Get Free Airport Wi-Fi Using Chrome Or Firefox’s Developer Tools

With time to kill at the airport, getting online is a great — if potentially expensive — way to while away the hours. But there are a couple of tricks you can use to get free internet access and bypass those paywalls.

Scan for wireless networks at the airport and you’ll often find a Boingo hotspot (especially in the US). Connect to the network and click the The Good Stuff box. This gives you access to a limited number of complementary sites, but after clicking it, try opening a new tab in your browser and going somewhere else — you might just find it works.

But there’s another trick to free airport Wi-Fi. WonderHowTo explains:

Many paywall sites, Boingo or not, simply block the address bar so that you can’t freely roam the web. This is great news for you, because you can access a website without an address bar via your web console and inserting window.location.href=”https://www.sitename.com” for instant access. Web developer tools are a great way to get around blocked content, and in some cases, they can also help you get around blocked Wi-Fi access.

You’ll need to access your browser’s developer tools to try this. In Firefox, click the menu button and select Developer > Web Console, or press Ctrl+Shift+K. Click next to the double blue arrow to the bottom left of the screen and type window.location.href=”URL of site to visit” and press Enter.

In Chrome, click the menu button and select Tools > Developer tools, or press Ctrl+Shift+I, and then head to the Console section. Use the same syntax to bypass any paywall that may be in place. You may notice that a security warning appears when connecting to sites in this way.

This technique is not guaranteed to work with every hotspot in every airport, but it’s definitely worth a try before you shell out for pricey airport Wi-Fi. Click the link below for more information.

Weakness in Boingo Hotspots Can Be Exploited for Free Wi-Fi Access at Airports [WonderHowTo]