Bring your laptop and don’t forget some wet naps. Fast-food giant McDonald’s is hoping businesspeople on the go stop by for lunch and—greasy fingers and all—check their e-mail using a wireless Internet connection in between bites of Big Macs.The Golden Arches has started offering the Wi-Fi service in 75 New York City restaurants, 75 in the San Francisco Bay area, more than 100 in Chicago and two near Toronto. All customers need are a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop or PDA using the 802.11b standard. The service also uses 128-bit SSL encryption so that patrons can safely browse websites and read their e-mail from inside the building or out in the parking lot (up to 300 feet outside the door). Each region will charge different prices depending on the network service providers in use. In California (Wayport), it’s $4.95 for two hours, while New York City (Cometa) users will pay $2.95 per hour, and Chicago (Toshiba) users will pay $4.95 per hour. As more Americans seek healthful food options, the $15 billion company is smart to look at new ways to bring people into its eateries, says San Bhavani, mobile computing analyst at consultancy ARS. But it could run into trouble. “If it’s not working and I stand at the counter and have to ask a 15-year-old kid for help who has his first job ever, there’s a very strong chance that person doesn’t know the first thing about Wi-Fi,” Bhavani says. McDonald’s says toll-free support is a phone call away.McDonald’s will evaluate this trial wireless offering next year. Like many special offers, this one has another brand attached: Intel is helping to market the service as a promotion. Would you like Centrino chips with that? Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe