May 12, 2008
"free public wifi", peer network scam?
i was in the airport and came across a 'free public wifi' node, that was self proclaimed SSID for the node. it seemed like the right choice at the time. after all the portland airport has had an open wifi network available for years. i vaguely remember the name was something else, not 'free public wifi', but whatever. anyway, i used the connection, wasn't of great concern. i also noticed the network was was peer-to-peer, which i thought was odd (i mean that should have been a big tip-off).
after boarding the plane, later on the light i busted out my laptop. lo-and-behold, that network was *still* there. oh a new airline wifi service?? no way. this immediately confirmed my prior concerns something was a bit off here.
i realized this was strangers laptop on that flight with an open peer to peer network named, free public wifi. and maybe that's all, someone with a cell phone data network card, enabled open internet sharing on their wifi card, ok.
or it's someone claiming as much, with all the traffic routed through their machine, attempting to pick up my information etc. point is, you should double check the network you are connecting to is the one you actually want. don't assume that 'free public wifi' is always a goodwill service by some upstanding charitable citizen. or is that just the cynic in me at work?
the guy was probably a nice guy, merely offering bandwidth to anyone around.
but no thanks. and please name your network something else.