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Users Grab Free T-Mobile Wi-Fi Without Vista
Simply by changing the browser user agent string...
As we recently mentioned, T-Mobile is offering three months of free Wi-Fi to users who upgrade to Windows Vista. Engadget points out that T-Mobile is only verifying your OS based on the user agent string your browser spits out -- therefore users are just changing their string to "(Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)" and heading here to get free Wi-Fi.
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Michieru2
zzz zzz zzz
Premium Member
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL

Michieru2

Premium Member

!

*Yawn* So what's new?

creativedog
Premium Member
join:2000-12-03
Richmond, VA

1 recommendation

creativedog

Premium Member

and.....

so you post it here so that more people can go and abuse this? Nice work.....

exocet_cm
Writing
Premium Member
join:2003-03-23
Brooklyn, NY

exocet_cm

Premium Member

Re: and.....

Are you complaining?

creativedog
Premium Member
join:2000-12-03
Richmond, VA

creativedog

Premium Member

Re: and.....

said by exocet_cm:

Are you complaining?
I'm not complaining at all....just trying to figure out the purpose behind it. Hey, I just found an ATM that is spitting out 20's.....let me post it on BBR so more people can do it.

NJxxxJon
2 0 1 7 Mmm Here We go man!
Premium Member
join:2005-10-22

NJxxxJon

Premium Member

Re: and.....

said by creativedog:
said by exocet_cm:

Are you complaining?
I'm not complaining at all....just trying to figure out the purpose behind it. Hey, I just found an ATM that is spitting out 20's.....let me post it on BBR so more people can do it.
Teach me wise man! The 20's way of life!

creativedog
Premium Member
join:2000-12-03
Richmond, VA

creativedog

Premium Member

Re: and.....

said by NJxxxJon:
said by creativedog:
said by exocet_cm:

Are you complaining?
I'm not complaining at all....just trying to figure out the purpose behind it. Hey, I just found an ATM that is spitting out 20's.....let me post it on BBR so more people can do it.
Teach me wise man! The 20's way of life!
You obviously dont own a business.

NJxxxJon
2 0 1 7 Mmm Here We go man!
Premium Member
join:2005-10-22

1 edit

NJxxxJon

Premium Member

Re: and.....

I dont own a business ripping off ATM's machines as a side hobby - If thats a way to put it.

Dustyn
Premium Member
join:2003-02-26
Ontario, CAN

Dustyn to exocet_cm

Premium Member

to exocet_cm

How long...

... will it take T-Mobile to figure out there being ripped off by the little people?

joako
Premium Member
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null

joako

Premium Member

Re: How long...

said by Dustyn:

... will it take T-Mobile to figure out there being ripped off by the little people?
Cost of tracking down said people, or writing ActiveX controls, etc, etc --
Am Heimcomputer sitz' ich hier, und programmier' die Zukunft mir
pkorx8
join:2003-06-19
San Francisco, CA

pkorx8 to Dustyn

Member

to Dustyn
As of this morning I tried this hack, but they required Active-X during login.

nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium Member
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA

nixen to creativedog

Premium Member

to creativedog
said by creativedog:

so you post it here so that more people can go and abuse this? Nice work.....
Had they forced you to install some form of Active-X control (or whatever) that actually verified the OS, they wouldn't have had this problem. This was less about restricting access than raising product awareness. Neither side lost anything. If anything, BBR publishing this "hack", simply furthers Microsoft's goals.

-tom
Expand your moderator at work
b10010011
Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
united state

b10010011

Member

Why bother?

There are literally a hundred other coffee shops in town that not only offer free wifi to any wifi enabled device (not just PC's running Vista) but most of them serve better coffee than Starburnt too.

kyramilan
join:2006-11-26
Pensacola, FL

kyramilan

Member

Re: Why bother?

Starbucks sucks. I hate their coffee. And why the hell is it lukewarm? For $6 you would think it could be HOT! Drink Orange Juice. Better for you anyway. In Atlanta, these morons had 2 starbucks on the same street. Right across from each other.

Considering these morons can't make HOT coffee, I doubt these morons can secure a wi-fi network either.

creativedog
Premium Member
join:2000-12-03
Richmond, VA

creativedog

Premium Member

Re: Why bother?

Starbucks coffee isnt $6. If you are paying $6, then its some type of other drink which most likely isnt served piping hot anyway. Also, a large cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee costs more than a large cup of Starbucks coffee.....

I also would imagine that it's T-Mobile that is responsible for the WiFi service at the Starbucks locations......what did you think? "Can i have a grande latte and while you're back there, can you reboot the AP"?

furlonium
join:2002-05-08
Allentown, PA

furlonium

Member

Re: Why bother?

said by creativedog:

Starbucks coffee isnt $6. If you are paying $6, then its some type of other drink which most likely isnt served piping hot anyway. Also, a large cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee costs more than a large cup of Starbucks coffee.....
A large DD coffee here is $1.90 I believe - is Starbucks cheaper? We don't have any around here so I don't know.

ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD

Premium Member

Re: Why bother?

said by furlonium:

said by creativedog:

Starbucks coffee isnt $6. If you are paying $6, then its some type of other drink which most likely isnt served piping hot anyway. Also, a large cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee costs more than a large cup of Starbucks coffee.....
A large DD coffee here is $1.90 I believe - is Starbucks cheaper? We don't have any around here so I don't know.
Roughly the same price. And that's for the tall size. It's not expensive at all. Where it gets expensive is when you want more than "just coffee" or "just tea". Fraps are insanely priced as are lattes and other specialty drinks. But the regular coffee and tea are reasonably priced. I don't drink the regular coffee, but I will have a Shaken Iced Green Tea every now and then. 2 bucks is not breaking anyone's bank people.

operagost
join:1999-08-02
Spring City, PA

operagost

Member

Re: Why bother?

