Johnny94110

Hi, I'm new to aximx30 wifi, (got my cable yesterday, woohoo). Anyway SF is supposed to have a number of free hotspots either at cafes or from private homes. I can connect at cafe hotspots, tmobile, zrnet, surfnsip, but not these other hotspots, I realize you sometimes have to ask permission but i thought i'd be able to surf from at least one of them. I get good to execellent connections from my house up to 5 at a time that appear "open" but no internet. i tried the "page not found" fixes but I'm not sure thats it, is it signal strength? How do you tell if its really a free open node,(people do this on pourpose as part of free wireless movement). Thx in advance ciao
PS I'm buying a card or router soon for my desktop,