This is just the raw data from the in-flight GUI. Is that it? What am I missing?
Nothing, I believe this gets the upvotes simply because it is fun.
WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
431–440 of 675 posts
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#432“According to this data, the plane’s altitude was only fluctuating by about 20-30 feet. This is more stable than I expected!” Autopilots are very good and they are servoing to the pressure altitude. Many pressure altitude encoders used in modern aircraft (for example to drive altitudes that transponders report to SSR radar or via ADS-B) have 25 ft encoding resolution. That 25ft resolution is likely what is being seen…
I have read somewhere that so much precision could actually be dangerous in some circumstances.
This is because this way, if a pilot goes 3000 ft for instance, it will be exactly 3000 ft, if another pilot also wants to go 3000 ft on a collision trajectory, it will be a guaranteed collision. When altitudes are not that accurate, there is a higher chance it being just a near miss. The solution, I think, was to simply avoid round numbers. So now, it is 2950 ft, 3050 ft,...
I may have the details wrong, but I am quite sure about that problem being seriously considered.
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#433Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an amazing anecdote! The state of "open Wi-Fi" security is actually really sad. I'm not aware of an easy way for the airline to actually do better than this! I suppose they could use Opportunistic Wireless Encryption [1] and bind session authentication to that (i.e. authenticate a given OWE session, not a given MAC address) if the device supports it, as at least modern Apple devices do? But I have no idea how…
What if the captive portal just had a link (or on an IFE screen, a QR code) that connected your phone to a different, WPA2/WPA3 protected, hidden WiFi SSID that was generated exclusively for you? Phones nowadays support joining a passphrase protected WiFi AP via a QR code, so I'd imagine that's doable. The hard part would be finding routers that support >300 different hidden SSIDs, but honestly I would hope that that…
This. And even if the >300 is not available, how many people actually buy Wi-Fi on the plane? That is the number of clients that need to be supported. And if that's still a problem (or you don't want to guess), the SSID can be hidden and static and the only thing non-static is the password that works for just the duration of the flight you are on.
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#434I want to see someone build a proxy that uses the free iMessage or WhatsApp allowed connection to send arbitrary data. Like have a WhatsApp relay set up at home that you are sending messages to and from, from the plane. Like at a most basic level, send a message of a URL to your home WhatsApp which loads the web page there, and sends the HTML back as a WhatApp message reply so you can render it etc. Wonder what someo…
I happened to have had a flight a day or two after the first beta of Apple’s Private Relay a year or two ago. I was able to use free WiFi the entire flight. Presumably because whatever they whitelisted for iMessage and/or push notifications covered that as well. They had blocked it before my return flight days later. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
Give me one example, then. Of an app which uses a notification as an actual app data source and not just as a notification which opens the app. And which also updates the primary app view to reflect this new information. No other app has updated its app state based on the content of notifications. Slack/Discord/Teams et al (the ones that aren't allowed on free messaging plans) will show you previously cached messages…
Podcast players like Overcast use push notifications to learn about new episodes of podcasts that should be downloaded in the background. Presumably text-based RSS readers do the same.
Where are the push notifications originating from? Does Overcast have a cloud service that polls the RSS feeds and then sends the notification? I use AntennaPod on Android, and it definitely doesn't do anything like that -- the feed list is stored locally, and the feeds are polled locally.
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#436I remember when buying wifi on a plane was sooooo forbidden by my parents. Now i literally buy wifi on every flight lol
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#437Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems like a poor slippery slope argument. It’s not as if charging for internet is new, it’s been what? 20 years? And yet they still don’t charge for water
Is that an American thing? Absolutely paying for the water here.
And public restrooms seem to be paywalled everywhere in continental Europe too -- not sure about the airlines, since I usually fly US carriers, but every restaurant or shopping mall I visited in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands required a euro or so to enter the toilet. I've never seen a pay toilet anywhere in the US.
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an amazing anecdote! The state of "open Wi-Fi" security is actually really sad. I'm not aware of an easy way for the airline to actually do better than this! I suppose they could use Opportunistic Wireless Encryption [1] and bind session authentication to that (i.e. authenticate a given OWE session, not a given MAC address) if the device supports it, as at least modern Apple devices do? But I have no idea how…
What if the captive portal just had a link (or on an IFE screen, a QR code) that connected your phone to a different, WPA2/WPA3 protected, hidden WiFi SSID that was generated exclusively for you? Phones nowadays support joining a passphrase protected WiFi AP via a QR code, so I'd imagine that's doable. The hard part would be finding routers that support >300 different hidden SSIDs, but honestly I would hope that that…
So you just take a photo of anyone's QR code? I'm not sure the hidden SSID achieves anything, that is presumably plaintext in the wi-fi transmission?
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#439When 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…
> I had to tell him not to do that, but I was kind of proud of him for having the temerity to go for it.
You told him off for such a small thing? You were impressed but didn’t give encouragement? You are a horrible parent.
Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight
#440When 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…
Your son is in good company.