LOL... a "tall" at Starbucks is the smallest size: quite a bit smaller than Dunkin Donuts'.

ReVeLaTeD
Premium Member
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA

ReVeLaTeD

Premium Member

Re: Why bother?

When I say "tall" I'm referring to the "Venti" size. I just hate their naming convention and choose not to use it.
ricep5
Premium Member
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL

ricep5 to kyramilan

Premium Member

to kyramilan
mo·ron (môr'n', mr'-) pronunciation
n.

1. A stupid person; a dolt.
2. Psychology. A person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive.

[From Greek mron, neuter of mros, stupid, foolish.]

liveanddiefree

Anon

Re: Why bother?

lol

Seriously taking advantage of a companies mistake is priceless.
wev567
join:2006-02-25
Pittsburgh, PA

wev567 to kyramilan

Member

to kyramilan
said by kyramilan:

In Atlanta, these morons had 2 starbucks on the same street. Right across from each other.
It's because people are either too lazy or too busy to cross the street or go a block. Starbucks ain't the morons, their customers are.

elkq
join:2002-03-09
Monterey, CA

elkq

Member

Re: Why bother?

Starbucks ain't the morons, their customers are.


Hi umm Pot...I would like to introduce you to my friend Kettle...
Expand your moderator at work

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

Wooooooohoooooooo!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
free Wi-fi!
I got 9 open APs without even coming out of my house!
I guess the really cool thing is being able to stick it to microsoft.
kd6cae
P2p Shouldn't Be A Crime
join:2001-08-27
Bakersfield, CA

kd6cae

Member

it's not easy to change your user-agent string

someone correct me if I'm wrong, but in internet explorer, there's absolutely no way to change your user-agent string at all, and I'm not sure if firefox has this ability, as I don't use it. Assuming it does not though, the only utilities I know of that can change a user-agent string to whatever the user desires is the wget download tool, and the lynx web browser mainly on linux systems. I'd be amazed if there was anything that could do this for windows, and even if there were, no average person would know how to do this, or would even care.

inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK

inteller

Member

Re: it's not easy to change your user-agent string

a number of tweak tools can do this in seconds

Noah Vail
Oh God please no.
Premium Member
join:2004-12-10
SouthAmerica

Noah Vail to kd6cae

Premium Member

to kd6cae

In FireFox....

They show how to do it here....

»johnbokma.com/mexit/2004 ··· ent.html

It tried it. Set up an account.

But, I have an EVDO card so it's just for funsies.

NV

Iridium3
Premium Member
join:2003-04-02
Los Angeles, CA

1 edit

Iridium3 to kd6cae

Premium Member

to kd6cae

Re: it's not easy to change your user-agent string

I just did it, it took me about 30 seconds. But I can get several APs near me that give 2x to 3x the speed and no security. I need a compelling reason to get out of my warm bed and drive to a Kinkos just for this.
Pete_648
join:2001-12-20
KingstonON

Pete_648

Member

Re: it's not easy to change your user-agent string

firefox has an user agent switcher

I just done it, real easy to do. I didn't bother signing up because I live in Canada and don't take my laptop anywhere outside the house
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88

Member

its a trial

Its a trial folks, its going to be gone soon, its just a promotion, doesnt matter if people cheat. Personally, I dont bother with WIFI, not worth the waiting time, bad APs, no DHCP addresses, no connection to internet, and all the other crap i get on WIFI, EVDO is so much better even though its slower.

SomeDude15
We call that the Dennis Miller Ratio
Premium Member
join:2000-10-26
Milwaukee, WI

SomeDude15

Premium Member

Re: its a trial

Reading further, you still need to dl an ActiveX that checks for Vista..
stridr69
join:2003-05-19
San Luis Obispo, CA

stridr69 to patcat88

Member

to patcat88
Meanwhile...I'm at my local Starbuck's,Boarders, ect...using T-Mobile's WiFi with no problems at all(using a T-Mobile MDA PDA/Cell phone). Granted T-Mobile's WiFi offering is part of my $29.95 monthly data package(GPRS/EDGE), I also use my MDA's WiFi with my personal router at the home. Waiting time? Try over 1Mbs download at the home. DHCP issues? None that I deal with-either with T-Mobile's hotspot or my WiFi at the home. No connection to the internet? That's YOUR problem, sport. I HAVE no problems at all. Have a nice day...
ctggzg
Premium Member
join:2005-02-11
USA

ctggzg

Premium Member

Nice wording...

"Grab free"? So if I use a fake ID/badge to impersonate a McDonald's employee, go into the back, and take some food, I'm just "grabbing free" food?

JAXx
aka Stephen
Premium Member
join:2000-03-31
New York, NY

1 recommendation

JAXx

Premium Member

Is it ripping T-Mobile off or not?

There is absolutely nothing illegal about making a change to your browser's agent string and doing so does not constitute "theft of service". Rather it comes under the legal principle of the "unshielded window": if i leave my window shades up and you're not physically trespassing on my property you can stare in and see what you will for as long as you want, or until I lower the shade.

T-Mobile's window shades are up for three months!

Instructions on changing your user agent are here: »www.scanmybrowser.com/ch ··· _ua.html
JAXx

JAXx

Premium Member

caution on changing user agent if you use firefox *and* gmai

There is an issue if you have firefox and gmail and you want to change your user agent info, see my post at »Caution - free T-mobile with vista upgrade (workaround)