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Re: How is public WiFi meant to work?

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RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> wrote:
> On 2019-04-20, Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
>> In the days of yore, one chose a public WiFi node, and then when one 
>> entered a URL into a browser, the WiFi node served up a page that 
>> redirected one to a terms-acceptance page.  One clicked on that.  
>> Job done.
> 
> I wish there were an alternative to captive portals, but the hotel 
> chains seem to have found them the best solution.

Small edit: The hotel chains lawyers have insisted they be the offered 
solution. [1]

The portals exist so that the lawyers can sleep at night because they 
have offloaded (they hope) any responsibility for your browsing/use by 
having you click 'accept' to the terms and conditions the lawyers wrote 
up.

Were it not for the lawyers, one could just connect to the hotel wifi, 
get an IP address, and start browsing without all this extra impediment 
in the way.



[1] Or, alternately, for the pricey chains, it is so you can 'agree' to 
their $20/day "internet usage fee", so they can provide you a service 
that costs them $0.01/day to provide, while they make $19.99/day in 
profit from the fee they charge you.

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Thread

How is public WiFi meant to work? Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-04-20 12:50 +1000
  Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2019-04-20 05:02 +0000
    Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2019-04-20 03:11 -0300
    Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-04-20 16:54 +1000
  Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2019-04-20 10:38 +0300
  Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-04-20 09:02 +0000
    Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2019-04-20 14:44 +0000
      Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-04-21 19:56 -0400
  Re: How is public WiFi meant to work? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2019-04-21 00:12 +0000

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