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WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

jamesbvaughan.com

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Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#531

Post by cromka »

josh_carterPDX wrote: post #305
commandlinefan wrote: post #205

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…

There used to be an app that would scan the ip and mac addresses on the network that were already connected to the internet. You could then change your settings to one of the mac addresses and when they were done you'd get the connection to yourself. I used to travel a lot for work and just refused to pay for WiFi. This was good in airports and coffeeshops when you still had to pay to connect. Now it's hardly needed,…

It’s not an app, per se, but a concept of setting your WiFi card into monitor mode and listening to the radio traffic. Kismet is one of the suites that does that.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#532

Post by cromka »

grishka wrote: post #514
hunter2_ wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that newer phones (Pixel at least) can use WiFi (client mode) as the WAN/uplink side of its hotspot stack (NAT, AP, etc.) is pretty neat. Not long ago, only the cell modem could serve in that capacity, as far as I'm aware. Frankly I'm surprised a single WLAN radio can pull that off. I pay the $8 on my phone and share it to my laptop and whatever devices my travel companion(s) might have. Most laptops can't d…

> Frankly I'm surprised a single WLAN radio can pull that off. Maybe at the cost of latency because it has to switch channels back and forth? > Most laptops can't do this, right? Any laptop can do this if you plug a USB WiFi dongle into it :P

It doesn’t have to switch channels, it will create another station using same channel.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#533

Post by furyg3 »

SirMaster wrote: post #24

I 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…

Way back in the day a lot of authenticated wifi firewalls did enable DNS requests to pass through, or at least to resolve using their DNS server, without being authenticated.

Someone smart created a TCP-over-DNS tunneling tool that I had a lot of great experience with, at least for more simple news websites of the day.

https://analogbit.com/software/tcp-over-dns/

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#534

Post by avidiax »

grishka wrote: post #514
hunter2_ wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that newer phones (Pixel at least) can use WiFi (client mode) as the WAN/uplink side of its hotspot stack (NAT, AP, etc.) is pretty neat. Not long ago, only the cell modem could serve in that capacity, as far as I'm aware. Frankly I'm surprised a single WLAN radio can pull that off. I pay the $8 on my phone and share it to my laptop and whatever devices my travel companion(s) might have. Most laptops can't d…

> Frankly I'm surprised a single WLAN radio can pull that off. Maybe at the cost of latency because it has to switch channels back and forth? > Most laptops can't do this, right? Any laptop can do this if you plug a USB WiFi dongle into it :P

> Maybe at the cost of latency because it has to switch channels back and forth?

Not necessarily. It can be a client on 2.4Ghz and an access point on 5Ghz. Even without that, if it has MIMO, then one of the antennas can be receiving 2.4Ghz while the other is sending (at least in theory, if the crosstalk between the antennas is low and the selectivity of the receiver is sufficient).

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#535

Post by cromka »

commandlinefan wrote: post #205

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…

There’s a way to workaround virtually any kind of gated Internet access: DNS tunneling (https://github.com/yarrick/iodine)

It’s slow, but it works and is a handy “last resort” tool.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#536

Post by SileNce5k »

KMnO4 wrote: post #214
commandlinefan wrote: post #205

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…

I used to do the same thing at hotels. Still often works. nmap -sn 192.168.0.1-255 To find everyone on the network, then start spoofing each of their MACs until you find one that works

This is what I used to do at home when my dad would turn off my internet access (by whitelisting MAC-addresses. Before that he blacklisted MAC-addresses, but I just used the built in way to change it with each connection on windows until he found out.). My mom rarely used her PC so I would just change my address to hers. It worked until she had to use it and at that point none of us could access the internet.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#537

Post by cromka »

furyg3 wrote: post #533
SirMaster wrote: post #24

I 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…

Way back in the day a lot of authenticated wifi firewalls did enable DNS requests to pass through, or at least to resolve using their DNS server, without being authenticated. Someone smart created a TCP-over-DNS tunneling tool that I had a lot of great experience with, at least for more simple news websites of the day. https://analogbit.com/software/tcp-over-dns/

A more current alternative: https://github.com/yarrick/iodine

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#538

Post by cromka »

ip26 wrote: post #478
SirMaster wrote: post #24

I 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…

Instead of “wow, cool” my first reaction is “free messaging is a great perk, if this is abused they will shut it down” . I guess my hacker days are behind me.

Airlines already introduce free WiFi to everyone for free. JetBlue does it, Delta also does it for continental flights. Eventually all will, as there is more competition in the tech and prices drop.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#540

Post by cromka »

kkyr wrote: post #443
kristopolous wrote: post #231

On redeye international flights with exorbitant WiFi fees I'll admit to scanning for MAC addresses, get the top talkers, then come back later when ones been idle for like 15 minutes, presuming the person is asleep and change my mac to take the address and get online. I just did it for fun, ok fine.

How do you determine who the top talkers are?

By setting the WiFi card into monitor mode, and using by e.g. Kismet for data collection.
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