Boingo Wi-Finder Reviews

by MrBen123

Update to developer re fix: the problem is not that it doesn’t work when you try to connect thro BoingoWiFinder . The problem is the iPhone will not connect to certain networks because BoingoWiFinder is on the phone, but there is zero indication that this is anything to do with Boingo. No mention of it appears in the wi-fi connection screen. You just see a check mark next to network as though it’s trying to connect but you never get the WiFi 3 arcs in the top right; it never fully connects. How are people supposed to know to go to the boingo app to fix this in the first place?

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I’ve had BoingoWiFinder for 2 or 3 years and only just discovered it’s the cause of an inability to login to some networks. I see from other reviews now that it’s not just me. In many hotels I simply cannot log in to their networks, I get no indication that it’s because of the boingo app, instead it just hangs trying to connect with a check mark on the network but never actually getting any further. Only recently did I discover if I go into BoingoWiFinder I can connect, but I had no idea BoingoWiFinder was even something to consider, there was no indication I should be using it - I already was given free WiFi but the hotel.

Same thing has just happened now in another hotel chain, although in this case I need to set BoingoWiFinder to ignore the network as it can’t connect to it.

So frustrating as there was no way to tell what was causing this for such a long time.

by Cadel Lowe

iOS has a great feature to see what apps are constantly running - this one was so bad that it only let my phone charge to 80% as it was constantly running overnight in my house. Why does BoingoWiFinder need to run in the background at all? When I need it, I’ll load it. Waste of time when you’ve already put the Boingo config profile on your phone.

Added May 10 - BoingoWiFinder is the latest version. I have a screen shot of battery and app usage for the day I deleted BoingoWiFinder. Before 4 am, race condition, 60 minutes of background usage every hour. After 4am, almost no background usage. So yea, current version. Review stands.

by Studlybmecoop

I couldn’t figure out why I was connected to the WiFi at my hotel on my iPhone, but the phone was refusing to actually use the WiFi connection. A quick search revealed that BoingoWiFinder actually prevents you from connecting to certain WiFi access points! Deleted BoingoWiFinder and now I can connect just fine. BoingoWiFinder is worse than useless, it is actually detrimental to your phone even when you’re not using it!

by Qdlb

It’s quite telling that BoingoWiFinder apparently has received all 1-star reviews for more than a year. (Yet, oddly, still shows an overall high rating).

I can attest that BoingoWiFinder breaks at least 2 free WiFi spots with captive login verifications, as reviewer MrBen123 stated. One of them is certain Hilton HHonors WiFi, so fairly wide spread. It is a serious concern for frequent international travelers, as the breaks cause by BoingoWiFinder are not easily identified and one is left to diagnose it in environments with no internet connections.

The developer’s response (to MrBen123’s review) of a fix is irrelevant/inaccurate/incomprehensible at best, since, in their current version, pretty much none of the mentioned options were present.

Avoid install/download!

by Kr Sat

I travelled to India from New York JFK airport via Abu Dhabi past week.
boingo was almost of no use, even when there was free wifi at airports it would not find a signal. If I connected manually using my phone’s settings then bio go would happily report that I was connected. Other times, like in April 2018 and January 2019 when I made a similar trip, I would even get a message “ no internet is available on this device” . No kidding I did not have internet, what I was trying to do with the bio go app is to get internet.
All in all not a very useful app - perhaps someone can tell me how much I should expect from BoingoWiFinder. Thankfully I am not paying for this service because based on my experience over the past year, I would never pay for this. Frankly airports now have free wifi and BoingoWiFinder is of less relevance now that it may have bee sometime back.
If someone from boingo reviews my usage logs please note that at any time you see internet is because I connected using alternate means and then boingo figured it out and claimed success.

by Bferrara17

I tried. And tried. And tried to connect to “boingo” networks. Airports, hotels, city - no luck. And more so, it will basically prevent you from logging into non-Boingo networks by trying to seek credentials through boingo. I tried BoingoWiFinder many years ago, retried now, and still the same. It will make accessing any WiFi network 10x harder than simply using the WiFi network login page. Avoid at all costs. Will try again in 5 years or hopefully something better comes along..

by CorpSuit

So just to echo what everyone has said if you install BoingoWiFinder , there is a very good chance it will break the ability to login to a Marriott property. And you definitely won’t be able to add your iPhone if you have high speed internet as part of the Marriott Rewards program. Spent an hour trouble shooting and the tech said “do you happen to have Boingo?” And then explained that BoingoWiFinder interferes with the login page. So I had to uninstall and it works now. New update from 6 days ago didn’t seem to fix it. Oh well.

