Scott Hanselman

Updated for 2011 - McDonald's WiFi Guide with updates for Mac OS X Lion and Windows 7

July 26, 2011 Comment on this post [41] Posted in Musings
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There was a picture going around on Twitter today of the McDonald's FREE WiFi Connection instructions, looks like they are from Australia, copyright 2008.

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Of course, this isn't the latest and greatest guide to connect to WiFi at McDonald's, so I've included an updated guide here for your reference.

Updated McDonald's WiFi Instructions

The high quality PDF is available as well for printing or distributing at McDonald's. But who would do such a thing

Enjoy. ;)

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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July 26, 2011 23:33
Nice. That menu from earlier kind of made me mad.
July 26, 2011 23:35
Funny.
July 26, 2011 23:35
I don't get this? Are you suggesting that it's way harder to connect with a Mac? I assume that your command line instructions could be replaced with GUI instructions. Is that not the case? If so, then why is it so much harder to connect to McDonald's than to other sites?

For my local wifi, all I have to do in Snow Leopard is click the Airport menu, Turn Airport On, then select a network and enter the password.

If your intention was actually to provide a useful guide, then I fear you are doing a disservice to OS X by making it look way harder than it is.
July 26, 2011 23:36
Well it's nice to be in the company of friends here who feel the same as I do. Enough with this Apple craze. Big Whoop.
July 26, 2011 23:38
They are missing:

Step 5: Repeat Step 4
July 26, 2011 23:38
For those who missed it (ahem, BatsShadow) please look closely at the old menu image.
July 26, 2011 23:38
What Scott is doing is making some fun of the fact that McD for some strange reason provided extremely strange and advanced instructions for Windows users while had the Mac instructions really simple. This image has been floating around Twitter the last days and Mac users saying something like "This says it all" when it actually just says that the person who wrote this guide is an incompetent idiot. Sort of.
Ola
July 26, 2011 23:39
BatsShadow. Read the original menu. Then read ALL of mine. It's satire. A joke. Un chiste.
July 26, 2011 23:40
@BatsShadow, that's the point. The "original" graphic was making Windows look way harder than it actually is. In reality, either OS is generally less than 6 clicks from connecting to an open WiFi network.
July 26, 2011 23:40
@BatsShadow: Look at both images. The top image is what was there, the bottom is taking an equally complicated route to connect with Mac OS X.

My guess is McDonald's had a much higher volume of Windows users and thus faced many more oddball network configurations that contributed to complaints the free wifi didn't work. So the instructions for Windows were reprinted in excruciating detail, while the Mac instructions were left alone.
July 26, 2011 23:41
@BatsShadow This is most certainly a joke, unless there is some strange incompatibility with the way McDonald's does their wifi that I haven't heard about.

This is just friendly flame bait. :)
July 26, 2011 23:42
@BatsShadow - Yesterday the image at top was circulating on Twitter from Mac fans, implying how difficult it is to connect to a Wi-Fi network with a Windows PC. Scott's reply is firing one back over the wall at that lovely crowd.
July 26, 2011 23:57
Now where are those Linux instructions?
July 26, 2011 23:57
Why are you all replying (almost the same reply) to BatsShadow who looks like a stereotypical Mac person who can't even understand a joke ? :D
July 27, 2011 0:00
@Hartley: go tell that to McDonald's and they'll tell you "What Linux ? is that a new Windows ?" :D (a friend of mine actually made a similar comment when I was trying out Ubuntu a few years ago :O)
July 27, 2011 0:07
All i take away from this is that the two fact sheets are equally incorrect.

I'm not sure creating an additional incorrect fact sheet adds anything constructive to the discussion.

I would have liked to see a fact that just shows that OSX and Windows 7 are equivalent.

But hey, that's just me.
July 27, 2011 0:11
Way to to go Scott, I saw your graphics and I laughed, kudos to you sir.
July 27, 2011 0:14
Scott,

Don't you know that anything that Steve Jobs creates saves babies, saves the planet, helps old people live longer, makes baby seals smile, causes unicorns to appear, makes one's blood sugar always perfect and ends terrorism?

I am sure you know all of this and yet to create such a hate filled blog post that demonizes the 6 day creation of all Apple products.

What does this say about you as a person?

I am thoroughly disappointed and thought you were a better human being.

Obviously, you are blinded by your love of the devil (i.e. Windows) and cannot see good when it is right in front of your face.

