Only way to get the new key is to buy something from the store and the key is on the receipt.
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The biggest problem with that is: say you just bought something and now sit down to log into the access point. There's no way it can just create a 30 minute "window of opportunity" for you alone, it has to have a 30 minute window for everyone, so when you log in, you're either towards the end of someone else's session or tailgating on them as they start, but either way, this is simply a non-workable solution across the board.

The "window of opportunity" for this is what was already stated: a portal page login service or system that would then use the "key" on the printed receipt to allow for a given length of time of access, but that wouldn't be done with just a single router - maybe someone could write a custom firmware for one of those Linux-powered routers to do all this and then market it, who knows.

But just a router/access point can't handle all that; it would require significantly more expense to do it, and that in itself basically defeats the purpose in the first place.
 
you don't need to change the WEP key, just the login. There are many places where you pay per hour or whatever for internet access. Like Ockie said, make the receipt number the login and have it be good for 45 minutes or something like that or something along those lines.

For some reason i want to say that McDonalds does something like that. they limit you to about 2 or 3 hours and you had to purchase something to get a new login. Or maybe you have to pay for 2 or 3 hours of login time. either way, i don't think they let you sit there all day free.
 
hehe, finally!!!

once i´ve seen four people with their laptops leeching wifi from Starbucks, they were sitting across the street and "nobody" noticed :D
 
We've got quite a few Starbucks here in Vegas, and I've been to several of 'em (with someone else, they have nothing but maybe bottled water that I'd bother to drink) with a friend that's pretty excessive about his laptop and using it at such places. Never been in a Starbucks that offered free Wi-Fi, not even with a purchase, so... exactly where are these fabled locations? Hmmm?

They're still using the AT&T hotspots from what I understand, and even the iPhones don't get free Wi-Fi anymore at such places... so where is this free aspect coming from? I can walk 3 blocks to a Krispy Kreme here in downtown Vegas and get 11g all day long if I choose, and I do sometimes (not all day, of course) to get outta the house as the case is, get some fresh air, that sort of thing.

But Starbucks? Free anything? Come on, you gotta be kidding me... :D
 
Joe Average said:
Never been in a Starbucks that offered free Wi-Fi, not even with a purchase, so... exactly where are these fabled locations? Hmmm?
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really? :confused:
I currently live in Peru (a nice country in South America :))
and the Starbucks around here offer free WiFi !!!

I don't go to Starbucks anymore, cuz I´ve learned to prepare my own Frapuccino :D with my Blentec!!! :D
 
Yeah, I can understand it in some other parts of the world, but here in the US, Starbucks uses those AT&T hotspots and it most definitely ain't free... not even with the purchase of something from Starbucks while you're there. A bit odd to me, but then again, drinking coffee or espresso or whatever the hell else they're offloading on people when it's 105F outside... absolute insanity.

How the hell can people drink COFFEE products when it's that hot? :)
 
Joe Average said:
The biggest problem with that is: say you just bought something and now sit down to log into the access point. There's no way it can just create a 30 minute "window of opportunity" for you alone, it has to have a 30 minute window for everyone, so when you log in, you're either towards the end of someone else's session or tailgating on them as they start, but either way, this is simply a non-workable solution across the board.

The "window of opportunity" for this is what was already stated: a portal page login service or system that would then use the "key" on the printed receipt to allow for a given length of time of access, but that wouldn't be done with just a single router - maybe someone could write a custom firmware for one of those Linux-powered routers to do all this and then market it, who knows.

But just a router/access point can't handle all that; it would require significantly more expense to do it, and that in itself basically defeats the purpose in the first place.
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It's actually quite simple to do. Have the POS software send a command line to your Cisco router of choice to prepare a new WEP key with a 30 minute lease.

This is nothing new. Hell, most consumer/home grade routers are capable of this.
 
Joe Average said:
We've got quite a few Starbucks here in Vegas, and I've been to several of 'em (with someone else, they have nothing but maybe bottled water that I'd bother to drink) with a friend that's pretty excessive about his laptop and using it at such places. Never been in a Starbucks that offered free Wi-Fi, not even with a purchase, so... exactly where are these fabled locations? Hmmm?
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Could be that there are other coffee shops than Starbucks (I know strange), they offer free to compete and give some incentive to come to their business.
 
