Welcome to the Wi-Fi Hotspots Directory Help page for wi-fi hotspots providers and owners

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This is what  your columns should have, keep the order as it is if possible, but if you have them in different order, that's fine, after all, we'll be inserting the columns in a master Excel file along with our other internal columns.

General: We expect to receive 20 columns IN THE ABOVE ORDER for quick processing, names in Green columns can not be left blank,  although one can expect few records may not have a zip code for example (where zip do not apply in certain countries), but the whole zip column can not be left without zip codes. All columns should be formatted / set as TEXT in your spreadsheet before inserting any records in them, see note 3. Pay particular attention to the grayed columns, for US State, put as AL for Alabma, if the hotspot is not in the US, leave blank. Web addresses and emails are not hyper-linked, for emails, the reason is obvious, we do not want email harvesters intruding on your privacy or that of the hotspot owner. For web addresses, we do it deliberately as we have a Links Directory designated for that. For provider partners, we do hyperlink each and every location to their subscription page (write us / to us with your partnership proposal at editor@wi-fihotspotsdirectory.com).

Note 1

Your lists will be processed very quickly if you implemented the Country ID as shown below. If you don't have the time, our staff will have to do it, but may take longer, but please put the Two Letter ISO Country code there instead if outside the US, if in the US, put the 2 letter ISO state name, AL for Alabama for example (if you can't determine the state, put 1).

Country ID: We give each country and State (in the US) a number for internal use, which serves as the category / country or state identifier (state ID for US only) in which the hotspot is located. If the Location is in the US, then each US State has its own number. If the location is in the US but can't determine which State, then its Number is 1.

Now here are the internal Country / State codes (States in the US are considered Countries on their own for the purpose of directory management):

It's quite simple, just replace the name of the country (Or state if in the US) with its corresponding ID number from the green column in your own spreadsheet. If the hotspot is in the US but can't determine which State, Record it as number 1 (State in United States not known).

You need to record the ones in the Green column only in your spreadsheet!

Note 2

Unique ID: We require that you have to have a unique ID for each hotspot, this can either be numeric or alphanumeric characters,  our advice is to make it so unique by including your first 4-5 letters from the provider name, that it can never be confused with other provider's ID. The Unique Record ID is only for our internal use.

For example, for Trustive:  the ID trust577456 is OK, 577456 not OK, that way if Boingo has a hotspot ID  577456 and Trustive also has that for one of its hotspots, only one is accepted by our database, the first that gets inserted into the database becomes unique and the database will reject any that is similar (understands that it is already there).

Note 3:

Some Zip codes in certain countries are preceded with one or two Zeros, make sure that column is not formatted as Numbers, best is to set it to Text. Spreadsheets generally understands 0580 as 580 if set to Numbers or General in the "Format Cells" option of most spreadsheets.  All columns should be set to text in our opinion, that will prevent information from being corrupted by your spreadsheet program.

Note 4

Country  2 Letter ISO Code: We need the country where the hotspot is, do not include States. 

Example: United States = US, United Kingdom = UK, France = FR...

Her are the ISO Codes, you need the the ones in the green column

Note 5: How to keep us updated:

If you have implemented our formulae, particularly note 1 above, we can update the hotspots within a week, otherwise up to a month. Deleted or void hotspots should be pointed out in the Live Status Column, by Yes if the hotspot is current and available, by NO if deleted or void, this column is only for our records.

All lists should be in CSV or Excel file, please do not send them in a zip file. Send to hotspots@wi-fihotspotsdirectory.com