Live data from Hacker News

WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

jamesbvaughan.com

91–100 of 675 posts

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#91
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that fly (pun intended) with regards to net neutrality? Where I live, some mobile operators gave you "unlimited streaming" in their data plan, but only for certain popular services (spotify, youtube, netflix basically). Since this would make it harder for others to disrupt the big ones, it was quickly forbidden.

In the US (I believe) Net Neutrality basically died. Even before that, it was allowed to zero-rate categories of apps (like messaging). That might be coming back now that the FCC has 5 commissioners again and can reinstate Net Neutrality. However, even with reasonably strict neutrality, this is still possible. Many mobile carriers zero-rated streaming services here, but unlike your operators they'd do it for any stre…

This is the situation where net neutrality falls over because there's very often more demand, even at 1.5Mbps for a stream, than an airplane's link can provide.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#92

Here is how to get the equivalent data on a Delta flight. $ curl https://wifi.delta.com/api/flight-data | jq % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 448 100 448 0 0 5600 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 5743 { "timestamp": "2023-07-11T14:54:41Z", "eta": "17:48", "flightDuration": 278, "flightNumber": "DAL786", "latitude": 39.723472595214844, "longitude": -97…

It would be nice if you could send a POST request to open the door if you want some fresh air.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#93
post #18

I'm an Alaska (relatively) frequent flyer. That airline offers a free "messaging" plan, that lets you send and receive messages on apps like iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp. Though, it somehow prevents images/attachments from coming through on those platforms. I've always wondered how this is implemented technically, and if it might be possible to setup some kind of protocol/wrapper to send data that looks…

Hi fellow Alaska frequent flier. So about that! There's this iOS app called Flightly that does a brilliant little hack where the app updates itself in (almost) real time on the "free messaging" plan. The way it works (according to a friend) is that their servers send your phone a push notification every couple of minutes from take-off until landing, containing some serialized info such as lat,long,alt,eta,etc. And th…

I’ve always wondered why I get slack and email notifications when I’m on a Southwest flight with free messaging without paying for wifi. You’ve finally solved my mystery!

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clarification: a knot is one nautical mile per hour.

Isn't it 1.15mph? https://www.metric-conversions.org/speed/knots-to-miles-per-...

Yes for statute miles, but it is also one nautical mile per hour

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#95
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US (I believe) Net Neutrality basically died. Even before that, it was allowed to zero-rate categories of apps (like messaging). That might be coming back now that the FCC has 5 commissioners again and can reinstate Net Neutrality. However, even with reasonably strict neutrality, this is still possible. Many mobile carriers zero-rated streaming services here, but unlike your operators they'd do it for any stre…

This is the situation where net neutrality falls over because there's very often more demand, even at 1.5Mbps for a stream, than an airplane's link can provide.

Airlines, coffee shops and similar entities providing Internet as an ancillary service were not subject to these rules when they were in effect.

The rules primarily target ISPs selling directly to customers.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#97

Here is how to get the equivalent data on a Delta flight. $ curl https://wifi.delta.com/api/flight-data | jq % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 448 100 448 0 0 5600 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 5743 { "timestamp": "2023-07-11T14:54:41Z", "eta": "17:48", "flightDuration": 278, "flightNumber": "DAL786", "latitude": 39.723472595214844, "longitude": -97…

It would be nice if you could send a POST request to open the door if you want some fresh air.

I tried to change the flight level by PATCHing altitude, but it seemed to require authentication. Oh well.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#98
I've done something similar on trains in the UK before, specifically LNER (was Virgin Trains East Coast at the time but don't think the Wi-Fi solution has changed) trains. The icomera captive portal has an endpoint which returns the GPS coordinates of the train along with the speed. And some other endpoints for next stops etc.

Once made a little React app that showed the train on a Leaflet map. Was a good waste of a few hours.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#99
post #18

I'm an Alaska (relatively) frequent flyer. That airline offers a free "messaging" plan, that lets you send and receive messages on apps like iMessage, Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp. Though, it somehow prevents images/attachments from coming through on those platforms. I've always wondered how this is implemented technically, and if it might be possible to setup some kind of protocol/wrapper to send data that looks…

Hi fellow Alaska frequent flier. So about that! There's this iOS app called Flightly that does a brilliant little hack where the app updates itself in (almost) real time on the "free messaging" plan. The way it works (according to a friend) is that their servers send your phone a push notification every couple of minutes from take-off until landing, containing some serialized info such as lat,long,alt,eta,etc. And th…

I had an idea to use Facebook messanger as a proxy. Specifically to use the cheap messaging plan on a cruise ship for real internet access. My home computer would be a gateway that monitors fb and fetches/returns websites. I never even tried because it just sounds like a violation of multiple ToSes. Not to mention message size limitations, throttling, my fb messages being pages of encoded text, etc.

I feel like it would need to work like Opera mini to maybe be usable. Even then interactions would be uncomfortably slow.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Mini

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice if you could send a POST request to open the door if you want some fresh air.

I tried to change the flight level by PATCHing altitude, but it seemed to require authentication. Oh well.

This sounds like a good way to meet some upset people with expensive sunglasses shortly after you land.
Post reply on HN