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Ever wondered what the 'Free Public WiFi' networks you see everywhere are?
- mad44 18y agoI have been seeing this at every airport I have been to. Now, I know. Thanks.
- theantidote 18y agoThat's a cool thing to know, thanks. You could definitely do some viral marketing this way if you were more devious than I.
- staunch 18y agoIntentionally infecting people with SSIDs is illegal. You have to notify your ad-hoc partner.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- ryanwaggoner 18y agoWhoosh!
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- tlrobinson 18y agoThe user has to try to connect to the AP in order to be "infected", so presumably this one became popular because so many people actually believed they would get "free public WiFi". The SSID in your viral marketing scheme would have to lure people into connecting to it while at the same time advertising your product. Sounds hard... anyone have any ideas?
- tectonic 18y agoSSID: "Free Internet if you Support Obama!"
- tectonic 18y agoWait, why was this downmodded? You don't think this would have worked as a meme pre-election?
- gojomo 18y ago"Free wifi by [YourDomain.com]" might be enough.
- tlrobinson 18y agoIronically enough, if they connect they won't be able to access YourDomain.com.
- sdurkin 18y agoBeen done.
- iamdave 18y agoHere's an idea, don't. It's a silly idea. You're riding the fence there. 'Luring' people into connecting to a network where private information will be readily accessible is (even if just for marketing purposes) very, very sketchy. Especially if you're using a deceptive SSID. Just a bad idea. I think it's just best to leave it as a network issue and not try to force advertising campaigns every nook and cranny as possible. That includes broadcasting domain names using a poorly designed network identification method.
- sh1mmer 18y agoSomeone told me it was the software from a 3G but this makes a lot more sense. Interesting mistake.
- danw 18y agoIt may be from the 3G software that the SSID name originally appeared. hpsetup and linksys are common names in this because there are many real AP's with these names by default and so the 'infection' would spread from multiple points. It would be a miracle if there had only been a single "Free Public WiFi" AP that caused this 'outbreak' to originate and spread.
- stillmotion 18y agoI wonder who started it? Pretty amazing. I see it in every country I visit.
- wenbert 18y agoi see it here in Cebu Philippines...
- bjelkeman-again 18y agoHis initial suspision was the same thought I had. Interesting.
- noodle 18y agothis was kind of well-publicized a while ago. thought it was common knowledge. interesting case study of actual virality. i see two FPW's on my list right now.
- mindslight 18y agoSorry - I tried to upmod, hit the wrong arrow, fail! Why doesn't HN allow you to change your vote? Seems awfully arbitrary and heavy-handed.
- byrneseyeview 18y agoWhy doesn't HN allow you to change your vote? Seems awfully arbitrary and heavy-handed. So you don't vote arbitrarily, and avoid being heavy-handed.
- kalvin 18y agoHa, that's the exact opposite reasoning to Aza Raskin's "use undo instead of a warning"... this is "make it irreversible as a warning" http://www.alistapart.com/articles/neveruseawarning http://www.alistapart.com/articles/neveruseawarning I think allowing a vote change here makes much more sense, FWIW. For the same reasons allowing post edits makes a lot of sense.
- mattmaroon 18y agoI read about this a few months ago while Googling, is truly fascinating. I tried spreading my own but couldn't seem to get it going. Wish I spent as much time in airports as I used to.
- periferral 18y agothat doesnt make any sense. there should be loads of stuff like this then. why only Free Wifi whatever
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- mattmaroon 18y agoMy guess is that's the most obvious name you'd click in an airport or hotel.
- tlrobinson 18y agoThat's pretty awesome. Can Mac's with WiFi infect Windows machines, or only other Windows machines? I might have to try this...
- Zev 18y agoYou can create your own ad hoc network on a Mac. Airport menubar icon -> Create network then enter the name and select channel to use.
- gojomo 18y agoI suspect that however this started, its familiarity now means it is popular network name among those either (1) genuinely offering free wifi, or (2) seeking to hijack info in transit.
- jrockway 18y agoHeh, I visited a client's office today and there were two networks -- "Free Public Wifi" and "Free Internet". It amuses me because you plug into the Ethernet there and can't route to the outside world, but one employee can take their laptop to Starbucks, and all your company's internal information is stolen. This make me laugh, and it makes me cry.
- wenbert 18y agoif this thing spread liked crazy throughout the world, imagine what a real virus (as in virus in movies - say 12 monkeys) will do...
- lallysingh 18y agoThere was a problem with this at an Apple World-Wide Developer Conference a few years ago (2001?). Most people had the titanium (e.g Faraday Cage) powerbooks, and had terrible problems with the wireless. So, when people couldn't connect to the wireless network, they would try to connect "manually," which sometimes meant they'd accidentally create a new network with the same name. The ad-hoc network grew pretty quickly from there.