Wi-Fi Is Go! Well, Sort Of...

Just one month ago, Houstonist asked the question: "Where's the free wi-fi?" We finally have our answer.

On August 19th, the city of Houston announced that they'd created a large cluster of free wi-fi locations throughout the dowtown area, both in an effort to provide the free wireless access that has been long-promised by Mayor White's administration and to promote the continuing revitalization of downtown as a destination to work, live and play. They've even created a website for the wi-fi campaign, called Houston WiFi.

On the website, you can interact with a map of downtown that shows all the locations in which you can connect to the free wireless network. While incredibly useful, the map also drives home the point that we don't yet have free blanket access across the city. With that in mind, the locations included in the downtown network are definitely useful ones:

• Harris County Civil Courthouse and the District Courthouse

• Bayou Place
• Discovery Green
• Tranquility Park
• Sam Houston Park
• Jones Plaza
• Central Library Plaza
• UHD's outdoor seating areas
• Minute Maid Park
• METRORail Stations at Bell and the Transit Center

And those are only a handful of the 19 locations across downtown.

Some, however, are simply confusing. There is currently wi-fi access at the outdoor seating area for the Downtown YMCA, which is slated for demolition. Perhaps the remaining wi-fi access will make it a more attractive vacant lot for those homeless folks with laptops.

There's been some additional concern that the network doesn't have a strong enough signal, as some users with iPhones have reported difficulty connecting to the internet. However, Dwight Silverman reported a quick and easy solution for those having issues: simply find a stop light with a dual-antenna access point on top of it and camp out there while you check your Facebook account.

While only available in outdoor locations -- and only downtown -- this is still a good start for Houston, albeit a late one for a city as technologically-friendly as ours is. So until we have true, city-wide free wi-fi, here are a few of Houstonist's other favorite free wi-fi spots across the city:

• The Teahouse, Westheimer and Shepherd
• Caroline Collective, Caroline and Arbor
• The Bull and Bear Pub, Westheimer and Kirkwood
• Krafts'men Baking, Montrose and West Main
• Agora, Westheimer and Park
• Ziggy's Healthy Grill, West Alabama and Revere
• Red Lion Pub, Shepherd and Fairview
• Memorial City Mall (by the ice rink and gigantic fireplace), Gessner and I-10
• The Daily Grind, Washington and Bonner
• any Panera Bread location

A comprehensive list of other Houston-area free wi-fi locations can be found here, including a location at Rick's Cabaret. Who knew?

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Images courtesy of Houston WiFi.