Frequently Asked Questions.
 

Why would I share my WiFi?

If we all shared our WiFi, we would be able to surf for free almost anywhere. Wouldn't that be cool?
Surf at home, at the park, in the cafeteria…wireless and for free, thanks to those who are ready to collaborate by letting you onto their WiFi connection. Nowadays our cities have WiFi coverage in many places, more than you can ever imagine, albeit anonymous and impersonal. Through collaboration this can be turned into everybody's benefit.
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Do I need extra hardware if I want to share my WiFi?

No.

Whisher is a software application that works irrespective of the hardware in place (obviously you must have a WiFi access point or router, any kind will do). Whisher is compatible with any WiFi access point or router.
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Do I have to share my WiFi to use Whisher?

No, but it would be cool if you did.

On the other hand, we believe people without a WiFi to be shared shoudn't be left out of the Whisher community, so they are welcome too.
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Does Whisher cost anything?

Whisher is a free software application. There are no costs associated with using the application, sharing your WiFi, connecting to Whisher access points, and the standard communication features. In the future, additional features or services may carry a small fee, but the basics will always remain free - and you can quote us on that.
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How safe is using Whisher?

Whisher helps in protecting you while sharing your WiFi with others. All Whisher access points must have encryption enabled (WEP or WPA), whereas most existing public WiFi networks do not. This means that anonymous users cannot access your computer and traffic so easily. However, even if you are not sharing, or using Whisher at all, we strongly recommend that you install a firewall and anti-virus to protect your computer from attacks.

If you need to learn more on how to protect your WiFi with WEP or WPA, please don't hesitate to contact us.
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Can I also use Whisher to connect to regular WiFi signals?

Of course, you can also use Whisher to connect to open access points, and those encrypted for which you know the key. Whisher will remember the keys so that you don't need to enter them when you want to connect again in the future.
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How do I connect to Whisher access points?

Whisher shows you a list of available WiFi signals - simply double click on the one you want to connect. You will know which ones are Whisher compatible because they are marked with this logo
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Besides sharing and roaming, what else does Whisher allow me to do?

Do you want to...

...share files at high speed? Mark the files you want to share (videos, music, etc.) and Whisher members connected to the same network will have access to them. They will simply see a list of all files shared by everyone, and pick the ones they want. You can even decide giving access to certain files to your buddies only.

...meet new people? You can see who is connected to the same WiFi access point as you and start chatting with them. If you want to get more personal, you can add them to your buddy list, in which case you can reach them wherever they are.
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Is WiFi sharing legal?

WiFi sharing is tolerated by most ISPs worldwide as long as you don't resell your Internet access, which is something we are not doing within the Whisher community.

We believe that sharing your WiFi with other members of the Whisher community is the same as sharing it with your family or a visiting friend. Since at Whisher everyone has a personal profile, which you can use to get to know people visiting your WiFi, sharing becomes a social activity, rather than anonymous access to the Internet by jumping on an open connection
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Will my bandwidth be affected?

Yes, certainly, but this doesn't mean that you cannot still surf and do your stuff while other Whisher users get connected through your WiFi, unless you had many visitors at a time and they were using the connection heavily.

In any case and most importantly, you have full control over sharing at your fingertips. Since you can see who is connected to your WiFi at any time, you can first drop a quick message to warn them in case you notice a speed slowdown. If this doesn't work, you can activate the private mode: all the users will be disconnected, and you will have your WiFi just for you. When you are ready to share again, change back to public mode.
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Whisher? Haven't you guys spelt it wrong?

Not really. We thought it would be cool that word processors would underline us in red.

You can add it to your word processor's dictionary if it really annoys you, but we are not changing the name :)
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Can I contribute to Whisher?

WiFi sharing is tolerated by most ISPs worldwide as long as you don't resell your Internet access, which is something we are not doing within the Whisher community.

Yes!