Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Guest WiFi using a QR code

blog.jgc.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 284 posts

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#111

Post by fernvenue »

noobermin wrote: post #74

I am freaking tired of QR codes. I recently moved to another country (SG) and QR codes are literally used for almost everything now, essentially requiring a phone (and good lighting and a clean camera) to do almost anything. At least once a week I have to idle around waiting for a link to load in order to pay a vendor because scanning a qr-code under a glossy plastic standee is taking too long to read. I love how dev…

That's true, QR code is now being abused where they are not really needed, which is a very bad phenomenon.

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#112

Post by makeworld »

graton wrote: post #38

It uses the form of: WIFI:T:WPA;S:{ssid};P:{password};; Can generate these on Linux with the qrencode program. Wikipedia has information on this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code#Joining_a_Wi%E2%80%91F... Section of the Wikipedia article: Joining a Wi‑Fi network By specifying the SSID, encryption type, password/passphrase, and if the SSID is hidden or not, mobile device users can quickly scan and join networks wi…

> Can generate these on Linux with the qrencode program.

If you're using Network Manager, you can also just run this command!

  nmcli dev wifi show-password
You get the password as text, and a nice in-terminal QR code.

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#113

Post by msravi »

makeworld wrote: post #112
graton wrote: post #38

It uses the form of: WIFI:T:WPA;S:{ssid};P:{password};; Can generate these on Linux with the qrencode program. Wikipedia has information on this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code#Joining_a_Wi%E2%80%91F... Section of the Wikipedia article: Joining a Wi‑Fi network By specifying the SSID, encryption type, password/passphrase, and if the SSID is hidden or not, mobile device users can quickly scan and join networks wi…

> Can generate these on Linux with the qrencode program. If you're using Network Manager, you can also just run this command! nmcli dev wifi show-password You get the password as text, and a nice in-terminal QR code.

Wow! Had no clue this was possible! Thank you!

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#114

Post by SCLeo »

silvestrov wrote: post #100
ircop420 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data is expensive in QR land or your resulting QR code becomes larger in size, requiring more physical space to display. URL encoding has a lot of overhead. Also '\' escaping has preceded the existence of URLs. I'm not sure who is doing the reinventing here.

Only encoded characters take up more space and you don't have to escape: quotation mark, semicolon, comma, colon or backslash. So I think the difference is small. QR codes can contain quite a bit more information than what's needed for WIFI name and password.

In countries that do not use English as the main language, it is fairly common to have non-English SSIDs. URL encoding is incredibly inefficient when encoding those characters.

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#115

Post by tepitoperrito »

ircop420 wrote: post #57
graton wrote: post #38

It uses the form of: WIFI:T:WPA;S:{ssid};P:{password};; Can generate these on Linux with the qrencode program. Wikipedia has information on this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code#Joining_a_Wi%E2%80%91F... Section of the Wikipedia article: Joining a Wi‑Fi network By specifying the SSID, encryption type, password/passphrase, and if the SSID is hidden or not, mobile device users can quickly scan and join networks wi…

Can you encode a BSSID (MAC-based) or just the ESSID (assigned name)? The formatting isn't very pleasant I imagine for putting a MAC in with all those backslashes..

You would use "H" for BSSID or a hidden network I assume

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#116

Post by [deleted] »

ircop420 wrote: post #55
UIUC_06 wrote: post #52

I've done techie things just because they were fun & cool, so this isn't a criticism. However, having a phone number not your own (or indeed, any number of less than 7 digits) that you can memorize and tell your guests works just as well. Change it as soon as they leave, bada bing, bada boom, done.

Well, firstly you have to have a password of >=8 chars for WPA. Secondly, having such a short non-complex password is going to easily be crackable with a deauth and 3-way handshake capture attack. Would easily crack on a 5 year old laptop in minutes even w/o GPU.

[deleted]

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#117

Post by js2 »

ryanianian wrote: post #87
js2 wrote: post #27

Here's what I do in my home: I've had the same easy-to-type WiFi password (it's a name and a four-digit year) since 2005 and I just tell my guests. It's not even a guest network. It's just my network. Free hugs in my house too.

That seems fine until someone's compromised device joins your network, sniffs for open ports, and starts uploading or ransomware-encrypting your NAS.

My NAS is more likely to melt down into slag in a house fire. I have offsite backups of critical data.

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#118

Post by UIUC_06 »

ircop420 wrote: post #55
UIUC_06 wrote: post #52

I've done techie things just because they were fun & cool, so this isn't a criticism. However, having a phone number not your own (or indeed, any number of less than 7 digits) that you can memorize and tell your guests works just as well. Change it as soon as they leave, bada bing, bada boom, done.

Well, firstly you have to have a password of >=8 chars for WPA. Secondly, having such a short non-complex password is going to easily be crackable with a deauth and 3-way handshake capture attack. Would easily crack on a 5 year old laptop in minutes even w/o GPU.

wow, these hackers sure are clever & patient: they're hanging around outside your house, just waiting for you to have a guest, so they can use your limited-BW guest network where you can log everything they do.

OK, go ahead and set up a QR code. Who said you can't?

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#119

Post by acchow »

josefresco wrote: post #69

This is super cool and would be awesome for situations where your guests are familiar with QR codes. But from my experience the process would go something like this: Visitor: What's your wifi password? Me: No password needed! We have a cool QR code you can scan that will auto-join you! Visitor: Oh cool, how do I use a QR code? Do I need an app? Me: Nope, just point your camera at it. Visitor: Like .. .take a picture…

"ShinyTortoise78, no spaces, capitalization on the first letter of each word. Seventy Eight is the numbers 7 then 8, not spelt out as a word"

"Uhh English is my 3rd language and I don't know how to spell tortus. is there a QR code I can scan?"

Re: Guest WiFi using a QR code

#120

Post by umvi »

"Which when scanned with the default camera app on iOS or Android will pop up something similar to this. With one click you're connected to the network."

I have never had an Android phone with the ability to scan QR codes with the "default camera app". The closest I've gotten is taking a picture of the QR code and then going into my pictures and using "Google Lens" to scan the picture for QR codes. Usually I end up downloading a dedicated QR scanner app from the app store, which I have zero confidence will be able to auto-connect me to someone's WiFi.

Post reply on HN