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Comment by bnc319 | Hacker News Reader

So… hear me out. Could I connect this to an airline’s paid in-flight WiFi network, and then broadcast an open network to effectively open up access to all other passengers for free? If enough WiFi pirates do this on flights perhaps it would kill paid WiFi entirely (just need enough Good Samaritans)

(And yes I know there are other bypasses you can do like spoofing MAC addresses to get around some device count restrictions)

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Really what you should be doing is setting the SSID to "$2 in flight WiFi!" and selling access.

You'll make tens of ... dollars every flight.

And get arrested to boot!

https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/man-arrested-for-sett...

Ok Lol but they got arrested for stealing others people data not for making a wifi on the flight. That's different.

>That's different.

Is it though? It genuinely looks like you might get caught doing this, and I'm sure you are at least breaking airline policy, even if you're not charging money; not to mention if you charge.

Airlines throttle per device, unfortunately.

These travel routers have an option to impersonate the device you are using to get round this.

The throttling is "per device", not "per type of device". If you connect 1 travel router and use it to share internet with >1 user, those users are sharing the capped capacity the plane gives to "one connected device".

That’s not going to be an issue at all domestically soon unless you fly one of the cheapest airlines.

Delta has had free WiFi for awhile now as does JetBlue and I believe Southwest. It’s coming soon to AA and United.

I fly Delta 99% of the time.

“Soon”? Why would they give up that money though? I feel like there’s so little competition they aren’t feeling the pressure. Otherwise everyone else would have been hurting 15+ years ago when JetBlue started their free Wi-Fi.

Why? Because Starlink. Starlink requires airlines to offer it for free (apparently, for now), and the airlines that have started offering it are making a big deal out of it because it's actually usable compared to a lot of the LEO- or ground-based offerings before.

United was looking to have its regional fleet done by end of this week, Qatar has finished their 777s; Hawaiian's entire fleet is done, so is airBaltic's. WestJet are also close.

British Airways is starting the rollout now, so are SAS, Air France and a few others.

Oh wow. I didn’t know that. People love to hate on Musk but that is exactly the sort of uncommon move that I’d expect out of him. Most companies would never challenge the “rights” of their customer (here the airline) to nickel and dime their way to incremental profit.

>Starlink requires airlines to offer it for free

What's the catch?

Once one airline has it, the other airlines will have to buy it. But Delta is already using another satellites internet service.

Delta and America already are offering free wi-fi on most domestic routes.

Just got back from several flights with Hawaiian, free Starlink on every one.

Maybe. And then get throttled or banned for using too much bandwidth. You don't need this product to do this though, you can do the same thing with a laptop and your phone

They throttle.

Android phones can share their wifi connection like this.

(some android phones: my Pixel can, Samsung can't, although it seems that other Samsungs do have it.)

I installed another app on my S10 to enable this. It's called "Wi-Fi Hotspot" and it works pretty well

Insane to me that Apple still does not support this.

Not that surprising. Unless you’re going to sell access to that hotspot and give Apple a 30% cut, it really wouldn’t interest Tim Cook.

Is it? I can’t picture a real situation where other devices would prefer connecting to mine, running down its battery, instead of directly to the wifi it’s broadcasting.

Besides, at least where I live, 5G/4G is often faster than shared wifi. I’d be surprised if this is used by more than 0.1% of all users.

The situation is almost always “weird networking.” A WiFi hotspot too new for a device you have. Captive authentication you can’t solve on your e-reader (this was the case for me at college). Or, as I’m using one right now, as a simple booster (with a battery plugged in).

Given that this has been available on Android for years, I do not consider it an overly difficult feature for Apple to implement.

I carry a burner Android just for this feature. Great for sharing with my iPhone and iPad on a flight.

Playing with fire. It could be potentially construed as an attempt to steal personal info.

I’ve done this. Works fine. Issue in general is the airlines throttle the heck out of devices.

I basically do this so my gf and I can connect all of our phones and computers.

Probably. I do this with a GLinet and it works great.

Flight internet usually comes with a data quota.

Yes

Why would this kill paid wifi? A bunch of airlines are already switching to free wifi anyways, but the ones that aren't seem unlikely to just kick back as an army of easily-identifiable tech bros attempt to defraud them. It's a bit like trying to steal money from the bank after you've handed them your ID and debit card.

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