The Bug That Created “Free Public Wifi” Networks That Didn’t Work
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- Опубликовано: 22 май 2024
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Video written by Adam Chase
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I remember back in the day when unprotected networks called "linksys" were everywhere. Free public wifi, and only at the cost of a bunch of individual homeowners internet plans.
Whatever happened to attwifi?
If I'm right, Linksys was owned by Motorola.
Edit: as informed by another comment, the company that owns linksys is Belkin.
Yooo me too, thanks for unlocking a memory
Ah, back in the day when nobody cared about setting a password...
@Safwaan well, in some countries that are less generous around filesharing/piracy, the owner of the line can sort of be responsible by default for illegal things done through their internet connection, so that’s probably part of it, too.
I realized free public wifi was nonsense when I started seeing it available when using my laptop in a car on the highway.
Sounds... nauseating and potentially dangerous. Lol. I presume you were not also driving the car?
@@DaimyoD0 He's the engine
@@DaimyoD0 nauseating :) do you watch sopranos at all?
a new wifi popped up in the middle of the texas desert
and it was called
let me remember
something along the lines of...
kehbfclzkdhnliqx2uby8o7i3biru2qydnoz;q2/;ljxfq;wal
Something only an American could do
Near Wels Hauptbahnhof in Austria I discovered a wifi network called something like "Hufflepuff Meeting Room". I'm not saying that ÖBB, the Austrian train company, is run by wizards. But I am saying that there may be wizards in the vicinity.
That is awesome.
Wie zur Hölle find ich unter so einem Video die Erwähnung so eines Provinznestes wie Wels?
Yeah I lived in a flat with a ton of cringe network names.
What did I name mine?
HarryPotheadIsForLosers
@@lesleyvids2610 Same xD
@@LeviForWaifu Roasted
"I'm here to do what your father never would, validate your feelings" that struck a cord 😂
video went 0-100 really fast 💀
I wasn't ready
*chord
And then, just like my father, HAI crushed my dreams (by telling me the "Free Public WiFi" isn't WiFi)
F#
If I had a nickel for every time Half As Interesting explained something using a fake VHS tape, I would have two nickels.
That isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice.
Wdym FAKE?!??!
@@theechickengamerz wot
It's weird that it's ONLY happened twice
@@theechickengamerz wdpauawtcjttw?
I see the reference 👀
Theoretically with enough "Free Public WiFi" WANET nodes, they'd eventually connect to the internet, and thus be an actual free public WiFi.
Only if... nevermind.
I've never seen a fake Free Public Wifi network, at least not the way it's explained here. Most of the time it connected, but to a pay wall
Yup, I've seen one a few places with an ISP's name, set to psuedo-open. It would show as an open network in your device's list, but if you tried to connect, it direct you to a web page asking for a username and password. ☹️
Related, my public library's wifi doesn't ask for a login, but it does direct you to a web page of terms and conditions you have to OK before you can do anything on it.
That's very common where I live. All ISPs have their own public wifi which appear without a password but you need to log in into an account that actually pays for the service (it's usually included with internet plans). Wifi at cafés and restaurants also often ask you to log in with a mail address to send you ads. There's an actually public, city run wifi in some places but it's not that good
Uhh if you need to pay to the wifi then it’s not « free » anymore …
@@mihyroiz_heatlair well sometimes it is free, atleast for 100mb per day....
That's common to have a login portal, and isn't free public wifi. I think the video is talking about a network literally called "Free Public Wifi" though, not one that fits that description
Back in 2003 I intentionally created a WANET network sharing the internet connection we had at school event and called it "Free Public WiFi" so I could sniff traffic from whoever connected.
I've always wondered if my network was the genesis of this. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to create a network with that name, but there's a chance.
damn
Well done Sean, lol
your computer is possibly patient zero lol
Thanks, Obama
The good old days when HTTPS wasn't a thing and you could easily sniff on others' internet.
Oh wait, I mean, sorry FBI I don't know what sniffing means. Pls don't arrest me, the children in my basement will starve to death.
