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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

#361

Post by pests »

MostlyStable wrote: post #341
josu wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just use the hotspot on your phone?

I believe that you can't both simultaneously provide wifi hotspot and use wifi internet (at least, I couldn't on a phone several years ago last time I tried it). I think you can only do that if the network the phone is using is accessed via the cellular modem.

That used to be the case but it has changed now. Probably depends on the phone broadband chipset used.

These days you can passthru your WiFi or even a wired connection (via USB to a connected PC or a Ethernet-to-USB adapter) via a Hotspot.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#362

Post by ikjasdlk2234 »

MostlyStable wrote: post #341
josu wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just use the hotspot on your phone?

I believe that you can't both simultaneously provide wifi hotspot and use wifi internet (at least, I couldn't on a phone several years ago last time I tried it). I think you can only do that if the network the phone is using is accessed via the cellular modem.

You can on Android, and have for some time IIRC. This is how I get free wifi on my computer by passing it through my T-Mobile phone.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#363

Post by mike_d »

munro wrote: post #320

I've always wanted to bring a lil router like a GL.iNet, pay for internet, then share it free for everyone on the plane hehe

I used to do this on long flights, but most in flight providers have stopped trying to identify and shape specific protocols and now limit bandwidth purely by client. If you get a few people on all at once it thinks you are streaming video and throttles you.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#364

Post by hot_gril »

burkaman wrote: post #270
hot_gril wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is net neutrality even law anymore? T-Mobile has had Binge on for a long time, which zero-rates certain video streaming services. And part of that was even under the old net neutrality laws.

Net neutrality is the law in California, but T-Mobile says Binge On is ok because any video streaming service can participate for free. It sounds reasonable to me and apparently the California regulators are fine with it.

I'm fine with it, but that also clearly violates net neutrality, so it doesn't seem to be the law here.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#365

Post by dheera »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #173
dheera wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tomorrow it'll be 8 bucks to drink water, 8 bucks to use the bathroom, ... Yeah, you can argue internet isn't a necessity. Neither is the bathroom, you can use a poo bag and a diaper. But we're a civilized society. So we provide bathrooms to anyone that needs them. And internet access.

This seems like a poor slippery slope argument. It’s not as if charging for internet is new, it’s been what? 20 years? And yet they still don’t charge for water

Checked bags, carry-on bags, and meals used to be free, and they are all now not free.

There are budget airlines outside the US that are charging for water (which I think is unethical IMO, since people avoiding drinking water could lead to an increase in medical emergencies).

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#366

Post by buildsjets »

joezydeco wrote: post #236
geostupid wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! I've used a high-end GPS to see my location and other fun facts in flight. I learned to keep it in my pocket as despite my attempts to explain it was only a receiver, I was told by the flight attendant to "PUT IT AWAY." Not being one to push back as to be removed for that flight, I did just that. Streets and Trips was fun on a laptop for long car drives as you could live reroute in the car much like any old app c…

FAs can be really strange about that kind of stuff, not just out of ignorance. My kid liked to suction cup his GoPro to the window to take a time lapse movie of the flight and one FA told him he had to take it off the window because he was, and I quote: "modifying the structure of the aircraft and that's not FAA-approved".

There has been a lot of debate in the aviation maintenance community regarding the legality of attaching gopros etc. to aircraft with suction cups. Someone eventually wrote to the FAA chief counsel and asked.

"Another consideration, in the case of this type of equipment, is the applicability of the term "alteration". FAA Order 8110.3 7E, defines an alteration as "a modification of an aircraft from one sound state to another sound state". The use of suction cups, or other temporary methods of attachment (not including permanent mechanical attachments to the aircraft), would not be considered a modification to the aircraft."

https://mypilotpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FAA-Camera...

But still, the aircraft is the the airline's property, not yours. If they tell you not do something to it, you don't get a choice in the matter.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#367

Post by cxcorp »

lxgr wrote: post #295
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…

That's an amazing anecdote! The state of "open Wi-Fi" security is actually really sad. I'm not aware of an easy way for the airline to actually do better than this! I suppose they could use Opportunistic Wireless Encryption [1] and bind session authentication to that (i.e. authenticate a given OWE session, not a given MAC address) if the device supports it, as at least modern Apple devices do? But I have no idea how…

What if the captive portal just had a link (or on an IFE screen, a QR code) that connected your phone to a different, WPA2/WPA3 protected, hidden WiFi SSID that was generated exclusively for you? Phones nowadays support joining a passphrase protected WiFi AP via a QR code, so I'd imagine that's doable. The hard part would be finding routers that support >300 different hidden SSIDs, but honestly I would hope that that is technically feasible nowadays.

That way you'd at least have the protection of the WPA GTK.

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#368

Post by [deleted] »

mulmen wrote: post #310
jandrese wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure. The same data packet claims that the flight has 2h 25m of flight time left to cover 1167 miles. That works out to 483 mph, which is pretty close to the stated 487 and might be explained by some padding added to the time to account for taxiing. Unless that 1167 figure is in a different unit it doesn't even come close to working out at 487 knots ground speed.

Coming at this another way: The blog says the destination was Oakland. The Oakland International Airport is at 37°43′17″N 122°13′15″W. The data packet also contains the current lat and long of the flight as 40.201 and -100.755 respectively. Plugging that in to a distance calculator [2] gives 1163 miles, 1010.6 nautical miles, or 1871.6km. So the distance value of 1167 appears to be miles. At 487mph covering 1163 mile…

[deleted]

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#369

Post by denvaar »

hackmiester wrote: post #87

Here is how to get the equivalent data on a Delta flight. $ curl https://wifi.delta.com/api/flight-data | jq % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 448 100 448 0 0 5600 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 5743 { "timestamp": "2023-07-11T14:54:41Z", "eta": "17:48", "flightDuration": 278, "flightNumber": "DAL786", "latitude": 39.723472595214844, "longitude": -97…

What makes it so that you can only resolve the host wifi.delta.com during a flight?

Re: WiFi without internet on a Southwest flight

#370

Post by brewdad »

lukas099 wrote: post #308
pantalaimon wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never been at a hotel that charged for WiFi - is that a US thing?

It's not unheard of but it's probably been a decade since I've been to one personally. Some have free WiFi just for guests (probably good since the bandwidth is so saturated already).

The last couple of hotels I stayed in had free "basic" wifi for guests. Elite status could get higher speeds for free or anyone else could pay something like $10/day/device to get higher speeds.

I just switched to my cell phone data if the wifi was too slow.

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