WiFi Coffee Shop

[Epiphany74]

I was thinking of offering free wifi connections to the internet in my new coffee shop. What are the down sides to this? Would it be a good way to get people in and keep them there - drinking coffee, of course? I have been told that if someone downloads something dodgy through my connection I could be presecuted - is this true, and if so, doesn't the same problem exist with regular PCs in coffee shops?

[WoWo]

Not sure of the exact legal position but I think you could get in trouble is people were downloading iffy stuff. But you can get fire wall software which blocks such content so you can cover yourself that way.

You need to think about the cost of offering such a service, most broadband accounts come with a download limit (even those that don't have a fair use policy) and with a few users that could be eaten away quickly. You would therefore need some sort of buisness account which would be expensive compared with the home accounts.

[fo3nix]

First of all, make sure you get a nice fast broadband internet service, not just some average 512k like you'd get at home.

Secondly, IANAL, but have a sign or something basically as a disclaimer saying that anything you use the wifi for is their own responsability. legal action may be taken, etc.

Also, the router you'll use to let people connect to will be able to block ports. Let them know on said sign that the service is for web and email only. So you'd only want to allow data through say ports 80,20,22,443.

[Machecoul]

What do other cafes charge? Would it be worth you making a small charge? Have you visited any cafes that do have wifi - what is going on there? Can you ask them?