The real big news to come from this video is that Sam from Half As Interesting has actually admitted to being Sam from Wendover Productions in a Half As Interesting video
Holy molly
Wait I thought it was the guy from real life lore???
He already did that in Japan video about prefectures in sponsorship
When does he admit this? What minute?
@@youtubestyle293 4:44 onwards you'll hear it clear as day.
I'm a software dev and know a good tonne about computers and Internet technology.
But this is entirely new to me, damn.
nobody cares
@@stephenkamenar Is what your dad said to you.
@@sdHansy you’re gonna spend eight years in jail for _that_ burn, savage! 😂
Don't feel so bad. As a software dev, I have had to ask IT help desk to help me connect to an office printer! 😭🤣
@@sdHansy get a life. He's right. Nobody cares.
I genuinely thought it was wireless fidelity 😂
All those years I’ve been deceived
I prefer Wireless Fireless
The marketing company did base it on HiFi, so it’s understandable for folks to cross-apply the Fi from HiFi into WiFi… but yeah it doesn’t strictly mean Anything
From a english standpoint it is
Same here. I figured it had to stand for that, otherwise it's kind of a silly name.
@@elena8341 agree
"Free and public and totally not a means of stealing all your information because it is unsecured WiFi"
Https exists
It wasn't known about or popular 10+ years ago
@@skie6282 wrong.
@Jon Tevington meant to reply about https, maybe I am wrong though, didnt seem common back then
@@skie6282 It's been fairly common since the early 2000s. Though nonsecured sites are getting much less common. You may not have paid attention, but it's been there.
I remember back in 2016 I was on a train journey in the middle of nowhere in Ukraine, and a network popped on the list called "D**k to you and not WiFi", it was a stereotypical Slavic swearing.
The fact that it was available for an extended period of time made me (and nearby passengers) surprised because it clearly didn't come from a nearby town, at the moment we thought someone lodged a tablet in the train's wheel mechanism.
Now it all makes sense.
Free wifi: A False Hope
It's not a false hope. It's a trap!
@@joshnabours9102 Depends on how secure your device is. I connect to free wifi when in areas with bad mobile signal - I wont do any banking _just in case_ but I'm confident of my devices security.
@@kanedaku one of the risks of connecting to open wifi is that it opens your device up to man in the middle and site cross scripting type attacks. A hacker can put their website in-between your device and the intended website you want to reach and use that to cause your device to run malicious computer software. Arbitrary software that can do any number of things, including logging your entered passwords, downloading your photos off your device, causing your device to mine bitcoin for the hacker, or setting up ransomware on the device. In fact most modern processors are affected by 2 bugs known as specter and meltdown that allow arbitrary access to information in your device's memory.
@@joshnabours9102 Fully aware of MITM, that's exactly why I stated your security *depends* on your device. I connect to free wifi when necessary but I don't use any unsecure browsers, programs or apps.
So what I maybe missed out, was the human factor, which _I foolishly presumed would be common knowledge._
So yes, free wifi could be a trap if you use your device without a care, but for anyone with some knowledge, free wifi is fine.
Refer to the first word of my original reply.
@@kanedaku I was more hoping to get across the idea that no device is really secure. Especially so with the info on the meltdown and spectre bugs that likely effect almost all modern processors and is not operating system or even hardware manufacturer specific. Also the fact that you can use your device with care and within the protective limits your computer knowledge provides and still get hacked.
That sponsorship was the biggest plot twist in RUclips history. I was totally expecting a VPN sponsor.
I completely believed it would be nordvpn
The video of picking a VHS cassette is actually a reversed sequence of setting a VHS cassette down.
That's because no one has actually picked up a VHS cassette in over 15 years, so there wasn't any footage available.
I'm surprised a vpn services didn't sponsor this video
A math teacher at my school has his own wifi network, and the wifi name is “FBI Surveillance”
Over the years I've had FBI Surveillance Van (and I'm not in the US). Back in the mid 2000s you'd have website articles with funny wifi names and that would always be on the list.
FBI SURVEILLANCE VAN is literally the SSID of my network.
I had it too.
This was an amazingly simple attack vector back then. The video overcooked the idea that sp3 wasn't widely adopted by those on a laptop they took with them outside of work and home. This would make them a more advanced user by default than your grandmother on AIM whom you try to click offline fast enough to dodge.
