Technologies

Airports With the Best Free Wi-Fi in the US, According to Ookla

Airport Wi-Fi is often a drag, but a few locations stand above the rest.

Free airport Wi-Fi can be frustrating when you’re trying to download episodes of Netflix’s Old Enough before a six-hour flight. Luckily, the folks over at Ookla, who run the internet speed testing website Speedtest.net, have a new report detailing the best free airport Wi-Fi in the US.

The fastest free airport Wi-Fi in the US isn’t at San Francisco’s SFO, a major hub for tech giants such as Salesforce and Uber. Nor is it at New York’s JFK, the sixth busiest airport in the US. The fastest free Wi-Fi, according to Ookla’s speed tests across airports in the US, comes from San Jose International, which has a median download speed of 203 Mbps. San Jose International’s top placement makes sense as there aremany leading tech companies situated nearby, such as Google, Apple, Meta and Adobe.

Ookla gathered this data from people who use either the Speedtest app or its website to test download speeds.

The second-fastest free airport Wi-Fi is at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, with a median download speed of 177.16 Mbps. In third place is SFO, at 162.38 Mbps, with Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu in fourth with a speed of 158.05 Mbps. Oakland International Airport rounds out the top five with a speed of 154.62 Mbps.

With the popularity of YouTube, TikTok, Netflix and Disney Plus, demand for streaming video content is the highest it’s ever been. This demand has forced Netflix to reduce streaming quality in parts of the world as internet service providers don’t have the systems in place to serve the needs of all customers. Airports, too, have been upgrading systems to help meet consumer bandwidth consumption. To illustrate how quickly things have changed, back in 2014, Bush Intercontinental in Houston ranked as having some of the fastest airport Wi-Fi in the world. Now it ranks near the bottom in the US.

The slowest-performing free Wi-Fi is at Pittsburgh International, Ookla said, with a median download speed of 5.23 Mbps. Houston’s major airports, George Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby, have speeds of 8.79 and 8.90 Mbps, respectively. Southwest Florida is the fourth slowest free airport Wi-Fi, but sees a significant jump over Houston, at 18.51 Mbps. And Logan International in Boston isn’t significantly faster, at 18.87 Mbps.

Ookla did find that some airport lounges have faster speeds than the general airport area. But gaining access usually requires some special form of membership. Using paid options at airports from companies such as Boingo, Passpoint and Skyfi also showed faster speeds, but varied between airports.

Technologies

How Verum Ecosystem Is Rethinking Communication

David Rotman — Founder of the Verum Ecosystem

For David Rotman, communication is not a feature — it is a dependency that should never rely on a single point of failure.

As the founder of the Verum Ecosystem, Rotman developed a communication platform designed to function when internet access becomes unreliable or unavailable.

Verum Messenger addresses real-world challenges such as network outages, censorship, and infrastructure failures. Its 2025 update introduced a unified offline-capable messaging system, moving beyond Bluetooth-based or temporary peer-to-peer solutions.

Verum’s mission is simple: to ensure communication continuity under any conditions.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, Feb. 1

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 1

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Some of the clues are kind of tricky, but I was able to fill in enough of the others to get them all answered. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Spot to shop
Answer: MART

5A clue: Pounded sticky rice sometimes filled with ice cream
Answer: MOCHI

6A clue: ___ Chekhov, «Three Sisters» playwright
Answer: ANTON

7A clue: Like many dive bars and bird feeds
Answer: SEEDY

8A clue: Jekyll’s evil counterpart
Answer: HYDE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: What makes the world go ’round, per «Cabaret»
Answer: MONEY

2D clue: Performed in a play
Answer: ACTED

3D clue: __ Island (U.S. state)
Answer: RHODE

4D clue: Itty-bitty
Answer: TINY

5D clue: Squish to a pulp, as potatoes
Answer: MASH

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 1, #496

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 1, No. 496.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. The blue group made me think of dusty gum sticks, and the purple one requires you to look for hidden names in the clues. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Splish-splash.

Green group hint: Vroom!

Blue group hint: Cards and gum.

Purple group hint: Racket stars.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Aquatic sports verbs.

Green group: Speed.

Blue group: Sports card brands.

Purple group: Tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is aquatic sports verbs. The four answers are kayak, row, sail and swim.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is speed. The four answers are mustard, pop, velocity and zip.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports card brands. The four answers are Leaf, Panini, Topps and Upper Deck.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter. The four answers are ash (Arthur Ashe), kin (Billie Jean King), nada (Rafael Nadal) and William (Serena and Venus Williams)

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.