

The Story Behind "Free Public WiFi" - It's Not - rafaelc
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_story_behind_free_public_wifi_-_its_not.php

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Cushman
So this is basically a self-propagating virus started by someone indeed
offering Free Public WiFi, now kept alive by hopeful XP users clicking on the
network?

That is so wild. It's like the ad-hoc wifi equivalent of a chain letter.

Edit: Thinking about it, it's even crazier... Because the bug only happens
when there aren't any available networks, it springs up in situations when
there are a lot of people looking for wireless, but there isn't any— on buses,
conferences, etc. The exact sort of situations where people are most likely to
try out "Free Public WiFi", so the virus is more likely to propagate.

Furthermore, the name is important. In order for it to become a widespread
phenomenon, it has to be a name a lot of people will click on. But we can
imagine that a lot of people have set up ad-hoc networks with different names
that wound up being temporarily duplicated by the bug. Some of those with
attractive names may have caused further duplication before finally
disappearing. The more attractive the name, the more likely it is to be
duplicated before being overwritten. In effect, the name "Free Public WiFi"
has been _selected for_.

I'm calling it: This is the first (global?) distributed wireless network that
_evolved on its own_. Unfortunately, evolution doesn't require that it
actually be useful to people :P

~~~
mayank
> This is the first (global?) distributed wireless network that evolved on its
> own.

Not really. It's emergent behavior in a complex system. You have a lot of
entities (in this case, unpatched Windows XP SP2 and below systems), and a set
of very simple local rules (if (winxp and no wifi) then create last adhoc
network, if (human and see "free public wifi") then click link).

The fascinating behavior that emerges from the interplay of these local rules
is the global "virus" if you will. It's a fascinating area of research, and
even aside from the inflated egos of some physicists in the area, I'm glad I'm
studying the field.

Read Duncan Watts' book "Six degrees" for a decent popsci introduction to the
field (you might have to skip some self-aggrandizing of physics as the Savior
of Intellectual Thought though).

Edit: cellular automata are a more recognizable CS example of this.

~~~
Cushman
That's not contradicting me? Evolution is a special case of emergent behavior
in a complex system.

The rules of the buggy system mean that any ad-hoc network can be replicated
if a user connects to it. That creates selective pressure on the name of ad-
hoc networks in that convincing more users to click on them causes further
replication.

So we have a (somewhat) self-replicating entity, with variation, and a
selective process applied to that variation. Sounds like evolution to me.

(Of course the names are originally made by people; but if we assume that ad-
hoc networks aren't named with the intention of creating a self-replicating
pattern, they're effectively random from the perspective of the ecosystem. The
success of "Free Public WiFi" is a product of selection, not human design.)

~~~
jamii
Evolution requires mutation. If the name occasionally got garbled then it
would be evolution.

~~~
imd
Evolution requires survival of the fittest. If the name got more enticing over
time then it would be evolution.

~~~
jforman
Technically evolution does not require survival of the fittest or mutation.
Evolution is merely the change in allelic frequency in a population over time.

Without selective pressure (i.e., "survival of the fittest") you can still
have evolution via drift, the founder effect, etc. Drift is a very important
source of evolution in a lot of situations (during my PhD I studied how a
source of seeming drift in the coding regions of genes was actually caused by
selective pressure in some cases).

Without mutation a population can still evolve, too - for example, if a
disease struck and there was no mutation, an allele that protected against the
disease would quickly dominate the population. This is a much more pedantic
thing to point out (on my part), though, since every stretch of every
organism's DNA mutates. The different mutation rates of viruses, bacteria, and
humans due to replication errors (and the resulting effect on evolution) is a
pretty fascinating topic, though.

------
ajg1977
_When a computer running an older version of XP can't find any of its
"favorite" wireless networks, it will automatically create an ad hoc network
with the same name as the last one it connected to -- in this case, "Free
Public WiFi." Other computers within range of that new ad hoc network can see
it, luring other users to connect. [...] Computers with the XP bug that try to
connect to the Internet will remember the name, create their own ad hoc
networks and entice other users wherever they go._

If this was the case, wouldn't we see all manner of oddly named hotspots at
airport locations, and wouldn't they also propagate as people try to connect
to them?

I suspect this story may have been "simplified" to the point where the
interesting details have been lost.

~~~
dedward
Nope - because people very rarely create ad-hoc networks these days - full
infrastrucure-mode APs are everywhere - the only time people tend to select
ad-hoc without realizing it tends to be he one called "Free Public Wifi" - it
just happens to show up in airports and hotels and is passed around from
machine to machine because of the name. Lots of people try it out (it never
actually works) - but it's enough for the netowork name to keep propagating.

------
jasonkester
Strange that they say it's only been around for 4 years. I seem to remember
the first time this story came through Reddit was about 4 years ago, and the
phenomenon it described had been going for several years at that point.

It's actually surprising to see it here now. I was expecting to see a [2007]
tacked on to it.

------
Tichy
Another HN evergreen.

Project idea: automatically extract HN evergreens :-)

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rwwmike
I still want to believe that, somewhere out there, there actually is Free
Public WiFi...

~~~
pavel_lishin
Addison, TX provided city-wide WiFi for residents for awhile, but I think
they're phasing it out this month. Their reasoning was that 3G was ubiquitous,
so there was really no reason to provide WiFi any longer.

------
timcederman
Around for "about 4 years now"? I remember seeing it at a conference 7 years
ago.

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maguay
This was mentioned on Paul Thurrott's site in March:
<http://www.winsupersite.com/paul/mailbag/100321.asp#1>, and that linked to an
explanation from 2007: <http://www.wlanbook.com/free-public-wifi-ssid/>.
Definitely not a new phenomena or explanation.

------
anon-e-moose
This is not a "bug" or a virus.

XP simply remembers the last ad-hoc network you connected to, to be used when
there are no actual APs around. As a blindingly obvious differentiation, ad-
hoc networks have a different icon and say "computer-to-computer network".

Back when Windows XP was introduced, ad-hoc was extremely useful as lots of
places didn't have wireless internet access. My friends and I often used it to
swap files or play network games.

If anything I would call this an unintended phenomenon of people just clicking
something and hoping it worked. The network does not spread because of
Windows, it spreads because people select an ad-hoc network without knowing
what is.

Why we as a society think its totally great to be completely ignorant and
reckless with our computers, I'll never understand.

~~~
dedward
It's an emergent behaviour of a complex system involving people and machines.
What's fascinating is how this non-functional string/ad-hoc netowork beacon,
whatever oyu want ot call it, with this specific name, has spread globally to
every corner of the world as far as we can tell. Hit any airport or hotel
lobby in the world where there are laptops around, and odds are you won't have
to wait long before you see "Free Public WiFi" pop up. That, in and of itself,
is fascinating. It's been going on for a decade.

------
nutjob123
I always used to see this when I walked around the city with my iPod touch. I
thought it was just people trying to be nice. Guess I'm naive.

~~~
dmoney
_I thought it was just people trying to be nice._

Maybe some of them were.

------
LordLandon
So who started the first one?