0:35
That pierced right through my heart
Suprised to see a vulnerability in a free public wifi that isn't one you'd expect
How is a video that's literally about public wifi not sponsored by a vpn company
You have to know IT and comedy to really feel the That's What She SSID joke in the thumbnail 😂
This channel is like making some unknown and insignificant things so interesting because you’re putting many details to it which make me watch more of these
Keep up the great work
“I-E-E-E” instead of “I-triple-E” physically hurt me
0:38 "Well, I'm here today to do what your father never would: validate your feelings".
Meanwhile meh so-called "dad" who went to buy milk: validate feelings, huh?
1:33 No. WiFi is not when a router sends out a signal! It’s when an AP sends out a signal. Crappy routers sometimes have APs built in, but good ones don’t.
0:40 Ooooof. Don't be like that, he'll be back with smokes soon, he said he would.
And then there's me creating a free hotspot named "FREE WIFI" on every public place, then setting the megabyte limit to 1mb.
Over the past few months I’ve noticed the largest problem that come from the computer world are just from features that where never thought through.
The whole thing is based on trust (nobody would hurt a beautiful new innocent tech project, would they?)...then adding haphazard patches as you find out the world indeed will. Weirdly similar to how we bring up kids, almost like it's a philosophy or something.
watching this on free public wifi
So many of these videos keep getting made. I bought one of the first commonly available consumer WiFi cards and set up an AdHoc network at Trent U in the early 2000s. Wanting to share the Trent LAN with anyone who wanted to use WiFi back in the day, I set up an AdHoc network named "Free Public WiFi" on my Win98 laptop.
Well, lo and behold a few years later I saw that exact same WiFi Adhoc network hosted by someone else, and then at an airport, and then... you get the idea.
I have no idea if I actually originated this, but I think I might have started at least one node of it.
Fun fact. In London, UK, we have plenty of free public WiFi. Some actually are called public WiFi which are free to use (can't recall any called exactly ""free public WiFi" but most are close enough. Usually is " free wifi" or " free but WiFi" (or whatever company providing it, drops their name next to " free wifi" )
every country has this bro
@@konstantinlindner1037 no.fact. want me to list counties/ 0la es/areas where it is t too common ?
I've been to a couple of towns in the US that have a singular free wifi network that covers most/all of the town
We had this show up at work which was part of a hotel. In IT we thought this was a nefarious man in the middle scam because we did not setup such an SSID. We even had our IT security team come in with Air Magnets. We never were able to to find it though due to this chain of events. It all roots to people doing this to man in the middle people in public areas before the days of widespread https, cert pinning, and VPNs. We knew about the scam, but not about how it starts a chain reaction and "spreads".
A lot of the places in my smaller town do have free Wi-Fi that actually works so this was really surprising to me, never had it work in big cities or in big chains tho.
Oh great, my comment about wireless LANs somehow got picked up by the spam filter. But this one, without any of the info I put into the other one, will probably go through just fine. Ugh
Yep. RUclips is worthless.
Worst is when the 'people who follow a modern version of an ideology that was really popular during the 30s in that one European country' can spread their opinions and propaganda because they've got to keep it slightly veiled anyway, but pointing out what ideology they're spreading talking points from will get your comments removed.
at 0:41 when you said dad don’t validate your feelings, it hit hard-
"That's what she SSID"😂
I love how Sam mix advertising with his content and/or personal life
I remember back in Windows XP days if you manually add the wireless Network Linksys you could connect to the WIFI. Only worked if you manually added the network.
Before sp3 there was an individual update that would fix this. I remember manually patching systems as I didn't want my temporary mac Network to get massively reproduced on my friends Windows computers. Nowadays I just suspected it would be a common network name for hackers to use as well as those still never updated Windows xp computers most likely very common in airports.
I’ve seen this Doctor Who episode. Don’t join it, you get sucked into a faceless robot
"What dose wifi stand for" is a question to go around asking to see who knows
Your editing is flawless, coupled with the puns I believe you can make any topic more than half interesting 😊
I needed that feeling validation. Ty HaI
"No three words since 'Star Wars Prequels' have ever created such enormous hope followed by such immediate disappointment' Have you tried "Star Wars *Sequels* "?
