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Italy Quake Rescuers Ask Locals to Unlock their Wi-Fi
- _ph_ 10y agoMaybe events like this can trigger politics to review the very laws by which they force us to lock down wi-fi networks in the first place.
- dkns 10y agoWhat do you mean?
- toyg 10y agoIn Italy, there are laws making wifi network operators responsible for the actions of people joining their networks. At one point, public network operators (cafes etc) were required by law to record the ID card of anyone requesting access. This provision was eventually dropped, but I think the overall concept of network owners' responsibility is still there.
- rplnt 10y agoI think there's EU-wide push for not allowing free public wifi. Heard about it in at least two other countries. Not sure if any law was passed though.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoInteresting. Wasn't there an actual EU ruling encouraging nations to create free public Wi-Fi networks?
- DavidHm 10y agoLuxembourg has a city-wide free wifi.
- HelloNurse 10y agoMany cities have, but free doesn't mean anonymous. You need to qualify (usually by residing in that city) and apply for an account with a personal username and password.
- Cyph0n 10y agoI think tourists would need WiFi more than residents.
- OJFord 10y ago> You need to qualify (usually by residing in that city) > and apply for an account with a personal username and > password. I've never seen that as a tourist. Accept terms maybe; perhaps even some survey-type details, but never an actual login. Malta for example has incredible coverage - it's everywhere, even small towns. Just accept terms and give nationality, age, gender.
- toyg 10y agoItaly spearheaded this approach because of content piracy, under the pretense of organized-crime prevention. It was eventually seen as holding back tourism and economy, so it was dropped; but by then, the seed was planted (European law-enforcement agencies co-ordinate a lot, in this day and age) and found roots elsewhere in the wake of terrorist events. I don't think there is an explicit EU directive yet, though.
- ramblenode 10y agoSad that preventing piracy is considered more important than easy access to free information.
- akerro 10y agoWhole city of Cardiff has free WiFi coverage in many places. Every bus, every tourist attraction, most bus stops, galleries etc.
- foepys 10y agoIn my city in Germany all newer bus models have WiFi. Just join the network, agree to the terms and conditions (which consist of 5 short paragraphs) and you are set. No need for an ID.
- mason240 10y agoI had a more cynical thought: maybe events like this will trigger security-state politicians to require backdoor access put into all wifi routers (which are then open for NSA/FBI/ect).
- nly 10y agoGuest network anyone? A distinct SSID, WPA2 password and subnet dispatches with most of the personal risk.
- johnchristopher 10y agoWhat about FON ? My provider did automatically setup an account for me when I got registered with them (opt in).
- davidiach 10y agoThat was my first thought as well. Simply removing your WiFi password can have unintended consequences, especially for people with little technical skills.
- pilif 10y agoNot really. You'd still be liable for any misuse happening from external users. Or if not liable, you'd at least have an uphill battle to fight in order to prove that it wasn't you that did the thing that got you into trouble. Additionally, depending on your ISP, you might violate the TOS by providing a public WiFi. If you live in a place without real choice of ISP, that would be bad if they then cancel your account.
- nly 10y agoThis is true, but if guest networks were the norm then individually you'd be less likely to be exploited by criminals, because of the greater spread, and the issues surrounding them would be better appreciated by the authorities and law makers. ISPs should be getting onboard with providing public access points. Why wouldn't they welcome me using my home as a basepoint for their public service?
- clishem 10y agoA big porportion of Dutch routers is actually creates a secondary independent network that provides free internet access to users of the same provider, across the country.
- touristtam 10y agoThis article is quite poor; this is probably something barely re worded from a need provider (like Reuters). Can anyone find an article with more depth to corroborate this? Edit: it looks like it isn't anything to do with the rescue effort in itself; the Italian red Cross is asking to open private wifi in order to allow people to communicate. I naively thought it would have to be something with exploiting wifi in a novelty manner, but no. Quite disappointed.
- edent 10y agoYou can read my article at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2016/08/should-you-open-your-wifi-during-a-disaster/ https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2016/08/should-you-open-your-wifi-d... And my interview with Wired at http://www.wired.co.uk/article/italian-red-cross-earthquake-wifi-password http://www.wired.co.uk/article/italian-red-cross-earthquake-... The risk is low - but I still think it is dangerous advice.
- kfk 10y agoRight, 270+ people dead and counting and you are disappointed. I don't know, maybe a bit of reality check sometimes?
- touristtam 10y agoWhat are you going on about? This is HN, not your classic news bulletin board. If I wanted to have succinct news reports from a general news outlet, I would go to one. Feel free to do the same.
- kfk 10y agoWow, this is HN and what? Your comment is still completely out of touch with reality, there are lots of Italians reading HN, some might have lost their friends or family members and look, people are even downvoting my parent comment. Is this really the place you want HN to be? You want to change the world but you can't see things from another perspective? Or show some understanding and compassion? It's not just you, but the whole thread here is terrible, it's like if you had another 9/11 and I spent my time commenting on why mobile reception is so bad there in the area of the disaster.
