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WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

jamesbvaughan.com

391–400 of 675 posts

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FAs can be really strange about that kind of stuff, not just out of ignorance. My kid liked to suction cup his GoPro to the window to take a time lapse movie of the flight and one FA told him he had to take it off the window because he was, and I quote: "modifying the structure of the aircraft and that's not FAA-approved".

There has been a lot of debate in the aviation maintenance community regarding the legality of attaching gopros etc. to aircraft with suction cups. Someone eventually wrote to the FAA chief counsel and asked. "Another consideration, in the case of this type of equipment, is the applicability of the term "alteration". FAA Order 8110.3 7E, defines an alteration as "a modification of an aircraft from one sound state to…

> installation of external mounts

That memo is about attaching it externally. Attaching it to an internal window is probably a non-issue.

I once had a security agent ask me to prove a GoPro was a camera because they didn't understand how there could be no screen or viewfinder. It was most frustrating because this was an area where they would have encountered it many times (lots of scuba divers).

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#392
post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the "how" is that we just never got the regulation that would prevent it because the 'small-government and low taxes' are aligned perfectly with the large business interests which tend to fund all campaigns. The "low taxes" types want to maximize the sting of all forms of tax and this is a great way to do that. And the businesses appreciate the psychological benefits of being able to show the minimum possib…

> we probably just buy things more when they're labeled as "$99.99" instead of "$109.99." That's basic price elasticity of demand and entirely unsurprising. When something costs 10% more, people buy less of it in general. We also buy more things priced at $99.99 than at $100.00, which is more of the psychological trick than it is rational price elasticity.

The 2 largest retailers on earth have discovered that the x.99 prices make you less money than pricing at x.99 plus some arbitrary number between .99 and .01.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol, I used to do this all the time at non-free wifi hotspot locations, only I'd start off with a ping sweep of the entire subnet (nmap -sP) in order to get my ARP cache filled with a bunch of potential usable IP/mac addresses on the network. From there, I'd iterate through each one and set the IP & mac address until I found one that would let me through the firewall. Granted, being a NOC engineer at Wayport (now AT&…

Yes the key to doing this more seamlessly is to spoof both the IP and the MAC so your machines are not constantly fighting with the other person over the ARP table entry.

Aren't you then fighting the switch's port learning? Or RSTing each other's TCP connections?

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#394

The speed unit looks more like knots than mph.

I don't think so. When you use the portal, it displays speed in MPH -- I highly doubt there's some knots->mph converter in the frontend code.

I have been on (international?) flights where the in-flight display gave me a choice. It may still be done on the backend but doing that kind of conversion in the UI is at least arguable.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Net neutrality is the law in California, but T-Mobile says Binge On is ok because any video streaming service can participate for free. It sounds reasonable to me and apparently the California regulators are fine with it.

I'm fine with it, but that also clearly violates net neutrality, so it doesn't seem to be the law here.

Here's the California law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Internet_Consumer_P.... T-Mobile Binge On is zero-rating. T-Mobile's claim is that they aren't getting paid for it, and that any video provider can participate, so they aren't only zero-rating "some content in a category". It sounds like that second part isn't true, so they are probably violating the law but nobody is being harmed so nobody has sued.

I agree that allowing any form of zero-rating is not full net neutrality because it isn't treating all packets the same, but I don't think it's fair to say that therefore there is no net neutrality in California. It's a very strong and effective law and gets like 95% of the way to full "dumb pipe" net neutrality.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Maybe you can take risks like that, but I certainly can’t. I don’t think anyone with my name or skin color would be given the benefit of the doubt for even a moment.

Your comment made my day. Eye opening

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#398

When my son was younger - maybe 9 or 10 or so, we were on a plane and he was using his phone and I looked over his shoulder and realized he was on the internet... but I hadn't paid for an internet plan. I said, "son, how are you using the internet?" He said, "oh, a kid at school showed me - if you go here" (he opened up the wifi settings where the DHCP assigned IP address is) "and start changing the numbers, eventual…

lol, I used to do this all the time at non-free wifi hotspot locations, only I'd start off with a ping sweep of the entire subnet (nmap -sP) in order to get my ARP cache filled with a bunch of potential usable IP/mac addresses on the network. From there, I'd iterate through each one and set the IP & mac address until I found one that would let me through the firewall. Granted, being a NOC engineer at Wayport (now AT&…

Recommended any blog posts?

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should probably know the answer, but what happens when two devices have the same MAC address?

That greatly depends on whether the medium is broadcast (like a radio) or broadcast-like (a shared copper wire) and if it has CSMA/CD logic. Many of the replies are losing that detail and thinking of how it would effect a 1000base-T network, which maps MAC addresses to specific ports. For a broadcast network, the answer could be 'nothing' in the sense that both receivers would get the same traffic. The IP stack would…

Can't this often result in the two machines RSTing each others' TCP connections, depending on firewall settings?

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#400

When my son was younger - maybe 9 or 10 or so, we were on a plane and he was using his phone and I looked over his shoulder and realized he was on the internet... but I hadn't paid for an internet plan. I said, "son, how are you using the internet?" He said, "oh, a kid at school showed me - if you go here" (he opened up the wifi settings where the DHCP assigned IP address is) "and start changing the numbers, eventual…

And probably 2 more simple steps to the credit card number of that paying customer.
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