Use this page to find (or record) the best public wifi spots in the Champaign-Urbana area.

Public Wi-Fi Connections Are Not Equal!

Champaign-Urbana has a large population of roaming students, academics and professionals who work from their laptop. A solid internet connection can be essential to working on the go, and not all public wifi connections are created equal. Nearly all places have wifi, but there's nothing more frustrating than showing up to work and realize the internet connection is nearly unusable.

Contribute

Use this page to record real-world speed tests of coffee-shop and other public wifi locations.  Please edit this page and add your own entries! Instructions below.

Wifi Speeds

Business or Location (include wiki link)

 City Wifi Hotspot (SSID) Password? Ping Speed Download Speed Upload Speed Date Tested Notes
Aroma Cafe Champaign AromaCafe No 16 ms 80 Mbps 10 Mbps Sept 23 2020 Merged with Cowboy Monkey; indoor seating with lots of plugs and bar tunes.
Atlanta Bread Company Champaign Atlanta Bread No 35 ms 3.22 Mbps 0.47 Mbps Jan 18th, 2016 Lots of seats and power.
Biggby Coffee (Mattis) Champaign BIGGBY Wifi No 22 ms 15.47 Mbps 3.65 Mbps Jan 20th, 2016

Empty. Lots of seats and power.
Caffe Paradiso Urbana CaffeParadiso2 macarons (changes)          
Cafe Zolo Urbana WesternDigital No 20 ms 15.01 Mbps 4.37 Mbps June 5, 2013 router can freeze and need resetting by owner
Champaign Public Library Champaign Champaign_Public_Library No 15 ms 11.1 Mbps 5.3 Mbps Jan 25, 2016 Private rooms available
Einstein Bros Bagels Urbana BagelNet No 69ms 3.38 Mbps 0.64 Mbps Jan 10, 2013 No power plugs!
Espresso Royale (Krannert) Urbana              
Espresso Royale (The Crossing) Champaign "guest" No 62 ms 0.55 Mbps 1.67 Mbps Jan 11, 2013 painfully slow
Esquire Bar and Grill Champaign ESQUIRE or ESQUIRE1 No 20 ms 18.7 Mbps 3.54 Mbps Jan 22, 2016  
Everyday Kitchen Champaign Lodgic Guest (Open) No 2ms 260 Mbps 240 Mbps Dec 4, 2021 Lightning Fast Upload Speed!
Flying Machine Coffee Urbana cafeteria&co #eaturbana   57.72 Mbps 11.82 Mbps Jan 8, 2014 It's actually this fast.
Cafe Kopi Champaign Kopi No 18 ms 4.85 Mbps 2.81 Mbps Jan 26th, 2016  
McDonalds (Neil & Kirby) Champaign attwifi No 94 ms 1.1 Mbps 0.30 Mbps Jan 15, 2013  
Panera (N Neil St) Champaign PANERA No 50 ms 0.51 Mbps 0.60 Mbps Jan 23, 1013 drops often
Panera on Kirby Champaign   No 32 ms .95 Mbps .98 Mbps Mar 19, 2014  
Pekara (from Quality) Champaign Pekara No 51 ms 2.7-3.7 Mbps 0.53 Mbps Jan 10, 2013  
Quality Champaign Quality founders 35 ms 2.16 Mbps 0.42 Mbps Jan 10, 2013  
Radio Maria Champaign Radio Maria 1234567890          
Seven Saints Champaign Free Pavlov Media Downtown No 23 ms 6.02 Mbps 0.45 Mbps Jun 6, 2013 23 SSIDs show up; 5 don't require a password
Seven Saints Champaign Seven Saints-b/g/n 2.4G No 19 ms 24.51 Mbps 2.44 Mbps Jun 6, 2013 This speed was logged at 10:50pm
Snow Meets Coffee Champaign Snow Meets Coffee No 25 ms 4.12 Mbps 0.95 Mbps Jan 23rd, 2016  
Starbucks (5th / Green) Champaign Google Starbucks No 15 ms 33.36 Mbps 12.02 Mbps Jan 19th, 2016  
Starbucks (N Prospect) Champaign attwifi No 61 ms 58.68 Mbps 11.59 Mbps April 2, 2014  
Starbucks (Main/Vine) Urbana GoogleWifi No 25 ms 58.41 Mbps 11.23 Mbps March 24, 2014  
Starbucks (S Neil) Champaign Starbucks WiFi No 160ms 0.96 Mbps 0.69 Mbps Jan 18th, 2016 Painfully slow. Hopefully a glitch?
U of I Campus   IllinoisNet_Start Free account, good for 24 hours 10ms 60.35 Mbps 66.22 Mbps Jan 21st, 2016 Available most areas on campus.
Urbana Free Library Urbana Urbana Free Library No 27ms 3.40 Mbps 6.69 Mbps Mar 3, 2014  

 

How to do a Speed Test

  1. Make sure you're connected to the hotspot you want to test.
  2. Go to http://www.speedtest.net
  3. Begin the Test
  4. Record the result
  5. (If you're ambitious) For better accuracy, do it twice and average the results

Add Your Entry to the Table Above

  1. Use Edit button at the top of this page
  2. The table does not auto-sort. Please put your entry in A-Z order.
  3. To add a new row, put the cursor in the table, right-click, and insert a new row above or below.
  4. Record your results in the table.
  5. Be sure to link your place name to the corresponding CU WIki page, even if it doesn't exist yet. If you have time, you can create a new one using the Restaurant or Business templates. 
  6. If the download speed is lower than 1 Mbps, you can mark the row in red. Select the row, choose Cell -> Cell Properties -> Cell Background.
  7. Thanks for helping others out!

 

Notes on Accuracy

Wifi speed can be affected by a lot of factors, and simple things like the number of people using the single connection and where someone sits in the coffee shop will have an effect. So while the numbers on the chart aren't exact and could vary if tested again, the resulting chart may still be useful to identify generally the best and worst relative to other locations.

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