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Save money on wifi using user agent switching

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Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#61

Post by bdunbar »

CWIZO wrote: post #12

I'm looking forward to the day when I stay in a 100$/night hotel and I don't have to pay for my fricking internet. Every motel/hostel has it for free as it should. To me charging for internet (in hotels/resturatns) in 2012 is the same as charging for using the shower or lights.

To me charging for internet (in hotels/resturatns) in 2012 is the same as charging for using the shower or lights.

You are being charged for the lights and the shower when you pay the bill. Or was that you're point and I missed it?

It will come, give it some time. Hotels (imho) charge one for the internet because it's a separate utility, the onsite staff are not capable of fixing it [1] when it breaks. Which happens a lot. So they outsource it.

When 'internet' is as common a utility as water and light, and as reliable, it will be in the bill, you'll never see it.

Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#63

Post by [deleted] »

wladimir wrote: post #9
davidchua wrote: post #2

Isn't this fraud and an open admission of guilty?

There is no law that you have to send any user agent at all, or indeed a valid one that matches your device/browser. It is just a hint for the server. Edit: and IMO, it's toxic to the hacker spirit to be too quick in condemning ideas as illegal or immoral

[deleted]

Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#64

Post by Gravityloss »

TylerE wrote: post #60
Gravityloss wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You are"? It's just a browser "identification". It's widely known to be approximate, random and unreliable. It's common to try different agents because the web is full of bad pages which try to use it for something inappropriate. That's why user agent switching is a feature in all these browsers in the first place. It's like disabling CSS. Is it fraud to use a battery charger or electrical plug with an adapter? Afte…

A restaurant offers a 25% discount to seniors (65+), but you're only 60. You copy your friend's AARP card, changing the name, and present the cloned card to receive the discount. Is this fraud?

Probably.

It's interesting to think when a hack becomes a fraud or stealing.

Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#65

Post by 13rules »

darklajid wrote: post #58
CWIZO wrote: post #12

I'm looking forward to the day when I stay in a 100$/night hotel and I don't have to pay for my fricking internet. Every motel/hostel has it for free as it should. To me charging for internet (in hotels/resturatns) in 2012 is the same as charging for using the shower or lights.

I run iodine[1] on my server. Maybe it's illegal, maybe it's a grey area - I don't care. Here in Israel free wifi access is the norm, but in DE? They charge an arm and a leg. Switzerland (if we're talking about Swisscom anyway)? They are _insane_. The hotels already rip you off with prices like there's no tomorrow and charge for internet on top. I fire up iodine on my client. If it works: Great. The network was obvio…

That is really cool — never even thought about the possibility of tunneling over DNS ... now I must try it!

Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#66

Post by rmc »

Gravityloss wrote: post #56
rmc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are implying you are something you are not.

"You are"? It's just a browser "identification". It's widely known to be approximate, random and unreliable. It's common to try different agents because the web is full of bad pages which try to use it for something inappropriate. That's why user agent switching is a feature in all these browsers in the first place. It's like disabling CSS. Is it fraud to use a battery charger or electrical plug with an adapter? Afte…

It's common to try different agents

No, it's common for highly technical web developers to do this. For 99.99% of the internet population, they do not even know what "user agent string" is or how to change it, or what to put in.

Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#67

Post by rmc »

wladimir wrote: post #15
patio11 wrote: post #10

Word to the wise: "circumventing the access restriction was easy to do, Your Honor, so I assumed it was OK" is not something you ever want to have to say. There exist wifi systems where setting a cookie "paid=1" will save you $15. You might think there are no legal consequences for "writing a text file on your own computer." I strongly suggest not testing that.

I don't think those cases are even comparable. Lying that you paid (through whatever means) is different from using a different user agent, which has no (direct, expected) relation to money. But if you think changing the user agent is somehow wrong, you could also go all the way of emulating the iPad browser on your laptop, and use that to sign in for the service.

Lying that you paid (through whatever means) is different from using a different user agent, which has no (direct, expected) relation to money.

If you change the user agent and then see that you get a different price, then you have clearly seen that user agent affects money.

Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#68

Post by eli »

donall wrote: post #51

I had a similar experience on a US Airways flight last December. The Kindle Fire browser allows the user to choose whether to optimise for mobile or desktop, and this resulted in two different prices. In relation to the legal questions raised elsewhere on this thread, I'm guessing that it's a non-issue when it's a built-in feature of the device. I think the argument could be logically extended to using plug-ins that…

I wonder if that was segmenting potential customers or if it was an A/B test

Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#69

Post by rmc »

MattBearman wrote: post #6
davidchua wrote: post #2

Isn't this fraud and an open admission of guilty?

The wifi network never asked him what device type he was using, it just made an assumption based on something as unreliable as a user agent string. How is it fraud?

"unreliable"? For 99.99% of the internet population the user agent string is accurate and reliable.

Re: Save money on wifi using user agent switching

#70

Post by wazoox »

I'm using regularly the same trick to use free tethering with my phone. As I didn't buy some incredibly expensive option that explicitly allows it, simply declaring my firefox as a mobile browser allow to bypass the artificial limitation.

I certainly don't abuse it; simply from time to time you need some internet access (to check an email, to download some piece of software, to google for a technical problem) and I wouldn't pay 39 euros/month for a 3G "key" that I'd use maybe once a month, no thanks.

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