Just arrived in Sydney this morning. Still trying to orientate myself. John Allsopp picked up Joe Clark and me (we happened to be on the same flight out of LAX) from the airport early this morning. I only have 6 minutes left on a pay-per-minute access account, so this is going to be a quick one. Dave and I have walked all over the Chinatown/UTS area looking for wireless access, or some place where we can connect our laptops to a wired connection. No one seems to know what wireless access or “wifi” is here. And all the “internet cafes” (they look more like gaming casinos to us) all require that we use their computers. And the local proprietors all stare at us blankly when we ask where we might find such a rarity.
The only thing we’ve found that seems even remotely reasonable is a Telstra hotspot connection at a Starbucks :-( but it’s AUS$11 for 30 minutes of access, so that’s not going to work as a standard option.
So the question is… where do you go for that kind of thing here in Sydney? Any locals (or recent travelers here) have any recommendations? Thanks in advance.
Update:
While we struggled to find access in Sydney before the conference, thanks to the help of Maxine and all her research, we eventually gave in and subscribed to the Azure network, so we have access at a few of the cafes spread around Sydney that use Azure.
So although I might not have found much on my own in Sydney proper (the city), after breakfast this morning, I walked right into a really nice internet cafe in Manly that has an open Atlantis network. The place is either called Atlantis Cafe, or Aquarius, or something like that. The guy here needed to add my mac address to the network, but once he did, I was up and running, free of charge.
The cafe here in manly feels a little more like a living room than a cafe. It’s up on the third level of some little mall of small shops, etc. and it has a beautiful outdoor patio with tables under umbrellas that overlook the street below. They have a standard espresso machine for coffee drinks and a few muffins and other drinks, and plenty of PCs wired up for access. As also mentioned they also have an open wifi network, as well as a few desks along the side with available ethernet cables to plug in you laptop if you don’t have a wireless card.
This is the kind of place I was looking for — it kind of puts many wireless hotspots in San Francisco to shame. Manly knows how to do it right…
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Did you try Oporto? :) not all places have WiFi but plenty places do! I am hoping the WE04 place will have it. Although I also remember Maxine mention that it may not! I wouldn’t really expect WiFi in a Chinatown though :) of all places :) See you Thursday.
Wireless internet? What’s that? :P
I’ve never actually used it, but I know there’s an option on the mapping site Whereis to show wifi hotspots on map searches… From memory they list a few of the major wifi providers (but probably not all of them).
There is alot of Boingo locations in Sydney. It’s not free, but better than pay per minute.
Might be a good idea to look here: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum.cfm
I’m sure you’ll find your answer. We’re not THAT bad. Just internet connection isn’t great over here in AUST.
*goes back to ADSL connection*
Wi-Fi update around Broadway and HayMarkets
http://www.itd.uts.edu.au/wireless/wireless_coverage.html
There are a few ways and places to access wifi in Sydney - none of them are cheap. There is a Telstra Hotspot at the QVB just near town hall - if you stop at the Jet cafe /outside/ you’ll be able to access it. The big thing about the Telstra service is most McDonalds have been wired up - so probably the most convenient option. More info: http://www.telstra.com.au/wirelesshotspots/locations.htm
There’s also “Cube” which is a cafe/restaurant directly opposite Town Hall station - they use the Azure network which is a bit cheaper from memory than Telstra, but not by much. More info: http://www.azure.com.au/hotspots/
The third option that I’m aware of is Intel’s branded service (operated by Azure as far as I know) called “The Xone”. More info: http://www.thexone.com.au/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=64
Telstra competitor, Optus, also offers a service, though I rarely see any hotspots for them around. More info: https://rego.optusnet.com.au/wireless/locations.html
There are other smaller operators, but as far as I know these are the main three… And yes, the pricing is ridiculous for all of them.
HTH.
Pubnet is free and you have the bonus of beer on tap. There’s one in Pyrmont at the Point Hotel not too far from UTS.
I had the same question last April, and found that theXone has a few hotspots in the city, they are not free :
http://www.thexone.com.au/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=64
Chocolate by the Bald Man, in Manly wharf, has one even if the waitresses don’t know it. The signal was low but useable. And the chocolate and Manly are a big plus :)
Internet cafes where you can ‘relatively cheaply’ (_very_ relatively) plug in your laptop (as stupidly most internet cafes don’t allow this) would be … uhm, I forgot their names, but one is on Broadway (slightly west of Railway Square), half a block before Glebe Point Road ($3/hr, $10 unlimited, $4 unlimited (3 hours) after 20:30), and another one is on the south side of the railway station (sorry, forgot the name of the street) - it’s on a corner iirc - walk parallel to the rails on the first major street and you should come across it - $2.50/hr
Go to http://www.whereis.com.au and select Wi-Fi for wireless spots around Sydney (and Melbourne for that matter). It’s a pretty handy site for tourists!!
