How to get FREE Wi-Fi at JD Wetherspoon pubs, very simple.

If your an iPhone owner on O2 pay as you go then I dare say like me you had free unlimited Cloud Wi-Fi access as part of your deal with the iPhone. That service stopped in February 2011.
If your on PAYG then its always best to use free wifi if its available as you can soon use up your limit. PAYG web use limits are often 100mb/500mb or 1Gb per month.

Well did you know that you still can get free Wi-Fi in all Wetherspoon pubs and in fact anywhere that you see the Cloud showing up as a hotspot. It does not matter what network provider you are with, this does not matter its free to everyone!

So how do I get free Wi-Fi?
You will need to set up a free account on The Cloud. For this you just need a valid email address.
Of course you will need to set up your account via your 3G/4G phone connection (not the wifi) or set it up at home.

Set up your Cloud account here :
https://service.thecloud.net/service-platform/login/registration/

or follow the links yourself : http://www.thecloud.net/free-wifi/join-the-cloud/

When ever you want to use the free wifi in the future all you have to do is log in using the email address and password you used to register with. So once you have setup your account it really is very quick and simple, I will show you how simple here using screen grabs from my iPhone to help you.

So your in the pub, what next?
You will first need to connect your device to The Cloud, on your smartphone or laptop go to your wifi settings and see whats available.

Here on my iPhone you can see _The Cloud showing up so tap on it and allow it to connect to the cloud. on an Iphone this is indicated by the Wi-Fi symbol showing up at the top of the screen next to your phone operator sysmbol. Don't connect to any other hotspots apart from "_The Cloud"

Wi-Fi Networks as seen in a Wetherspoons pub. Select _The Cloud.

Once your device is connected to The Cloud, launch your web browser and go to any web page at all so that it redirects to The "Cloud landing page" that relates to where you are connecting from, i.e Weatherspoon adverts.
You may have to refresh it a couple of times to force the landing page to show like the one below.

By the way you may have noticed your phone showing the web page below in a pub anyway, thats because often your phone will prefer to connect to wifi if the 3G signal is weak.


The Cloud "landing page"
In this example here, I'm in the Bankers Draft pub in Sheffield so its showing stuff related to Wetherspoon pubs.
Now you need to tap the "Get Online" option (I've highlighted in red)

In a Wetherspoon pub you will get a screen like this, click on Get Online >

On the next screen as you can see there are a few choices, the one we want is "Free Cloud WiFi" (I've highlighted in red).
Note : If you are a Sky cusomer then you can login using your Skyid information.
Sky acquired The Cloud in January 2011 which is why Sky customers get free unlimited wifi.
More info : www.sky.com/helpcentre/account-and-billing/sky-id

Select Free Cloud WiFi to get 24 hours free wifi.

If this is the FIRST TIME you have used this then you will need to create your account by taping on the "Don't have an account?" link.(I've highlighted in red) Fill in all the details to create your account.

If YOU HAVE previously registered then all you need to do is fill in your email and password and tap the blue Continue button and you now have free wi-fi for 24 hours.

On this screen you enter your email and password that you used to setup your cloud account with.

Here I am running the speedtest.net app using the free Cloud Wi-Fi provided at the pub, as you can see its quite fast, The upload speed was 773kbps.

Broadband speedtest app running on The Cloud in a Wetherspoons pub.

Thats it. you now have free wi-fi at all cloud wifi hotspots in the UK.

Just remember to follow my simple guide to getting free wifi next time. The simple steps now you have registered are :
1 Connect to The Cloud hotspot.
2 Force the landing page to show.
3 Select free wifi and enter your email and password and click continue.
4 Wi-Fi is now free for 24 hours.

Note : When you register you will receive and email with the title "Cloud support - Welcome to The Cloud" stating that you have registered with the Cloud, Europe's largest independant public hotspot network.

Once you are logged into the cloud you can tap "My Account" and you can see all the locations you have logged in before and what active products you have, i.e "Cloud 24 Hours Free".

Always use free wifi if you can rather than waste your 3G/4G data plan!
If your on O2 PAYG then you can find out how much web use you have left by sending the text message BALANCE to the phone number 20202  and you will get two text messages back saying how much you have left.
For example on my O2 phone I have just tried it and it came back with "1 of 2: ALLROUNDERWEB Bolt On - You have 491.3 MB web and 17 pic msgs left this month. This expires on 09 Nov."


Here is another example of the cloud "landing page", this one is at Scream in Derby. Notice it has the same Get Online option.

example of the cloud landing page at Scream in Derby.

Hope you found this of use, Leave a comment if you did.

Thanks
Andy