You REALLY wanted a reason to run that ad 😂 I respect your hustle.
love the Amiga 500 at 1:56
When you aren't in North America and thus public wifi is now reduntant as mobile data is so beyond cheap. I get full 4G/5G 55GB for ~$23 USD in Australia. And any unused data is banked and rolls over month by month. This is even cheaper in European and African countries. And the mobile tethering thing is only really a US thing.
Nice!
I live in America and I get unlimited mobile data for $50 USD. I also don’t understand why people would need “free public wifi” these days.
@@jordan4777 "unlimited" but restricted speed or coverage or has tethering limits isn't true "unlimited"
@@jordan4777 Kids, and people not using their phones but their laptops/game devices. But this has also dropped off recently. And I don't just mean that no one goes outside for free wifi. This was something I remember being very common in 2008-2012. I don't think I've seen one since 2015, maybe even before that.
This video is honestly one of the best on the HAI channel
This is easily one of the best channels that pop up in my feed.
the "fbi surveillance van" network in the thumbnail is kinda funny because my neighbor's wifi is "asio surveillance van" lol
I remember learning about this in my networking/cyber security classes
Can‘t believe this wasn’t sponsored by a vpn
This is new to me too and I went to college for this sort of stuff... not that my knowledge is rusty or anything? -it certainly is-
But damn, your transitions from the video topic into your personal life and then into an ad are as slick as an F-22 coming in to blow my wallet out of the sky with its ADRAAMs.(haha, it's a pun: AMRAAM, an air-to-air missile, and ad, for advertisement, get it? XD)
The Amiga 500s were a nice touch.
I love that the Amiga 1000 is the example of a standard computer 😂
Except it is an Amiga 500 but yeah, neither had WiFi. An Amiga 1000 was my standard computer for a long time though.
@@Jun0Man you know I actually typed A500 and then gave it the benefit of the doubt and thought it was a 1000 lol
I had an A600 as a kid
I love how Sam makes so many obscure jokes per second that only a fraction of his audience are familiar enough with to catch on. I believe he intentionally uses juxtaposition, so that the audience can discover jokes that he wasn't actually aware of while producing it.
I was looking for this comment and I found it, I’m happy.
I love how a few of these videos has a little plot/mini storyline to go along with the info, like this one has the subplot of someone being stuck in MrBeast's old squid game set
Missed opportunity to plug a VPN provider Sam from Wendover. Cool video 🤙🏻
Yes, the announcement of the sequels followed by the release of info on them, and then the movies themselves
Funny that the thumbnail has “FBI Surveillance Van” cuz that’s exactly what ours was for a long time. My dad drives a black sprinter van and it just made perfect sense
😅 Thx for sharing something that I never knew about or probably will never see
4:45
That close up shot of that bug scared the heck outta me 😨
the WiFi thing always bugged me, in Germany its just called WLAN for Wireless LAN (probably helps that we dont pronounce W as 'double u' because that makes for awful acronyms)
How do you pronounce it?
@@G_FRE more like "ve", but softer
@@G_FRE kinda like "way-lawn"
This is a real “Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One” situation
I looked at the title of the video and genuinely thought that an insect was generating fake free public wifi signals.
Very nice, great time doing video watching
0:20 Yeah I'm definitely stealing "Bill Wi the Science Fi" and "LAN Down Under"
Lol, I remember waiting at airports and always failing to connect to anything through "Free Public Wifi" several times, to the point I gave up even trying no matter if I saw it or not.
I got lucky enough to have good eduroam coverage back in the day, and now mobile data is so cheap that I only need WiFi when travelling outside of the EU - a pretty rare occurrence for me these days. I used to use a UK 3 pay as you go SIM with a data pack add-on when I travelled semi-regularly to the US, but idk if that's still a thing...
