As a mobile worker (and coffee addict), I’m occasionally popping into a new cafe to work from. It’s nice to have the variety, as well as to try a new coffee. Unfortunately I sometimes buy a drink and a sandwich, only to find that the wifi isn’t actually offering “internet” in the way we should understand the term. Sure, it’ll offer ports 80 and 443 (web traffic) but not SSH (22), email (465, 587, 993), IRC (6697) – etc.

In my experience, most cafes are happy to give out their wifi password before a customer settles in, to ensure it’s all working. What would be great is Android and iPhone apps to connect to a customisable list of ports to check they’re all working. Thus, customers can check they can actually connect to the web services they want before wasting their money.