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  RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY | Re: The Parasites will always ruin a good thing. said by Mr Matt:In the case of Wi-Fi, upon making a purchase the customer would be given an access code and password by the merchant to use the merchant's Wi-Fi and power if they wished to do so. Access would be timed. The customer would be given a warning a minute or two before their connection was dropped. The customer would have the opportunity to buy something or pay a small fee to continue to use the connection. Unless this system is adopted merchants may eliminate their free Wi-Fi or resume charging for the service. There is a simple solution to this situation. If you have ever stayed in a Hotel, you will have run into the Pay-for-WiFi system that they have in the sleeping rooms. You connect and are allowed to use your connection for 24 hours and then must pay for another 24 hours. Use this type of system to allow the customer to use the WiFi for (lets say) 30 minutes from first connection. After that time their WiFi lease is expired and you must revalidate. The proxy that they get connected to by their Web Browser, requires a logon which is provided by their Cash Receipt. The id on the receipt is a timestamp+secret phrase which is hashed. The timestamp part of the string is updated once a minute (so just knowing the time will not allow a hacker to compute the hash). When you try to get in, the 10 hashes for the past 10 minutes are compared with your entry and if one matches, you get in for the 30 minutes (I chose 10 minutes to allow getting your food, going to a table, and attempting to connect - more time can be given by just increasing the checking window/number of hashes).
This is similar to the one-time-key devices used to authenticate you for connections to your bank and other computer systems. | |
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 | | | Re: The Parasites will always ruin a good thing. I've seen said system in progress. It's easily defeated with MAC spoofing which I'm sure anyone on this site knows how to accomplish so we'll leave it at that.
Though I understand your point, considering how easily it is to defeat, it's effectively moot.
What I don't understand is why companies offer such and then get mad when people actually use it. It's about as ridiculous as an internet "over usage" fee, but that's just my opinion. There are some here who would eat me alive for the mere thought of such.
Now as for the other factor of "using it for free without buying anything", I've walked into some places that charge - starting at $7 - for an hour of internet. I'll begin with the most prominent of coffee shops: Starbucks. I avoid it like the plague but a friend worked at one and frequently invited me to come down. I was able to use his ID to login for free (2 hours a day), but their prices are crazy. $7 for an hour of internet? I might as well buy a 3G card and cut my losses.
I'll now get to the most ridiculous of them all: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). $3 for 15 of internet, and that's not wireless, that's a wired kiosk. The wireless is even more ridiculus. I paid less than that for LAN Parties back in the day for over an hour.
But that's still nothing on charging for using a power outlet. That's just unprecedented. Though I suppose in the days of flailing franchises, someone's gotta pay the power bill. | |
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|  SSidlovOther Things On My MindPremium
join:2000-03-03
Pompton Lakes, NJ
 ·Optimum Online
| Pay wireless in hotels are only in the mid to upper range of hotels without a membership card in rooms and still usually have free wifi in the lobby (where they sell -- COFFEE!). The 'lower end' hotels such as Holiday Inns and Super 8's all have FREE wifi everywhere.
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»www.Warpstock.org
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| | RARPSL
join:1999-12-08
Suffern, NY | Re: The Parasites will always ruin a good thing. said by SSidlov:Pay wireless in hotels are only in the mid to upper range of hotels without a membership card in rooms and still usually have free wifi in the lobby (where they sell -- COFFEE!). The 'lower end' hotels such as Holiday Inns and Super 8's all have FREE wifi everywhere. I have stayed at Comfort Inns (free WiFi in lobby and the rooms) although you still need to log-in (the front desk tells you what the UserID/Password is and it has been the same pair for the 4 years I have stayed there) and Hiltons (Free Lobby and pay in rooms [different set of APs in the rooms]) where again you must log-in in the Lobby or get force directed to the portal in your room.
My point was that there is a standard interface set of code to intercept all attempts to use the Web and require you to log-in to use the WiFi network so there should be no problem doing my implementation (unless you are using Consumer Grade Routers in lieu of low end commercial routers). | |
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| | It's this f'd up entitlement system which started in the 60's.
It has spawned generations of people who's job is only to look for free things and give a ways.
Try to take away something from this group and they go BS because they have the time to do it.
I have what I have because I work like a dog.
I don't want for anything with the exception of free time.
I don't have to rely on free WiFi for Internet use. I find it useful at lodging when I travel. I hope the parasites don't ruin that as well. | |
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 SLDPremium
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA | said by Mr Matt: My favorite The best solution is one that a major mall used in Boston. Corrected that for you  | |
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The Parasites will always ruin a good thing.
Unfortunately the Parasites will always ruin a good thing. The purpose of free Wi-Fi is to induce potential customers to select the merchant that offers free Wi-Fi, rather than another merchant. It is unreasonable to expect a merchant to allow loafers to take up valuable space while not doing business with the merchant.
