Setup, checks
and recovery.

Public Wi-Fi search

Find somewhere to connect.

Open the finder on Harbour’s main page. Choose Find near me, or enter a town, public landmark or postcode with its country and press Find place. Choose the matching place, then Find hotspots. You can also enter latitude, longitude directly. Choose a 1, 3 or 5 km radius. All searches need an existing internet connection.

The finder queries OpenStreetMap records through Harbour’s hosted lookup and your selected Overpass service: Private.coffee or VK Maps. Place names are resolved by komoot’s Photon service. These are community services with variable availability. Harbour limits requests and does not poll in the background. If a service is unavailable, wait before retrying, choose the other map service explicitly, or use your device’s Wi-Fi settings.

Results show approximate straight-line distances from the selected centre, recorded network names where available, cost and access information, source records and directions. The proximity view plots mapped places, not radio signals. OpenStreetMap coverage can be incomplete or outdated. Map editing dates are not Wi-Fi inspection dates. A listing cannot establish current availability, range, opening hours or safety. Check the venue’s real network name and terms before joining.

Only listed as free filters on explicit free-Wi-Fi tags. Other results may be paid, for customers or have no recorded cost. Harbour does not infer free access from a venue type. Private and explicitly prohibited networks are excluded where the map records those restrictions.

Save offline copy downloads an HTML file containing all returned listings for that area, its coordinates and retrieval date. Open that file in a browser without internet. It does not download the world’s hotspots, cache this whole website or provide offline turn-by-turn navigation. Map and directions links need internet. Save before travelling and confirm details locally.

To discover Wi-Fi signals actually in range, open the device’s Wi-Fi settings. This website has no general radio-scanning API, cannot join a network and does not discover mesh peers. The separate mesh guide still needs compatible software and a real link.

Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database Licence.

Live networks and peer discovery

The public hotspot finder reads mapped records. It cannot read the Wi-Fi scan list on a phone, tablet or computer. Android permits native applications to scan with the required permissions, enabled Location Services and scan throttling. iPhone and iPad do not provide a general-purpose Wi-Fi scanning API.

Pair two Harbour browsers offers a separate experimental connection test. It exchanges an invitation and answer that you pass between two devices, then sends a small test ping over a direct WebRTC data channel. It uses no signalling account, server-side code storage, relay, STUN or TURN service. Codes contain connection details and may expose network addresses to their recipient. Confirm the other person before exchanging them. No Wi-Fi scan, mesh routing or automatic Reticulum discovery is performed.

A private Mac Discovery Lab candidate has been built for native CoreWLAN scanning and link-local Reticulum peer discovery. It is not a public app release. It requires the applicable macOS permissions and a compatible peer on a real local link. Local peer identities must be verified with the person separately. It does not change Wi-Fi, VPN, firewall or router settings. No physical phone/tablet or two-device radio result is implied by building the candidate.

Phone and tablet tests require an actual available device. Desktop layouts or two browser sessions on one Mac do not establish phone compatibility, physical range, independent hardware or emergency reliability.

On each device

Check the connection you actually use.

1. Start with the device chooser. Compare the supplier’s current system requirements with your device. If it is managed by work or school, ask its administrator before changing network software.
2. Check compatibility before installing. Compare the actual operating-system version and hardware with the current official requirements. On a Mac, open Apple menu → About This Mac; Intel or a model year alone is not enough. The listed WARP route requires at least macOS 15.1 (not 15.0.x) and a currently supported release. If the installer rejects the device, stop; do not bypass its check or use an old or unofficial installer. Current Cloudflare requirements ↗
3. Use the official free client. Follow the official guide for that device. Review its terms and permission prompts yourself. Choose basic free WARP; WARP+ is optional and paid. Harbour asks for no card. If a store or provider asks for payment or card verification, pause and check the free route. An Apple account or billing issue can block even a free app. Stop at a payment request; Harbour cannot remove that account restriction. Apple’s free-app download help ↗
4. Check the mode and status in the provider’s app. For this guide’s internet route, use Traffic and DNS / WARP and check that the app reports a connection. DNS-only mode does not tunnel ordinary device traffic. Cloudflare explains its modes ↗
5. Try an ordinary page before sensitive work. Confirm that the connection is usable and that the provider’s app still reports the intended mode. A page loading proves internet access, not that every app is using the tunnel.
6. Recheck after a change. After sleep, restart, changing Wi-Fi or switching to mobile data, check the provider’s status again. This website cannot watch the connection in the background or confirm that traffic stops when a VPN fails.

Optional · no card or Harbour account

What the automatic browser check can tell you.

Choose the internet purpose in Harbour, then press “Check this browser’s connection”. No device answer or compatibility claim is needed for this sample. Before the button, Harbour explains that it sends a single HTTPS request to Cloudflare’s documented trace endpoint. Cloudflare receives your connection’s IP address and ordinary request information, without your chooser answers, cookies requested by Harbour or a page referrer.

“WARP detected for this browser request” means Cloudflare reported WARP on that one HTTPS sample. It does not prove the provider app is installed correctly, that other apps or DNS use the tunnel, that leaks are blocked or that the device cannot be hacked. Cloudflare’s local-proxy mode can carry a browser while other apps bypass it. Read the provider’s connection modes ↗

“WARP not observed for this browser request” means that sample did not use WARP. Another VPN may be in use; it is not a verdict that the device is unprotected. “Unable to verify” means the browser, network, response or required safeguards prevented a usable check. It establishes neither protection nor its absence. An older browser may still show the guide while being unable to perform this check safely.