Why not go to your local library. I am a network technician at a library for a living and a lot of libraries are adding free wifi. Here on long island cablevision gives free internet/tv/and voice to each library and school. so we use that connection to provide free wifi to the public.

Wwhy mooch off of business owners when you can go to your local library and get internet for free.
 
Joe Average said:
Yeah, I can understand it in some other parts of the world, but here in the US, Starbucks uses those AT&T hotspots and it most definitely ain't free... not even with the purchase of something from Starbucks while you're there.
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I guess reading the source article before commenting is not a requirement for a lot of the people posting (surprise, surprise :rolleyes:)... the article specifically mentions that Starbucks "in some cases charge for Wi-Fi" and that's about it for Starbucks, and the majority of the article deals with the plight of the independents.

For those that say that the independents should set up passworded systems... that takes $$$ and expertise these coffee shop owners / employees don't have. (That's probably why Starbucks doesn't run its own system.) It's easy for us geeks to do, but we're not employees of these shops. Honestly, most if not all of these shops would probably balk how much a professional maintenance agreement would be on such a system, since rebooting the access point is not longer good enough. (Somebody has to fix it if it ever breaks down, and within a reasonable time frame.)
 
HydroBudz said:
It's actually quite simple to do. Have the POS software send a command line to your Cisco router of choice to prepare a new WEP key with a 30 minute lease.

This is nothing new. Hell, most consumer/home grade routers are capable of this.
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And when that happens, you break wifi for everyone else using it. Like the guy that was in line ahead of you and got online for 2 minutes before they changed the key.
 
wilsonrdfl said:
And when that happens, you break wifi for everyone else using it. Like the guy that was in line ahead of you and got online for 2 minutes before they changed the key.
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So have a setup with 2 keys with 1 hour life and a 30-minute offset on the expiry times? There are lots of simple solutions.
 
wilsonrdfl said:
And when that happens, you break wifi for everyone else using it. Like the guy that was in line ahead of you and got online for 2 minutes before they changed the key.
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I think you misunderstood. Every time a sale is rung up a key generator would make a unique key. That key is sent to the router with a 30 minute lease attached to it. That key is also printed on the receipt. A unique key would be created for every receipt/sale. Every customer would have a unique key that's good for 30 minutes from time of purchase.

Most POS systems run on Windows. Most will allow you to put whatever you want on the receipt. Key generators are free. Creating a batch file do this wouldn't be very hard.
 
This doesn't affect me because I prefer to troll the forums from my basement. :D
 
quick way to lose customers.

McDonalds has free WiFi in many places now, http://www.mcdonalds.com/wireless.html so leave the $4 latte behind and get a $1 one from McDonalds McCafe or a soda. (McD's coffee is much improved these days)

Ya it's a corporate giant, but if you are a job seeker and need internet access to look for jobs, Coffee shops will no longer be your goto place.
 
I agree with the owners. Charge by the half hour for Wi-fi... Offer a discount if they buy coffee, but like some others have mentioned. That chair and table could be used for other paying customers
 
Lazn_Work said:
quick way to lose customers.

McDonalds has free WiFi in many places now, http://www.mcdonalds.com/wireless.html so leave the $4 latte behind and get a $1 one from McDonalds McCafe or a soda. (McD's coffee is much improved these days)

Ya it's a corporate giant, but if you are a job seeker and need internet access to look for jobs, Coffee shops will no longer be your goto place.
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edit: not free at McD's either, so Library is where it's at I guess. lol
 
i KNOW someone will try that desktop thing, i just hope the link is posted on here
 
I don't understand all this nonsense about taking your laptop to a coffee shop. Unless you live in the sticks and can't get internet to your house/apt/barn/underpass, I don't see the point. Besides, why would you open yourself up to such a easy attack vector? It IS an unsecured and untrusted network after all. It is no surprise though, hell I have seen people at the uni library even use online banking and then proceed to leave the browser and its cookies open for all to see.

I'll take my untangle/smoothwall/vpn for all my internet needs thank you. And if I need to quickly look something up on the go: iphone. Done.
 
Ever been to Panara Bread? If you go during peak hours your wifi use is limited to an hour or so. Presumably they do this by mac address, which is good enough to block most people
 
ive setup a ticketing system using a php app embedded in a linksys router. From the register, employees can create a new token, (three letter pass phrase), with a 2 hour time limit. Customers can always ask for a new code for free, but it weeds out the freeloaders pretty well. This pretty much solved our "bum" problem.
 
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