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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

#601

Post by withinboredom »

colanderman wrote: post #589
withinboredom wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its wifi. You both just pick up the same frame when it is broadcast, then it sees two stations (a level below IP) with the same MAC. Most routers just don't care about that. (it's technically a valid edge case that two stations have the same mac address. It should be vanishingly rare in the wild ... but this is a practical example of why it isn't).

Yes so that is the hub case (2nd half of my comment) -- clients will RST each others' connections then. Unless you are MAC cloning but not IP cloning.

A computer doesn’t send a RST when it gets an unknown packet…

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#602

Post by grepfru_it »

gs17 wrote: post #46
grepfru_it wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's the panasonic inflight system, it receives flight data from the FMS. If the system does not receive flight data from the FMS then it will not be up to date. Your browser could also be retrieving old cached content. Basically there is nothing about this system to assure you, it's entirely a secondary data-delayed system that is not critical to flight operations and as such can be INOP at anytime and no one wil…

> Your browser could also be retrieving old cached content. No, these are flights I couldn't physically have been on. Sometimes it is old content, but it's for the flight the plane took previously and doesn't update. Here's an example of it happening to someone else: https://community.southwest.com/t5/Inflight-Experience/Fligh...

Also the FMS may not be programmed until right before the plane takes off. The flight plan is filed with ATC but not programmed into the plane yet and that is sometimes done during taxiing, esp if the pilot is an air cowboy/behind schedule.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#603

Post by grepfru_it »

flutas wrote: post #45
grepfru_it wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's the panasonic inflight system, it receives flight data from the FMS. If the system does not receive flight data from the FMS then it will not be up to date. Your browser could also be retrieving old cached content. Basically there is nothing about this system to assure you, it's entirely a secondary data-delayed system that is not critical to flight operations and as such can be INOP at anytime and no one wil…

I honestly miss having to debug the racks at pana. But there were so many "what" level bugs with the systems. I remember DRM breaking multiple times for the IFE because they assigned the same IP to multiple devices.

Worked on redboot, so i was probably the person you were cursing out

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#604

Post by samwhiteUK »

not2b wrote: post #148

But SouthWest will give you a much prettier display of that same data (track your flight, see the current altitude and ETA, and a lot more, like the plane's position on the map) without paying for their WiFi. My guess is that they are using the same data that article writer wrote a program to process. Essentially there is one site you can visit for free and that's where it is.

Thank you. That answers the question I had which was, "why does trying to get the portal page return a load of data about the plane?"

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#605

Post by [deleted] »

withinboredom wrote: post #409
colanderman wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Its wifi. You both just pick up the same frame when it is broadcast, then it sees two stations (a level below IP) with the same MAC. Most routers just don't care about that. (it's technically a valid edge case that two stations have the same mac address. It should be vanishingly rare in the wild ... but this is a practical example of why it isn't).

[deleted]

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#606

Post by herpderperator »

withinboredom wrote: post #409
colanderman wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Its wifi. You both just pick up the same frame when it is broadcast, then it sees two stations (a level below IP) with the same MAC. Most routers just don't care about that. (it's technically a valid edge case that two stations have the same mac address. It should be vanishingly rare in the wild ... but this is a practical example of why it isn't).

So if two wifi clients have the same MAC and IP, everything works fine for both of them?

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#607

Post by jonah »

extraduder_ire wrote: post #570
jonah wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have location permissions enabled in your camera app, the image's exif data will have the coordinates in it. (US Civilian GPS units are prohibited from working above 60,000 ft above sea level and 1,000 knots due to ITAR munitions export restrictions.)

I think the "and" in that sentence used to be implemented as an "or" in the days before everyone's phones had GPS in them. So you'd need to power cycle the device before it'd work again. Now most devices need to hit both limits at the same time before refusing to work.

Even now, it seems it may be up to interpretation. In searching for those numbers, I saw a post in a amateur high altitude balloon forum asking which modules were "or". (Presumably since it's a little more likely your balloon will exceed the altitude restriction and not the speed one.)

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#608

Post by Sophira »

hunter2_ wrote: post #509
ValentineC wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Panasonic's in-flight wifi specifically, a login would only work for one device at a time. Great time to have an Android device with hotspot handy. :)

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…

Windows has been able to do exactly this since Windows 7! It's called Wireless Hosted Network[0], and if you've ever seen the "Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter" (Windows 7) or "Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter" (Windows 10/11) in your list of network adapters (it may be hidden), it's there specifically to enable making a hotspot while being connected to a wireless network.

[0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/nativewifi/a...

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#609

Post by dekhn »

H8crilA wrote: post #529
system2 wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually connect to the cockpit directly with rj45 to keep it stable. Sometimes even talk to the pilot with the encrypted coms.

Talking to the pilots costs about $200 and is really easy, though very illegal - just find out which ATC freq are they currently on and transmit, from a handheld radio or a HackRF. You could also transmit on Guard. If you prefer to text rather than speak you can send them ACARS, with roughly the same hardware. Though if you use a handheld radio you'll also need a laptop to generate the baseband signal, as I don't thi…

I just listen (with an SDR, I never got a HackRF because I don't transmit). Where I live I can see planes on approach to SFO and can cross-reference flight codes on the radio with planes that I can see flying by and on flightradar.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#610

Post by hatware »

herpderperator wrote: post #606
withinboredom wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its wifi. You both just pick up the same frame when it is broadcast, then it sees two stations (a level below IP) with the same MAC. Most routers just don't care about that. (it's technically a valid edge case that two stations have the same mac address. It should be vanishingly rare in the wild ... but this is a practical example of why it isn't).

So if two wifi clients have the same MAC and IP, everything works fine for both of them?

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