Verizon Wifi now works on Mac?

I am logged in on Boingo at Newark Airport, using verozon wifi

I selected roaming login as Verizon Business

I added "@verizon.net" to my verizon wifi username

!gave my verizon wifi password,

and all worked as in William Yang's instructions.

Question - did you or do you know anyone who has tested this with Boingo service outside of US or it works only in Continentla US ?

I was unable to open a verizon wifi account from 'MyVerizon', getting the 'Operating System Not Supported, please upgrade' message. I couldn't find a way to set up a user name/password without registering for Roaming WiFi which required installing their software.

However I was able to register using a virtual PC (VmWare) on a different computer. Despite not being native, the installation completed and set up my account. I haven't tried my account for real (won't be roaming for a while) but thought this might be useful.

I suspect this is an 'accidental' feature (maybe for Verizon Business customers) and so will disappear at some time in the future. Hard to understand Verizon's position on this. I'm pretty sure Macs don't need Verizon to write software, just make their hotspots available without their 'Access Manager'.

Some points to note:

(1) this is a benefit of being a customer of Verizon FiOS (for high-speed home internet access), and is not related to having a Verizon Wireless cellphone account.

(2) You need to register for the "free" wifi access (and it's only for FiOS customers who are paying for more than a basic internet access) Maybe you need to do this on a windows machine. If you use a virtual windows machine when you register, the setup provided when you register is non-functional (see (3) , next).

(3) You cannot use the windows software provided by Verizon to windows customers in a virtual machne machine running windows on your mac. This is because (at least on Parallels, and I suspect also on VMware) the virtual machine emulates wifi drivers and actually uses the mac drivers on the host machine that is running the VM. The Verizon software needs native access by windows drivers to the physical wifi hardware, and should work natively in bootcamp but not in the emulated environment of a VM.

(4) Once you are registered you don't need to use the Verizon windows software, just log into the Boingo hotspot directly (using your browser) as a "Verizon Business" roaming user username xxx@verizon.net where xxx is the username you used when registering for the verizon wifi "free bonus for non-basic FiOS customers". (Not the same as your FiOS verizon.net usename)

(5) This only works in the US, where Boingo provides the wifi access used by the software provided by Verizon FiOS for windows users. It does not provide non-US access to Boingo's network or partners.

(6) This is an unadvertised feature from Verizon FiOS, so could disappear.

I understand all your points. The only way for me to register (get a username for free FioS WiFi) was to register on a Windows PC. Trying to register on a Mac you now get cut off with a 'unsupported OS' message before you select your user name / password. A virtual PC will do for registering (getting your username and password) even though it won't apparently connect using Verizon's software.

Thanks.

To register for the service on a Mac:

1. Go to your browser's Extensions page and click the link or button to find more extensions.

2. Search for "user agent switcher". Install one of the extensions you find that can make your browser appear as Internet Explorer. (On Chrome I installed "User-Agent Switcher" : )

3. Click the new extension icon and select the User-Agent for Internet Explorer 7.

4. Go to My Verizon > Manage My Internet, then next to Verizon Wi-Fi (Hotspots) click the "Manage" button, then "Register Now" (or if you're already on it in another tab or window, refresh the page) .

5. Since Verizon sees your browser as Internet Explorer, you can now register.

6. Don't forget to reset the user-agent switcher to "Default".

Good luck!

--Franklin