-Shaun
July 27, 2011 0:20
Shaun - LOL

Terry Bunio - I think I just DID show that they are equivalent. And, it's hilarious, so #win #win.
July 27, 2011 0:37
Oh, and BTW, I made this in 20 minutes Microsoft Publisher, just because Publisher is hilarious on its own.
July 27, 2011 0:43
Scott, I found this post too obvious. However, your last comment saved the day
Publisher is hilarious on its own
July 27, 2011 0:51
ha ha ... I had to laugh very hard reading some of these comments from people that don't have any sense of humor apperantly.
July 27, 2011 0:53
Scott - LOL some of the comments here are just as funny as your graphic. Shaun McDonnel - WTF?! That IS hilarious!
July 27, 2011 3:57
Terminal> connect me some wifi
-bash: connect: command not found
Terminal> sudo connect me some wifi
-conenction established


Gotta love those OSes with a Unix base!
http://xkcd.com/149/
July 27, 2011 6:08
You have too much time on your hands. =P
July 27, 2011 6:50
If only. I can't tell you how many hoops I had to jump through to get my Windows 7 laptop to connect to the wireless network at my old office. Apparently, connecting to a network secured with WPA2-Enterprise when your machine is not a member of the domain is not so straightforward. Every advanced setting must be precisely configured (manually) or no dice. Even more frustrating was the fact that the configuration necessary to get my machine online differed substantially from my colleague's XP machine.

It took me 30 minutes to get the blasted thing online. Incidentally, it took all of 15 seconds to connect my iPhone to the same network: I entered my domain credentials, it prompted me with a certificate, and upon tapping 'Accept' I was online. I can only assume the desktop Mac OS configuration is equally straightforward. Why Windows 7 cannot auto-resolve the configuration so elegantly is beyond me. It's leaps and bounds ahead of Windows XP, but it still has a long way to go.
July 27, 2011 6:51
Ever get the feeling some people take themselves too seriously?
July 27, 2011 7:08
@Mike - McDonalds Free WiFi does not use WPA2-Enterprise. I hope you are relieved. ;)
July 27, 2011 7:48
Bracket missing! "(Usually en1)" the bracket that starts in that sentence doesn't end anywhere. Sorry, I can't help it, tend to notice brackets that open and don't close. :D. Rest of it is Hilarious.
July 27, 2011 10:56
@Hartley u beat me to it. To pile on I would like to assume Linux user order home delivery......from their mama's basements
July 27, 2011 12:03
@Mike strobel if your connecting to wifi with a domain password there is quite a lot going on there.. Plus in the speedy set up your iphone gave you it probably gave domain admins full access to wipe your phone..lol

If you connect your iphone to the corporate exchange watch some one configure their android phone and see what you phone auto accepted because jobs want one burton and one click!
July 27, 2011 13:28
Seems to me Windows fans can't take a joke without trying to copy it
July 27, 2011 13:47
linux... either its so close to mac or windows that you don't need another guide (as you have a distro designed that way) or you don't need to tell the them how to set up his wifi...

..in fact you don't really want to bring it to their attention that there is a wifi network at all... who knows what they will get up to!

nice post.. my take on it is no one at macdonalds knew how to do anything other than the basic wifi set up on a mac, it clearly says need MORE help ... as in you did the two second set up and it didn't work for some reason...
July 27, 2011 13:50
apple fan boy... that's almost funny... i like it ;-)...

but seriously who is "fan" of windows?
July 27, 2011 17:16
@BatsShadow all comments on this post should begin with @BatsShadow because there's no way he could have gotten it after the first explanation.

>> but seriously who is "fan" of windows?

Haha yes, really the most entertaining take away from this post!
July 27, 2011 17:29
Oops. I knew there was a catch, but I just couldn't find it. I've been a little slow of late. (Also, I dislike McDs enough that I didn't want to read their crap *grin*)

Why are you all replying (almost the same reply) to BatsShadow who looks like a stereotypical Mac person who can't even understand a joke ? :D


Nice :)
July 27, 2011 17:38
A few more comments:

- What stereotypical Mac fanboy reads a .NET blog?

- I just noticed in my RSS reader, the first image is made much smaller for some reason which suggests that you aren't really supposed to look that closely at it. I only opened the website to post my flame-ish comment. (Yep, you guessed it, it's Mac software - Gruml)

kk, flame away. Enjoy.
July 27, 2011 18:03
@BatsShadow Nothing like a cacophony of corrections when you make a mistake! :-D

Reminds me of making typos while using a projector during a meeting/presentation
July 27, 2011 20:13
In response to the tweet, I'd liken being humorless to standing on a mound of dildoes. You think you're looking down on people, but they all think you've got something else bothering you.
July 30, 2011 20:28
Awesome!
December 30, 2011 5:08
What? No nutritional meal information or dietary needs. Maybe this year for April 1 I'll get a copy of the Burger King ones and go distributing them to McD's around town.
Bil

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.