by Gbarr009

I signed up for Boingo while I was working at an airport to take advantage of the wifi in the facility. The service was fine until I left my job at the airport and tried to cancel my subscription. After submitting two requests to cancel my service they did not and continued to charge me. This type of practice is predatory to squeeze additional dollars out of individuals who sign up for their service. I highly suggest finding a different service if you’re looking for remote wifi.

by Ronlap

I have two iPhones. One personal, one work. The one without Boingo remains connected to Wi-Fi even when locked. The one with Boingo always reverts to cellular when the phone is locked and I have to launch Boingo and reconnect every time I unlock my phone.

The iPhone with Boingo has used 90% of my data allowance, because the background processes use cellular.

Your support is obviously scripted and totally worthless every time I have dealt with them — even when I call them while I am experiencing the issue. “We want to help” is total baloney.

by Lapulgaluterana

Terrible. I installed BoingoWiFinder and the only thing it proved able to do was to screw up every Wi-Fi connection in every hotel and every airport in Asia!!! what a nightmare !!! Hours of frustrating work configuring my phone over and over again trying to figure out why it wasn’t connecting to my free Wi-Fi signals ...finally somebody told me that Boingo App was the problem ...I deleted BoingoWiFinder and Bingo ! my phone started working just fine again and picking up all WIFI signals everywhere. Lesson learned.

by Andrewtylerwind

iOS users be warned: I spent 11 months wondering why my iPhone wouldn’t load captive portal screens, thus preventing me from using dozens (hundreds?) of free WiFi locations around the world. Apple Geniuses had no idea what the problem was, nor did anyone on the Apple message boards. Then one random user with the same issue said deleting the Boingo app would fix the issue, so I did. Everything works properly now. BoingoWiFinder is garbage from a garbage company that monetizes WIFi in places like airports where Internet should simply be free. Boingo extorts money from people when they’re often desperate to get online, and that’s just a fact. It’s been screwing me for months and I’m done. I hope the company fails.

by Ammo168

Not sure what BoingoWiFinder did to my phone, but I can’t connect to networks run by Boingo (including several Scandic hotels in Europe this week) without using BoingoWiFinder. And if I do use BoingoWiFinder , the connection drops constantly, causing me to burn through cellular data. BoingoWiFinder has made it so that in Settings on my iPhone, it will appear as if I’m connected to the WiFi network, but in the status bar I’m still on cellular, and yet cellular data doesn’t work either. It’s actually kind of amazing that they were able to screw up iOS core functions so badly with a single app. My other iPhone works fine and will connect to Boingo networks, give me the splash page, and stay connected. But now this iPhone seems to be permanently hosed courtesy of Boingo.

by DR172

For awhile when I travel I had trouble at various Marriott properties with the WiFi login not popping up. It wasn’t too much of a challenge since I am mostly a Hilton person. A few months ago I was at two different international destinations and had to use my LTE data which was a bit of a problem. I did notice that that the Marriott properties had the Boingo WiFi here text. Then I realized that it also happened on my iPad. Hmm why would both devices have a problem? Clearly it had to be an app that was installed. Yesterday same problem while in a Marriott.

Thought that may be issue and did some googling. Sure enough others had reported problem. Removed BoingoWiFinder and voila, the Marriott Hotel WiFi login popped right up. Uninstalled.

by Eodtsgt

BoingoWiFinder made it nearly impossible to connect to any WiFi connection without using the Boingo app. I could see WiFi connections, and my iPad Pro would say connected, but the connection would not show in the top left of on the iPad and I would not have connection. Then after a few minutes I would get a pop up notification from Boingo that there is a Boingo connection available near me, once I opened BoingoWiFinder and connected through BoingoWiFinder my WiFi connection would work. Also, when connected through the Boingo app every time my iPad went to sleep or I locked the screen it would drop my connection and any VPN if that was connection.
I was getting super frustrated with my iPad until I saw a post about this on the Apple forums. I don’t recommend anyone use BoingoWiFinder or install it until they figure this issue out.

by This Company Does Bot Care

I had to install BoingoWiFinder then uninstall it because its so hard to see myself using Boingo in the near future, and my review needs to be seen by those considering subscribing to this “company” the only reason im still using them is for work purposes. DO NOT pay boingo anything, it’s practically a scam, you’re paying monthly for an “internet provider” that will not give you anything but disconnections or any other interrupted services, along with paying too much from what they ask. Boingo does not care for its customers or even care to improve their services. I’ve been on the phone with customer service multiple times all to just help me with my bad internet connection, TEMPORARILY, with everything shutting down the next hour. Truly not worth the price. Please do not pay them anything or you can be a very dissatisfied customer.

by Lgrtgfd

This has become a routine occurrence. I cannot log in to hotel landing pages. Boingo tried to make this sound like some sort of “one off” but it happens all over the place and disappears when you revive BoingoWiFinder and the profile. I recommend removing this junk ware.