One day Britain too shall discover the joys of WiFi, and perhaps even un-metered broadband faster than 512kbps.
In terms of communication access British Telecom holds this countrys scrotum in it’s iron like talons. *big frown*
The other option of course would be to get a wireless plan with unwired. Try it all you want for a month and then give it to someone who will use it before you leave :)
Wow, had no idea that wi-fi was not widely available in Sydney. I live in Adelaide and just going down to the CBD (city center) means instant wi-fi.
I would recommend the libraries maybe. Again this is just from my experience in Adelaide.
Yeah this may be a shock to you but in Australia we pay for bandwith per gigabyte.
My sister just got back from eight weeks in Western Australia, and she never succeeded in finding wireless anywhere, not even in the middle of Perth. And when she asked about it, people looked at her like she was crazy…
what a tragedy! Probably she had to spend that extra time on those awful beaches, in the OPEN AIR!!
wireless at my place, party down
welcome to sydney, did you see the golden tree thing at chinatown? check out ippon sushi if you get a chance
In response to Ismail: My sister was writing a travel guide and had to communicate with her editors on a regular basis to send them copy— internet access was necessary. (She did have several days with an entire national park to herself. You’ve gotta love WA for that…)
i am a sydney resident. and sadly, wifi isnt anywhere as nearly developed as it is in usa or other countries. with that said, we do have some places. and since u said u were in china town, if you go to the dixon st food court, there is optus wireless there. so you can have some noodles and surf the web/check ur mail etc. you will though need to buy a optus wireless account thing. so go to the optus shop in china town and get that and then go to the food court. if you want good noodles, get them from happy chef in dixon food court. there really nice. i recommend, chicken wonton soup with rice stick noodles.
Just to repeat what most of the other sydneysiders have to say, wireless is pretty poor at the moment in Sydney. What’s worse is that Haymarket probably has the best coverage in Sydney which kind of shows just how bad the rest of sydney is.
UTS has reasonable coverage if you can get access to it. As other people have mentioned, a fair few of the food courts around chinatown have access. I’m always partial to the Sussex Centre FC which has azure wireless with pre paid cards available in one of the shops downstairs, but then I go there for the food rather than the net access so I don’t know how good it is.
Unwired would be a great option if it was available for short term access as it has coverage of lots of sydney.
Multimap has a Wifi Hotspots finder and it seems there are plenty in Sydney.
I was really hoping to get out to WE04 but I couldn’t persuade work to stump up the cash for a flight from the UK (even though we have an office in Syndey). Oh well - hope it goes well - I’m looking forward to the feedback.
And here’s yet another wifi hotspot list, courtesy of a quick Google…
http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/browse/au/1900002/1901111/
;)
Doug — contact Jeremy or Daniel at segpub.net. They’re sure to know of some wifi hotspots.
Sunny: “Yeah this may be a shock to you but in Australia we pay for bandwith per gigabyte.”
By the gigabyte? If you’re lucky. It’s strictly by the megabyte for me.
Try Darling Park on Sussex St. Thats the identical Nestle & IBM buildings next to Pyrmont Bridge (the one which the monorail uses to cross Darling Harbour)
Both these buildings have wifi in the foyer.
Good Luck!! Enjoy Sydney!
Welcome to Sydney, how embarrassing, you would think WIFI would be more widely available here considering the scope of the place (2000 Olympics, WE04, etc). Sadly however we have a communications giant running the show and he hates to share air space. To sum it up we pay large amounts of money for small amounts of service, but that works for the man…
Free Wi-Fi in Haymarket? Damn, and I was just there for two weeks.
I do agree, compared to the US and Europe, the wi-fi scene here sucks. Very few (if any) free hotspots, and the others are a tad too expensive.
If you do need to use the Telstra hotspots, consider getting a PhoneAway card. Saves paying the minimum fee of $5, and it’s just a flat 20 cents a minute.
It’s a pity there isn’t much competition. Optus have given up, and I can’t see Azure or Xone doing much. Telstra are expanding though, but I’d like to see the price drop at least 50%.
Matt mentioned that British Telecom have there “talons’ firmly wrapped around the countries… erm, scrotem I believe was the term he used, in terms of un-metered broadband over 512kbps
Matt, DON’T COME TO NEW ZEALAND! I did and here you’re lucky if you can get un-metered broadband PERIOD! (And according to Telecom NZ broadband is anything over 128Kbps)
Example:
Package: Jetstream Home
Speed: 512Kbps (ADSL)
Bandwidth Limit: 500Mb per Month (No I’m not kidding!)
Price: NZ$59 (US$40)
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