- Tergmap 10y agoIt would make much more sense if the mobile phone operators offered free mobile data access. It is messy to make changes to router settings to most users.
- legulere 10y agoBut then everybody would use that (like people living in tents now) and would probably overload the network. The landline internet connections have a higher capacity totally.
- the_mitsuhiko 10y agoI can't talk about Italy but this does not hold true to deployments in Austria. In particular first responders would be able to get more reliable internet via LTE than local wifi. First of all because LTE can do per device QoS, secondly because LTE antennas have better backhaul connections than most homes would have access to. ISPs here do not upgrade customers automatically unless they pay which means many users stay on very slow internet for a long time.
- ojm 10y agoOr we cannot get better access. I'm in Melbourne suburbs and can only get shocking ADSL1.
- burnbabyburn 10y agoI wonder how this works, given that is illegal to share your internet connection with others in IT.
- kwhitefoot 10y agoLots of things are illegal in Italy, and elsewhere, that are nonetheless common done.
- dewiz 10y agoHere's the tweet https://mobile.twitter.com/crocerossa/status/768387275654885376 https://mobile.twitter.com/crocerossa/status/768387275654885... which is also confusing about the how to "reset" the router, not sure if some models might go back to factory settings holding the reset for 10 secs...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- y04nn 10y agoIt would be awesome if in case of emergency, WIFI AP could build up a cognitive network to assist rescuers. We can even think of phones workings a relays to an available Internet connexion.
- mixedbit 10y agoThe rescuers in Italy are asking people to remain completely silent once in a while to try to communicate with trapped victims. I wondered if in a similar manner it would be technically possible to detect signal from phones that belong to trapped victims, if all not trapped people were asked to turn off their mobile phones.
- boredpudding 10y agoMost of the phones have likely ran out of battery. Also, there is a big chance that there are phones without victims. Not a good way to find people.
- mixedbit 10y agoI don't think that false positives disqualify such approach.
- nibnib 10y agoYou can easily combine techniques. Send rescue dogs and handlers wherever phone signals are traced.
- deadbunny 10y agoHaving worked for companies trying to detect mobile phones this would be about as useful as guessing. Triangulating a signal (if you could even get one from under 2 tons of rubble) is not an easy task in the real world, especially one that would need to be accurate to within 1m or so.
- maxxxxx 10y agoThat's probably what they are doing. These people are not dummies that need to be lectured by some hacker news guys.
- OJFord 10y agoIt would be a waste of resources to rescue an ownerless phone.
- Ind007 10y agoHeat source scanners like they show it in movies does really exist? Will be really helpful in these scenarios if they do really exists.
- mtmail 10y agoThey exist. I can't tell how deep they can detect heat and if it's enough for body heat. http://thermalvisionresearch.co.uk/thermal-camera-products/t-650/ http://thermalvisionresearch.co.uk/thermal-camera-products/t...
- newscracker 10y agoWouldn't peer-to-peer apps like FireChat [1] also help? [1]: https://www.opengarden.com/firechat.html https://www.opengarden.com/firechat.html (Currently throwing an invalid certificate error)
- hunter 10y agoYou might need at least a user every 70m (210ft) for FireChat to work properly; not feasible in these circumstances. During such catastrophes setting up a temporary airMAX as an open access point would be a more speedy and reliable solution; only need one telephone line to operate, the teams don't have to waste time installing other apps, and the antenna's wifi coverage is greater than a cheap router's.
- alexandre_m 10y agoIt's time we start looking at Internet mesh networking more seriously.
- amazon_not 10y agoMesh networking wasn't exactly a raging success last time around and not much has changed since then.
- ramblenode 10y agoI wonder if devices implemented a communication protocol based on UWB we could leverage it for rescue operations. Along with other advantages, it has a much greater ability to penetrate physical barriers [0]. [0] http://www.thetrackit.com/library/UWB%20Defin.pdf http://www.thetrackit.com/library/UWB%20Defin.pdf
- melling 10y ago"Hey Siri" ... "Enable my emergency beacon" Of course, phones and watches don't have that feature yet but an open (low-power) broadcast standard could help save lives. Finding people who are lost in the woods would be much easier. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hiker-pavlina-pizova-survives-30-days-new-zealand-wilderness-n638176 http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hiker-pavlina-pizova-survi... http://www.wlox.com/story/32833377/woman-found-after-being-lost-in-the-woods-for-hours http://www.wlox.com/story/32833377/woman-found-after-being-l...
- peter303 10y agoThis quake happened at 4AM. Most people probably had phones on bedstand or charging stations rather on person. I suspect most people knew where their neighbors were at this time which may have aided searches. Pretty much didnt need to bother with any public buildings. P.S. I was in the 4AM 1994 Los Angeles quake. Night quakes have a little different psychology than day quakes.
- Raphmedia 10y agoThey should rather use a solution like one of Google's WI-FI blimp and fly them hover the affected areas.
- byteface 10y agomaybe all routers should have an emergency login