The request and body have an eight-second deadline and a 4 KiB response limit. Results expire within one minute of the request and clear when choices, page visibility, page restore or online/offline status change. No background polling runs; the button has a one-minute cooldown. A website cannot reliably observe every network change, so an unchanged display is not continuing proof. Check again after changing Wi-Fi, sleep or the intended provider’s mode.

Harbour keeps only the short derived result in this page’s memory. Raw responses, IP addresses and check results are not written to storage, sent to Harbour analytics or included in saved plans. Whole-device protection remains unverified. Public Harbour native downloads remain held.

When a connection is uncertain

Pause. Check. Recover.

Disconnected, degraded or unexpected mode

Pause sensitive activity. Read the status and recovery guidance in the official app. Do not treat normal browsing as proof that protection is active. If you cannot establish the intended connection, use another trusted connection or wait.

A hotspot wants you to sign in

Check the hotspot name and sign-in instructions with its operator. Do not enter sensitive account details into an unexpected portal or bypass a certificate warning. If portal access conflicts with the VPN, use the supplier’s documented recovery steps or another connection. This page does not disable anything for you.

Another VPN, work profile or security app is present

Keep required protection in place. Ask the administrator or relevant supplier about compatibility. Do not remove security tools or switch Windows out of S mode just to follow a web guide.

A download, permission or card request looks wrong

Stop and return to the official setup guide. Do not install an unknown profile, accept a remote-support request or share credentials to make a free route work. This website supplies no VPN configuration profile and requests no device-management access.

The chooser itself is unavailable

It needs JavaScript and readable, current guidance data. Reload once or use the plainly labeled reference documentation. If information has expired, it will withhold setup actions until reviewed. An old saved plan may also be out of date.

Use the official device guides ↗ and provider FAQ ↗. Removing this guide or Harbour’s private companion does not uninstall or disconnect the separate provider app.

A separate experiment

Mesh needs a real route and a peer.

Choose mesh in the device chooser to see whether a documented client exists. An unavailable native client is explained directly; an Android download is not an iPhone app.

1. Use a compatible upstream client on both ends and read its documentation. Harbour has not released a mesh client.
2. Arrange a known peer and a usable link. Existing local Wi-Fi or Ethernet can be enough. Off-grid radio links need compatible equipment, reachable peers and any locally required permissions; equipment is not supplied free.
3. Check the peer’s identity through a trusted route, then exchange a harmless test message. Review the client’s actual delivery indication. No route or acknowledgement means delivery is unconfirmed; delivery is not proof that a person read it.
4. Repeat the test after reconnecting or changing the link. Keep private keys and identity files private and follow the client’s backup guidance. Share only the public address intended for discovery and verification. Do not depend on this experiment for emergencies.

Mesh messaging does not create worldwide internet access or protect normal browser traffic. See Reticulum’s getting-started guide ↗ and documented applications ↗.

Check the current maintainer instructions. Sideband’s maintainer says its public GitHub source is no longer updated, while release packages continue to be published. Harbour has not assessed those packages. Do not treat an old source snapshot or its old Python version instructions as a current, verified installation recipe. Read the maintainer’s current notice and package-verification guidance ↗ before a separate experiment.

Website edition 0.5.0 · 30 October 2026

What you can use today.

Harbour is independent of Cloudflare and Reticulum. Their software and network services have their own terms, availability and privacy practices. This guide does not promise continued third-party availability or a security certification.

No account here

Your choices stay on this page.

The setup chooser uses manual answers with no analytics or device fingerprinting. The hotspot finder requests location only after Find near me is pressed and the browser grants permission. It rounds the centre to three decimal places before sharing the search area through Harbour’s hosted lookup with your selected map service, Private.coffee or VK Maps, roughly a 100 m grid. Find place shares the entered text with komoot’s Photon service. Photon and Harbour’s host receive your IP address and ordinary request metadata. The selected map service receives the rounded search area from Harbour’s host, without your IP address or device answers. The hosted lookup may cache public map results for the rounded area for up to one hour and uses short-lived request limits. Harbour sends no cookies, stores no location history and does not scan Wi-Fi signals. The optional offline download contains your chosen area and public listings; share it only if you intend to. No connection sample runs until you press the optional check button; then one request goes to Cloudflare with your connection’s IP and normal request metadata. Your chooser answers are not sent. The browser discards the raw response after deriving a short result and does not store it or include it in saved plans. It does not contact a local Harbour app. Downloaded plans are created in your browser. They contain your selected guidance, not passwords or VPN keys.

The host still receives normal web requests. Opening an official external link uses that supplier’s website and privacy practices. A VPN provider processes traffic according to its own policies; this page does not run the VPN.

For a guide correction, use the contact options on Weidu’s about page ↗. Send the guide version, device type and the unclear step. Do not send passwords, private keys, payment details, exact location or unredacted network reports. This is not an emergency or guaranteed support channel.

Setup catalog checked 24 October 2026 UTC; review due 23 November 2026 UTC. These dates describe research, not a test of your device. Confirm current requirements with the supplier before installing.