howto - wifiinuk

How To

A plain English "walk through" of how to set up your own wifi map

So, you want to get your town on the map? Great! We're very happy to have you involved. You don't need to know all the hotspots yourself, just a few to get started. Here's a quick guide to getting set up in about 15 mins.

Go to Google Maps. Click on "My Maps" on the left hand side. If you don't already have an account with Google you'll need to set one up. Only takes a few moments.

Click "Create a new map" and give it the title Wifi In Yourtown. Then copy and paste the following text into the Description box.

IMPORTANT
Pease make free wifi GREEN, and paid wifi BLUE.

ABOUT
Editable map of wifi in (Your Town) and the surrounding regions. When you add places please stipulate whether the wifi is free or paid. Also, if you can add details such as size, atmosphere, prices etc it would be useful for people who don't know the area/venue.

HOW TO
If you're signed into Google then just click on "Edit" and follow your nose (the icons will appear in the top left of the map screen). If you have any queries then head on over to www.wifi-in-uk.co.uk.

Set up by (your name or link) and part of www.wifi-in-uk.co.uk

Once you've done that, make sure the button "Public" is clicked below, then press "Save" and "Done". THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. If you haven't made it public then nobody will be able to add hotspots.... ALSO, there's a link that says "Collaborate". Click on that and make sure that both the boxes are checked to allow anyone to edit or invite others....
Click on "edit" and now you can start adding placemarkers (top left of map once you've clicked "edit"). You can search your map with postcode, address (or just by scrolling) as you normally would. Then add the placemarkers and a description. Don't forget: GREEN for free, BLUE for paid.
Once you've added a few to start with, zoom into your town just until you've got the major areas visible. We recommend not just zooming right into the centre, but make sure you're zoomed out enough that the main suburbs are covered too. But use your best judgment. Some small towns may only have wifi on one or two streets, so it's up to you.
Once you're happy with it all, then click on "Link" in the top right hand corner of the map. This is the link you need to spread around to everyone. However...
We recommend you register the site www.wifi-in-yourtown.co.uk (or something very close to that, or an abbreviation if your town name is looooong). It will help you promote the site locally, get you some recognition for a job well done, and is just an easier link to tell your friends in the pub. We use 123reg.co.uk for all our domain stuff. They're very good and very easy to use.
It will cost about 6 or 7 quid to register the domain for 2 years, which is a snip. Once you've registered it, go to Modify Domain, Web Forwarding, then paste your Google Map link into Framed Forwarding To A Single Page. It says it could take up to 48 hours, but we've found it's usually instant. Et voila!
The last step is to email the link to us. will be the one to use for now. Hope that makes sense, and beats the spambots!
Oh, and don't forget to email it to all your friends, put it on your blog, in your email signature, on Twitter, Facebook etc etc etc. That way you'll get the acknowledgment you deserve for setting it up!