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" In July, Starbucks announced that all of their stores now offer free Wi-Fi to customers. With more than 11,000 franchises of the coffee megachain in the country, access to an unpaid mobile hotspot just got a lot closer. But how reliable\u2014and fast\u2014are these new hotspots, and how do they compare to other free Wi-Fi offerings? We hit the New York City streets near Popular Mechanics&amp;#039;s editorial offices to test out the Starbucks offer and to compare it to other free Wi-Fi hotspots, such as those offered at McDonald&amp;#039;s, by the city and by mom-and-pop coffee establishments. Overall, expect to get what you pay for\u2014the Wi-Fi at home\u2014our editorial office, at least\u2014is far superior to any coffee shop we tested. All of the Starbucks and McDonald&amp;#039;s we went to had similar specs; and the three nonchain caf\u00E9s all offered a faster connection. These are by no means scientific numbers\u2014our sample comes from a mere 13 coffee shops in a city where there are thousands of places to get a brew.   cellpadding=&amp;quot;0&amp;quot; cellspacing=0&amp;quot;&amp;amp;gt; Store Location/Crowd Download Speed (Megabits per second) Upload Speed (Megabits per second) Ping (milliseconds) Time to Download a 5MB MP3 (seconds) Starbucks 57th St. &amp;amp;amp; 8th Ave.  Smaller store, not very crowded, 2 computers running 1.36 1.40 10 30 58th St. &amp;amp;amp; 8th Ave. Smaller store, crowded, several computers running 1.39 1.32 91 29 60th St. &amp;amp;amp; Broadway Large store, many computers running 1.25 1.00 9 32 Times Square Smallest store, no computers running 1.37 1.42 31 30 48th St. &amp;amp;amp; 9th Ave. Smallest store, no computers running 1.41 1.44 9 29  McDonald&amp;#039;s 57th St. Light crowd, no computers out 1.22 0.22 48 33 Times Square Very crowded, but no computers out 1.25 0.22 44 33 50th St. &amp;amp;amp; 9th Ave. Light crowd, one other computer 1.27 0.22 33 32 43rd St. &amp;amp;amp; 8th Ave. Light crowd, one other computer 1.16 0.20 35 35  Home Connection 13.22 2.07 8 4  Tasty Cafe 70th St. &amp;amp;amp; Columbus Ave. 2.85 0.69 30 15 GiGi Cafe 72nd St. &amp;amp;amp; Columbus Ave. 2.89 0.70 27 14 At65 Cafe Lincoln Center 4.22 11.06 4 14 How to Find a Fast, Free Hotspot \u2022 Look for laptops: the more computers connected to the same network, the higher the chance your connection speed will slow.  \u2022 If the connection is bad at first, try moving to a different spot in the store\u2014the wireless signal is not necessarily uniform. \u2022 Look beyond the coffee shop\u2014many public parks, libraries and outdoor spaces now offer free Wi-Fi as well. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/web/how-to/a6044/how-does-starbucks-free-wi-fi-compare-to-other-hotspots/>