Always get free airport Wi-Fi with these simple tricks

Getting airport Wi-Fi can be quite tricky. It might be paid, hidden behind a password or hard to find.

Thanks to travel blog FoxNomad, we have a couple of great resources to make sure you can always get on the internet no matter what. I’m going to run you through them.

Check Foursquare tips

You should have already downloaded Foursquare when you’re traveling, and it specifically serves a great purpose at airports.

If you take a look at the tips for the airport you’re currently at, it should be easy to find people sharing passwords — otherwise, press the ‘Wi-Fi’ filter to only see those tips.

Use the Airport Wi-Fi password map

The following map is a crowdsourced project showing Wi-Fi passwords for airports around the world. Sometimes the access point listed is an airline lounge, or it might be a bar — but they’ll always have free Wi-Fi.

Find the map below or click here for the full-size version.

If you happen to stumble upon an airport you’ve visited on the map and notice that its Wi-Fi password is missing, you add to the map by adding a comment to this post. There’s also a (paid) app available for iOS and Android.

Use the WiFi Map app

This is possibly the biggest collection of public Wi-Fi passwords you’ll be able to find, and best of all, it’s compiled in a free app. It’s not specially designed for airports, but you might still be able to snag access to a network with it.

Download it for iOS or Android.

Be smart

What if the only option you can find is paid Wi-Fi? There are a couple of other tricks you can try, like this quick and dirty one.

Just add /?.jpg to the end of a URL, so it looks like this:

http://google.com/?.jpg

This way you’re spoofing the system into thinking that you’re loading an image (which sometimes aren’t blocked), while you’re actually not.

However, it’s a fairly old trick that might be patched on the network you’re on. If that’s the case, check out this more in-depth guide to get a hold of that internet connection you so desperately need.