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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

#631

Post by upwardbound »

nucleardog wrote: post #466
inopinatus wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the article above, in-flight wifi has an API reporting position, altitude, and velocity. That is a feed from avionics, which renders the claim of airgapped systems essentially null.

They could, for the sake of a ridiculous but clear example, have a display hooked up to the avionics and a camera hooked up to a separate computer which reads the values. There are various ways of connecting systems while physically guaranteeing one way data flow—a fiber optic link with the transmitter removed from one end and the receiver removed from the other is basically a less silly “camera pointed at a display”…

+1. Instead of saying "airgap" a term I've seen for what you're describing is "data diode".

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#632

Post by acwan93 »

benced wrote: post #522
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…

I believe this is the approach that Flighty ( https://flightyapp.com/ ) uses to send flight updates while on non-paid Wifi.

Flighty leverages the Apple Push Notification Service (APN), which the iMessage infrastructure also uses. It's why you can receive notifications in flight but can't act on them.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#633

Post by [deleted] »

gorlilla wrote: post #586
stereo wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would theoretically be possible to bounce clients which you know are already authorised on the paid network.

QR code to connect to the _open_ but _hidden_ SSID. Instructs user to join WPA-EAP with supplied credentials once they've paid. Remains available to connect via QR in case customer somehow misplaced creds but avoids auto-reconnect during scan.

[deleted]

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#634

Post by sprokolopolis »

barrkel wrote: post #557
sprokolopolis wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to do this on airplanes and in hotels. I had more success in hotels, because there was less chance the other person was using it at the time and less chance of getting kicked off. There was another little hack that I used as a little kid. Remember when airlines would sell or rent special headphones to watch inflight movies? The port was just two holes beside each other and the plug was two tubes. Before a flig…

How long ago was this? 20 years ago, all I saw were dual mono bayonet jacks you'd need an adapter for to plug in normal headphones, but straws would get you nowhere. I was curious so I searched: https://simpleflying.com/inflight-entertainment-headphones-e... - pneumatic headphones from the 1960s were used on Delta as late as 2003, but electronic headsets debuted on 767 in 1982. Apparently the dual mono jacks are to d…

It was when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s. Yeah they were on old planes that were just still in use.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#635

Post by inoffensivename »

tim333 wrote: post #596
phkahler wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Autopilots are very good and they are servoing to the pressure altitude. It would have been cool to use a phone to record a GPS track with altitude and compare them. Pressure != GPS. Also wonder if there would be distinct jumps in the difference if they reset the pressure based altimeter to a different AWOS. Not sure how it works in big planes, but in little ones you need to set your altimeter based on the local w…

At high altitude you do this stuff "When you set your altimeter to 29.92, you're flying at standard pressure altitude." The idea is all the planes use the same setting so the one at FL35 doesn't hit the one at FL36. But those are not exactly 35000 and 36000 feet above sea level.

nitpicking: that would be FL350 and FL360

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#636

Post by foxhill »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #296
hackmiester wrote: post #97

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.

let me guess, you experience “random selection” events more than the expected amount?

apologies for joking. it must suck.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#637

Post by zaroth »

yebyen wrote: post #624
herpderperator wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"everything works fine" might be overstating a bit, but what happens to packets you weren't expecting when you don't have a connection open for them to go into? They probably get ignored by the network stack. Worst case scenario, the router/service endpoint sees your connection responses and the other party's strange NACK responses, but I honestly don't know enough about how it works to say "everything works fine" I'…

I imagine this can only possibly work with unencrypted WiFi.

Still boggles my mind that WiFi clients don't establish an encryption key with the AP and encrypted their traffic even without a shared secret. Yes, that means you can't authenticate the AP, but it would still protect against passive snooping.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#638

Post by wannacboatmovie »

hk1337 wrote: post #179
c7DJTLrn wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice if you could send a POST request to open the door if you want some fresh air.

Someone will probably figure out how to send a request to disable auto-pilot or turn off the fasten seat belt sign.

Is this the thread where the web developers speculate wildly without facts or evidence and pretend to know more about airplanes than the aerospace engineers who built it?

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#639

Post by hunter2_ »

Sophira wrote: post #608
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…

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…

Neat!
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