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Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

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Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#191

Post by userbinator »

andy99 wrote: post #134
mcshicks wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the name refers to the limits some airlines have. JAL for instance offers one hour free on some flights.

I was trying to understand how this could be used for flights. I've seen either having to enter your last name and seat, or loyalty plan number to get in-flight wifi. Are there really airline wifis that give every mac address a free amount of time? A lot of airlines now offer free "messaging" - usually just text on common messaging apps like WhatsApp. I've been meaning for years to write some kind of server that coul…

I've been meaning for years to write some kind of server that could give me useful functionality over chat messages.

Already done:

WhatsApp: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33568994

Facebook Messenger: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9203946

SMS(!): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8304409

Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#193

Post by greyface- »

classichasclass wrote: post #3

Alternatively, if you don't want to run the whole Electron app, the money is this line: sudo.exec("/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport en0 -z && ifconfig en0 ether `openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'`",

This will generate a multicast MAC 50% of the time, which will usually work, but can theoretically cause problems if there's a multicast-aware Ethernet bridge in your path. Ideally, the LSB of the first octet should be fixed to 0 to indicate a unicast address.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address#Unicast_vs._multic...

Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#194

Post by superb_dev »

leptons wrote: post #151
BobbyTables2 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

47MB is about 3x the space once required by a widely used commercial graphical operating system. It was even enough to also include Microsoft Word with plenty of space left. How far we’ve fallen.

You're living in the past. Hard drives are now up to 36TB. Hard drives are always getting bigger. 47MB isn't worth worrying about, at all.

Yup and those 36TB are cheap and common! Right?

Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#195

Post by neilv »

This kind of thing can be a useful tool, including for privacy&security use cases that the page doesn't mention.

But be conscious and thoughtful when using it. Some terms to consider whether they apply to a particular use include "unauthorized access", "circumvention", and "theft of service".

Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#196

Post by varenc »

mannyv wrote: post #27

If you really want to screw with these set your MAC address to 00:00:00:00:00:00 It’s an illegal address, but most equipment will take it because test devices occasionally come from the factory with that MAC. But higher level stuff might barf on it because it’s technically illegal.

alas, macOS refuses:

     $ sudo ifconfig en0 ether 00:00:00:00:00:01
    ifconfig: ioctl (SIOCAIFADDR): Can't assign requested address
edit: but this worked on my external NIC! Network wasn't happy though and DHCP didn't work. Ubiquiti had a funny note about this MAC: "Officially Xerox, but 0:0:0:0:0:0 is more common"

Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#197

Post by BestHackerOnHN »

aeonik wrote: post #46
paxys wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

200 bytes for the business logic. 47MB for the UI & boilerplate around the business logic. I get that this may be the easiest way to develop and publish an application today, but it's sad that this is the direction we have taken in recent years.

Modern app bloat in one analogy: Business logic size: ~20 bytes Total app size: ~47 MB = 47,000,000 bytes Bloat factor: 47,000,000 / 20 = 2,350,000 Let’s scale this up and say the business logic is 1 pound. Then the whole app would weigh: 1 lb × 2,350,000 = 2,350,000 pounds What weighs ~2.35 million pounds? - A fully loaded Boeing 747-8: ~987,000 lbs - Another fully loaded 747-8: ~987,000 lbs - A blue whale: ~330,000…

OMG you win HackerNews today with this comment! Super HackerNews!!!

Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#198

Post by vachina »

xrisk wrote: post #94
vachina wrote: post #76

I used to strap 20 virtual eths to my Linux box because my dorm gave only like 512kbps per account, and then aggregated the 20 interfaces.

How was the auth done? And for that matter what logic did the traffic shaping use?

Auth is username/password over captive portal. You could pay for more bandwidth. The system was so pwned I ended up giving myself unlimited bandwidth.

Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#199

Post by mlhpdx »

leptons wrote: post #151
BobbyTables2 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

47MB is about 3x the space once required by a widely used commercial graphical operating system. It was even enough to also include Microsoft Word with plenty of space left. How far we’ve fallen.

You're living in the past. Hard drives are now up to 36TB. Hard drives are always getting bigger. 47MB isn't worth worrying about, at all.

This is such a weird rationalization. You’d sell a kidney to be a 10x developer but making an app 1000000x smaller isn’t worth a thought? Maybe that’s why the former hasn’t happened.

Re: Airpass – Easily overcome WiFi time limits

#200

Post by numpad0 »

anon7000 wrote: post #75
aeonik wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern app bloat in one analogy: Business logic size: ~20 bytes Total app size: ~47 MB = 47,000,000 bytes Bloat factor: 47,000,000 / 20 = 2,350,000 Let’s scale this up and say the business logic is 1 pound. Then the whole app would weigh: 1 lb × 2,350,000 = 2,350,000 pounds What weighs ~2.35 million pounds? - A fully loaded Boeing 747-8: ~987,000 lbs - Another fully loaded 747-8: ~987,000 lbs - A blue whale: ~330,000…

Well, if you COULD ship something across the world on a private 747 with extra features to protect your cargo, and it has nearly no environmental downside and has no meaningful downside vs a smaller airplane… you’d probably do it! There’s no incentive in software to get a smaller, more efficient plane, and plenty of incentive to use the big thing for free that has all the extra features

This has to be Soviet Shoe Factory Principle in action, not just ignored negative externalities. Everyone relies on shipping more code for their employment, rather than more values, which incentivizes that behavior.

1: https://wiki.c2.com/?SovietShoeFactoryPrinciple

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