Free Public WiFi

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by oilyfan

What it's the arrangement regarding data caps? I can imagine that there would be significant usage on the business's account.

As I understand it (and someone please correct me where I'm wrong), there are no downsides to the business. The bandwidth and usage doesn't count against their cap, and it is a completely separate access point, so it shouldn't impact the speed, usage, security, etc. of the business in any way. It is just Shaw using their leverage of having all of these potential end points where they can set up an access point.

That being said, the usage does count towards the cap of the end user who is accessing the wifi. So whatever I use while connected to Shaw's wifi network will count towards my cap on my home subscription.

This past fall I was able to get a 6 gig data plan (for cheaper than my previous 1 gig plan), so I don't really need this Shaw service. But I still like connecting to wifi where possible because it is often faster and (depending on what you read) is a little easier on your battery. Plus I have a strange attraction to wifi networks. I simply like finding a open wifi spot and connecting to it. This could stem from my habit when travelling abroad not to pay very much for wifi, so finding little cafes or some guy who left his wifi open are like finding little oases in the desert. Obviously Shaw's motivation is different, but I still like when the little wifi icon is on.

I feel like I just came out of the closet or something.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

I simply like finding a open wifi spot and connecting to it.

Ya, and I like setting up honeypots to collect personal data this way.

I fully intend to call one "ShawOpen" at some point.

They used to have two SSID's, one was ShawOpen (unencrypted) and the other was ShawSecure, but I notice they dropped any mention of the encrypted one on their web page - I wonder if they will bring this back, or if it's gone for good.

[freedogger]

Anyone know of good sms chat replacements? Ideally I'd be able to have text messages from my wife show up on ipod, ipad, wondows, android basically anything I'm conected to the net with. Then I could switch to pay as I go gor cell service.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Ya, and I like setting up honeypots to collect personal data this way.

I fully intend to call one "ShawOpen" at some point.

They used to have two SSID's, one was ShawOpen (unencrypted) and the other was ShawSecure, but I notice they dropped any mention of the encrypted one on their web page - I wonder if they will bring this back, or if it's gone for good.

Honest question: If I were to connect to one of your honeypots with my iPhone, realistically how much information could you get from my traffic? I certainly wouldn't be doing any banking or anything like that, and assuming that all connections to email servers, Facebook, etc. were done with an SSL connection, could you find anything of importance? Or would you be limited to unencrypted passwords, logins, etc.?

Obviously it isn't a recommended practice to do anything over an untrusted connection, but in a practical sense, what info could you find?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Honest question: If I were to connect to one of your honeypots with my iPhone, realistically how much information could you get from my traffic? I certainly wouldn't be doing any banking or anything like that, and assuming that all connections to email servers, Facebook, etc. were done with an SSL connection, could you find anything of importance? Or would you be limited to unencrypted passwords, logins, etc.?

Obviously it isn't a recommended practice to do anything over an untrusted connection, but in a practical sense, what info could you find?

I don't run honeypots

But...

If I did, and you're asking about SSL, you're not my target audience. There are so many users that don't know anything about SSL, secure POP3 or IMAP, cookies, session hijacking, SSL man in the middle attacks, etc, and that are still using one password for all their logins, that you are the least of my worries or productive use of my time.

[Azure]

You still didn't really answer his question though. What could you figure out?

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Azure

You still didn't really answer his question though. What could you figure out?

I don't think it would be hard to get your CP login details, as an example. The passwords are hashed before being submitted for comparison to the DB, but I don't see any evidence that they are transmitted via SSL.