The developer has replied that they “have limited control over certain hotspots” and like in other cases are trying to portray this as some sort of one-off problem. But this is a widespread problem, it basically interferes with any network that uses a landing page. Hotels (Marriott, Starwood, Hilton etc.), airports, and other places all over the world for me, it’s a systematic and consistent problem across networks and devices and has been going on for a long time. They need to make their app compliant with international standards and either won’t or can’t. I’ve deleted their app and the problem has disappeared. I suggest anybody who is having this problem do the same. They lack the competence to understand and fix the problem.

by NotATechGeek

What a crap of an app. Worst ever. It never does anything useful ... you can find WiFi networks just fine under “Settings —> WiFi “. But it actually PREVENTS you from getting on WiFi networks! That’s right! I now had been at several hotels, couldn’t figure out, why I could not log on. The check mark next to the WiFi symbol was there, but my IPhone won’t connect to the WiFi network. I spent HOURS trying to find a solution, resetting all passwords ( painful! ), etc ... nothing worked. I tried all the tricks I could find. Until ... I noticed that it said “look for Boingo WiFi” under that check mark. I open that app, now it connects me ... but I have no idea whether it is using its own plan to pay for it, or the plan I already paid for at the hotel. I went ahead and tried to delete it ... it is not under “Boingo WiFi Finder” but under “Wi-Finder”. Deleted it now, and now, everything works like a charm. But those lost hours of my life ... I never get them back. What a stupid, crappy app.

by Razr7

As many have stated here before, having BoingoWiFinder on the phone creates many connection woes. For instance it will try to connect you to to a hotel network and never actually connect you without giving an indication of an issue. Once you realize BoingoWiFinder is the problem, it is supposed to give you an option to forget the network for a period of time but I have found this option presents itself about a third of the time. If you accidentally hit the wrong option, you never get the pop-up back. There needs to be a hard setting where these features can be turned off. The current only way to make this happen is to delete BoingoWiFinder from the device.

by -bumbastick-

Thanks much for once again keeping me connected throughout my journeys.

by AlliJ Branded For Your Service

I’ve been contacting this company email after email asking from day one to refund my money and going forward not to charge me I didn’t want there pretend service not one reply and seeing how it’s like apple i. Purpose made it impossible to figure out Khoi to remove apps o. The x sorry phone I don’t know what to do I don’t know if deleting apps is Larry if the beer ohjnea BoingoWiFinder is to me and my experience the worst and I feel like they just run so old bull Corn it seems like there rising in the back of someone and trying v to carry as many as they can I don’t know about anyone else but I’m not telling anyone to get this appI WANT NY MINEY AND I KEPT MY WMAUKS TELLJNV TIJ I SISNT WANT THR SERVICE IF TOU CHARGED ME ILL BE FILING IN YOU

by Aaaaaaa000000

You won’t be able to connect to many networks when BoingoWiFinder is on your iPhone X. Your phone will show you are connected to the public WiFi network when you go to settings. But the WiFi sign will not show on the top right hand corner. And you won’t have internet access.

The solution: delete the Bingo app from your phone, and you’ll be able to connect right away. :)

So yeah, BoingoWiFinder deserves ZERO stars. It does the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to do.

by BlitzScania

iOS users be warned: I spent 11 months wondering why my iPhone wouldn’t load captive portal screens, thus preventing me from using dozens (hundreds?) of free WiFi locations around the world. Apple Geniuses had no idea what the problem was, nor did anyone on the Apple message boards. Then one random user with the same issue said deleting the Boingo app would fix the issue, so I did. Everything works properly now. BoingoWiFinder is garbage from a garbage company that monetizes WIFi in places like airports where Internet should simply be free. Boingo extorts money from people when they’re often desperate to get online, and that’s just a fact. It’s been screwing me for months and I’m done. I hope the company fails.