MetaFilter posts tagged with WiFi and wireless

Fewer Twitters with caffeine jitters?

Shepherd — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:36:43 -0800

According to the Wall Street Journal, coffee shops in New York are starting to cut back on laptops -- by reducing WiFi privileges, removing outlets, or banning the machines outright. This article has spawned a vast number of spin-off pieces and conversations across the Web. Meanwhile, the quest for a place to lounge in the glow of unlimited Internet use continues to be a beacon... even here on MetaFilter.

WiFi Piggybacking Arrest - revisited.

twiggy — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 07:01:30 -0800

Another wifi-related arrest was publicized today. In the past, the only case readily available to researchers involved additional seedy activities that are what really drew the arrest. The coffeeshop and other open hotspots show up on several sites such as jiwire and wifinder which are devoted to helping people find wireless hotspots.

In this case, a coffeeshop noticed someone leeching their WiFi parked in his truck -- over the course of 3 months, without ever entering the coffeehouse and making a purchase. While not yet convicted of anything, he has been arrested for "theft of services," and this could mean the first precedent set for whether or not "wireless piggybacking" is illegal. The case becomes especially interesting for both sides of the ethical debate on "borrowing" wireless. One one side of the judge's opinion will be the fact that the coffeehouse is a public place, not a private home. On the other side, it turns out the man who was arrested just so happens to be a registered sex offender, though this coincidental fact is not technically relevant to the case.

Government is going after free WiFi

mountainmambo — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 11:22:31 -0800

Republican Congressman Pete Sessions from Texas introduced a bill that would make all free, public, municipal WiFi illegal. Sessions, as it turns out, is a big fat recipient of SBC funds. Why stop there? Should we privatize highways as well? How about subways? Glad the liberal media is all over this one. Here are a couple of links: Original post on DailyKos, An informative editorial from the Fort Wayne paper

Campin' with the net

Doohickie — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 17:30:17 -0800

FutureIsNowFilter "TengoInternet and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced a pilot program to offer wireless Internet service at five Texas state parks... The wireless service will allow park guests while visiting the park to access the Internet to gain park information, send e-mail or pictures, or just surf the Web, without cords having to physically plug into a network."
Shouldn't be camping be more about nature than technology?

Build your own wokfi system!

X-00 — Sun, 16 May 2004 18:45:43 -0800

USB adaptors & a Spider Skimmer = Poor Man's Wifi!

It's like cruising for sex for geeks.

WolfDaddy — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 10:12:16 -0800

Catch some waves... for free! Wi-Fi Freespot will help. Via my roommate's co-workers, who keep sending this round e-mail circuits. I don't know why they include me. I hate technology.

McD Wireless

sparky — Wed, 09 Jul 2003 06:17:28 -0800

McD Wireless Beginning today, many McDonald’s restaurants around the Bay area will provide Wi-Fi with a side of fries... Previously discussed in March.

802.11b wireless and the Department of Defense

thedailygrowl — Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:18:25 -0800

802.11b Survey Map of NYC

Voyageman — Thu, 12 Dec 2002 06:04:52 -0800

802.11b Survey Map of NYC Following the NYC Bloggers Map, what else should mapped in NYC, smoking rooms?

tippiedog — Thu, 22 Aug 2002 07:58:59 -0800

Starbucks announces wireless Internet access in stores and plans to charge customers for it: $29.99/month for access in one store, or $49.99/month for access in all equipped stores nationwide. Seems a little pricey to me. And besides, don't cool coffeehouses offer free wireless Internet access? They're sure getting lots of coverage of the announcement in any case.

dhacker — Tue, 09 Jul 2002 09:17:22 -0800

Don't let child pornographers share your connection! Now that sharing your Wi-Fi connection with the unwashed masses has become so popular - the BigCo's are trying to shut it down. We've talked about this here and here but I was blown away by this marketing speak from a AOL Time Warner VP

"By having an open transmission, it leaves you really vulnerable," Digeso said. "If you have a Wi-Fi connection in a public park, what would stop, God forbid, a child pornographer or, God forbid, a terrorist using that network?"

Are terroists using your Wi-Fi connection?

srboisvert — Mon, 24 Jun 2002 19:43:56 -0800

Warchalking Collaboratively creating a hobo-language for free wireless networking. Here is the first draft of a warchalking symbol card. [via Boing Boing]

Steven Den Beste — Fri, 03 Aug 2001 22:55:18 -0800

The crypto used in 802.11 wireless networking has been cracked. The crack is devastating; it's fast and passive. Simply by listening, the 40-bit key can be cracked in 15 minutes. Worse, the crack scales linearly with the number of bits in the key, so raising the key length to 128 bits would raise the crack time to about an hour. 802.11 is used in such products as the Linksys Etherfast Wireless and the Apple Airport. From now on those products should be considered to be completely insecure.

moz — Mon, 02 Jul 2001 13:49:56 -0800

Microsoft bans use of Open Source with its wireless internet tools. Will this be a huge PR blunder, or will people accept MS' hardline stance against this so-called "potentially viral" software?

paladin — Thu, 22 Mar 2001 17:19:12 -0800

SF Gate article states, "with a wireless ethernet card, a laptop and some basic software savvy," people walking around downtown San Francisco could just point their antenna at a building and be privy to private, unprotected coporate networks.

grant — Fri, 28 Jan 2000 19:55:07 -0800

Apple is going to have to rename it's AirPort for the Japanese market because of a previous trademark already issued for the name. They're going to call it AirMac instead. Hmmm... Seems to me they could have put a bit more oomph into it, like AirThang or AirConnector. Must have been pressed for time to get the thing launched.

mathowie — Thu, 29 Jul 1999 16:18:29 -0800

Is it wrong to love a machine? I'm writing this from my employer's new Toshiba ultra portable laptop which also happens to be using the wireless LAN. There's nothing quite like wandering around with a 4 pound, 1 inch thick pentium II 366 that's network enabled.