But yeah, I don't hook up to networks I don't recognize, even if it's just like the coffee shop I'm at or something. Still not best practice in terms of internet security, but at least better than a random mystery network 🤷♀️ Ideally I try to find a local prepaid SIM with data, or I just suck it up and very sparingly pay the roaming charges when I absolutely must and use my hotel WiFi when I'm there.
My dad left when I was 1 but this channel is informative and hilarious.
Jeebus this comment made my day!
4:50 ...and then comes the BER, the Berlin Airport...
Hah, I've been using "Free Public WiFi" as my SSID for years, poking fun at this bug, but that's in hostapd on Linux using a TP-Link WiFi card in AP mode.
So that's why my train station's WiFi never works...
Uh-huh
Hello Fresh or other delivered food uses too much packaging - environmentally not good.
All this packaging for just one meal.
Better to shop in grocers for one week and make food by following recipes.
Yes! It's kind of sad coming from a great RUclipsr that is all about science, facts and good judgement.
also some more news stopped taking sponsorships from hellofresh cuz they like unionbusting iirc lol
The packaging is recycled, and is recyclable. The food you get from the grocery store is also usually packaged in some way. A study by the University of Michigan found that Hello Fresh is more environmentally friendly than the going to the grocery store as it significantly reduces food waste.
@@passingthorough7667 That study is pretty old and concluded the "improvement" attributed to food waste, and less on transportation and negative on plastic waste. Food waste is a solvable issue both at production and consumption ends. I also looked at relevant food waste studies - those figures were for the entire food industry, and less of it by user throwing away food at home. Also, I spend a chunk of work time looking at "recyclng" for broad spectrum of things, and the sad story is American's recycle is not factual, it's only for "feel good"... once collected, we don't really recycle/reuse the material, and therefore packaging disposal is a huge issue. In addition, the study attribute "last-mile" logistics as also a key why meal kit does better but that's no longer the case. With COVID, home grocery delivery has grown and "last-mile" advantage of meal kit is no longer there...
@@_w_w_ Thanks for the well thought out response. Seems to me that you've done more research into this than I have, so I'll take your word for it.
The first clip in the video, at 0:00 brings me back to the days of the old Android holo Ui...
That thumbnail was great lmao
The thumbnail is absolutely legendary
Haha this is awesome, great video.
I bet the first guy who made the node absolutely knew what they were doing, and planned it as an epic prayink on the world.
You're in a airport, stay away from people 6 feet, proceeds to enter a closed metal cylinder which also flies but where people sit 1 feet from each other...
"Bill Wi the science Fi" got me loling.
There are some really funny writers there.
That thumbnail is a work of art.
Oh hey, that's the Hello Fresh meal we're making tonight!
IEEE 802.11b is the best Atari Teenage Riot album
Oh come on, I come to your channel to learn cool fun facts not outdated mocking of a pretty good movie trilogy
*misunderstood and at least ok movie trilogy. Other than that I think you’re correct.
Finishing a half as interesting video so my pizza bites can be half as hot which are just half a pizza and half a bite.
For a moment, I really hoped this was a story about a bettle on a radio antena that created the wifi
0:20 IM DYING THESE ARE GREAT
Free Public Wi-Fi sounds like a Monopoly spot
"Hey dude, do you have IEE 802.11b Direct Sequence at your house?"
"Nah, do You have IEE 802.11b Direct Sequence at YOUR house?"
"No, that's why I asked you if you had IEE 802.11b Direct Sequence."
"Well I don't have IEE 802.11b Direct Sequence."
With the greatest respect to your wonderful video. That "meal" from Hello Fresh looked sad and awful.
OMG, that's exactly what I was thinking. That is one sad looking orangey meal.
It looked like a delicious, very small portion to me.
My neighbor's SSID is Searching... My SSID is Searching..
So now when you see this, the proper protocol is to stand up, look around, and yell "WHO IS RUNNING XP IN HERE‽"
1:49 Should've included the logo of this video's sponsor for the ad bit
OH MY GOD THAT THUMBNAIL PUN LMAO
Nice use of Amiga 500s!
+10 points 👍😁
Where I live, free public wi-fi really is free wi-fi but you get a message saying not to share/access sensitive data
"Thats what she ssid"
Lmaowut