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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

#541

Post by fer »

schoen wrote: post #57
fer wrote: post #42

I belive this is OPs flight if anyone wants to compare plane data with ADS-B one. https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA2340/history/2023...

Conceivably, the ADS-B data source might be the same as the data source for this API, at least in that they might be calculated from the same instruments and flight systems.

Potentially, but altitude and speed data on ADS-B are constrained to just 11 bits (+ 1 bit dedicated to the resolution: 25 vs 100-feet increments).

So while I believe the data source is the same, one can see quantization artifacts when comparing both signals.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#542

Post by cromka »

kawfey wrote: post #479
zikduruqe wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to do that also. Way before cellphones, I'd bring my 2m radio on the plane and make contacts on simplex. That was fun to throw your callsign out and say "aeronautical mobile".

I still sneak in an HT to listen to VHF/UHF ham radio and airband. One flight, we were experiencing moderate turbulence and didn't get our drinks/snacks. The captain announced "we're asking for clearance to help us get to a smoother altitude..." meanwhile did nothing of the sort on the actual radio. Lol.

They use text for communication, too.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#543

Post by bayindirh »

chankstein38 wrote: post #312
kxrm wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago I was on a Southwest flight and had OpenVPN running because I forgot to turn it off. I was able to access the Internet through my tunnel without paying for access. I guess at the time they were only port blocking common ports (80, 443, 53 etc) if you didn't pay. They have since closed that hole.

For this same reason you used to be able to send messages via platforms like whatsapp without internet as well! I don't remember the airline I just remember I hadn't paid for internet but I could message and do a few other things but I couldn't browse the internet.

If it's Turksih Airlines, they also provide unlimited messaging on board, free of charge.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#544

Post by mjpa86 »

KolmogorovComp wrote: post #35
jamesbvaughan wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good catch! I'm not very familiar with knots - what specifically makes the speeds here look like knots to you? edit: Updated the article. Thanks!

Airline planes never use mph but only knots.

Was on a UK flight last week, was told speed in mph. Pilots etc might use knots but if the data is for passengers, mph is more likely

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#545

Post by withinboredom »

cereal_cable wrote: post #524
withinboredom wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If STP[1] is enabled, but that is unlikely since you'd have dropped connections when roaming for the reasons you just gave. Most likely, STP is not enabled on these networks. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanning_Tree_Protocol

A switched port learns the Mac address for packets sent into it. If port 1 sends a packet with Mac a, the switch associates that address (a) to port 1. When another node sends a packet onto another port with the same mac, say on port 2, the switch will move the learned address a to port 2 and remove it from port 1. When a switch has learned a mac address all traffic destined to that traffic would be immediately switc…

Except that this is a normal thing on wireless networks. A station may roam many times within a few minutes, and due to reflections, may even be in more than one place at a time.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#546

Post by LtWorf »

pak9rabid wrote: post #285
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…

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&…

Normally ping is disabled on those networks?

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#547

Post by temp365984365 »

mulmen wrote: post #298
hackmiester wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, a train has airspeed. :)

Heh, true. I deliberately left out altitude because this is HN but you caught me anyway. Presumably a train's groundSpeed and airSpeed are the same. If they diverge you have bigger problems than a JSON schema. Is there a variant of this for ships? surfaceSpeed vs seaFloorSpeed?

Well, ships have apparent wind vs real wind and apparent course vs real course (currents and drift are a thing).

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#548

Post by ale42 »

cromka wrote: post #537
furyg3 wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Tried this on a flight 4 years ago -- I got to SSH into a machine and read my mails, it felt like I was connecting from a space ship... so funny but not actually usable to browse the web or do any actual work ;-)

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#549

Post by noduerme »

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…

Wait, they like, opened up a private local IP on every plane for some guy who paid for a certain dedicated one?!

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#550

Post by ahoka »

angry_octet wrote: post #382
ahoka wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if it’s unencrypted, of course. Rarely the case nowadays.

Your computer will still receive the packets from the radio layer, it just won't have the right key to decode the other recipient's traffic.

Of course if you don’t sit in a Faraday cage you can receive any electromagnetic waves around you. But you can’t actually receive other users IP packages.
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