how secure are public access points?

[calef13]

Hi,

I am having a hard time finding out about public wireless access points which require you to pay to use them, you know the kind like those T-mobile ones etc.. I know this will probably sound silly but I really can't get google to give me anything useful about how they work. I just can't come up with a decent search query, try it yourself if you don't believe me My question is just: how do they authenticate clients, do they run dns proxys to block people who haven't paid? It surely can't be as simple as 'this mac address is allowed all others aren't' because you could just disassociate the client and spoof their mac, do they perhaps use encryption? I am not asking to be spoon-fed here, just a link or a paper, or maybe somebody here knows more about the software running on these APs, any discussion would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

Calef13

[imported_=Tron=]

Hi,

I am having a hard time finding out about public wireless access points which require you to pay to use them, you know the kind like those T-mobile ones etc.. I know this will probably sound silly but I really can't get google to give me anything useful about how they work. I just can't come up with a decent search query, try it yourself if you don't believe me My question is just: how do they authenticate clients, do they run dns proxys to block people who haven't paid? It surely can't be as simple as 'this mac address is allowed all others aren't' because you could just disassociate the client and spoof their mac, do they perhaps use encryption? I am not asking to be spoon-fed here, just a link or a paper, or maybe somebody here knows more about the software running on these APs, any discussion would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

Calef13

Most use a simple authentication page, without a valid username/password traffic to the WAN will be blocked.

[imported_cybrsnpr]

Hi,

I just can't come up with a decent search query, try it yourself if you don't believe me

Try searching for the term "wifi walled garden" (or "wireless walled garden" or "hotspot walled garden")

[streaker69]

Try searching for the term "wifi walled garden" (or "wireless walled garden" or "hotspot walled garden")

Captive Portal also works.

[Thorn]

Hi,

I am having a hard time finding out about public wireless access points which require you to pay to use them, you know the kind like those T-mobile ones etc.. I know this will probably sound silly but I really can't get google to give me anything useful about how they work. I just can't come up with a decent search query, try it yourself if you don't believe me My question is just: how do they authenticate clients, do they run dns proxys to block people who haven't paid? It surely can't be as simple as 'this mac address is allowed all others aren't' because you could just disassociate the client and spoof their mac, do they perhaps use encryption? I am not asking to be spoon-fed here, just a link or a paper, or maybe somebody here knows more about the software running on these APs, any discussion would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

Calef13

DNS proxies can be used, as can MAC filters. Many also use a token-based system.

NoCat is an open source walled garden. http://nocat.net This is a good overview of how it functions: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wire...nocatauth.html

[opreat0r]

* ssh tunnel
* openvpn tunnel
* dns tunnel :P ( slow as balls but a fun project ) also ICMP can tunnel too

[calef13]

Thanks for all the replies guys, that's really helpful, the captive portal stuff appears to be what I'm looking for. I get the impression these hotspots are fairly difficult to bypass and I wanted to know why, cheers.