
Melbourne Launches World-Class Free Wi-Fi Network - bootload
http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/melbourne-launches-world-class-free-wi-fi-network/
======
mrmondo
Melbournian here: I'd hold off labelling it world class just yet, Also worth
noting is that the network is completely insecure - the entire network has no
password on the WPA2 SSIDs at all so your traffic is unencrypted and ripe for
the taking for anyone that wants it, it's not only bad practise - it's down
right irresponsible and misleading.

Couple that with the fact that the ISP backing most of it is notoriously
shaftey - engaging in anticompetitive behaviour and been screwing over
Australian citizens for decades, are one of the most expensive ISPs to peer
with in the world and have a terrible support track record.

~~~
nrki
> Also worth noting is that the network is completely insecure - the entire
> network has no password on the WPA2 SSIDs

FYI, even if it had a password, if everyone knows it, they have access to all
your traffic anyway.

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dx034
Correct me if I'm wrong, but WPA2 should have individual keys for each client,
so that you cannot read the traffic of other connected users.

~~~
JimmyAustin
They do, but if you intercept the handshake that occurs every time someone
joins the network, and you have the network key, they get that to.

~~~
awestroke
That doesn't sound right. Doesn't WPA2 include some form of Diffie-Hellman
during the handshake? Doesn't prevent MITM, but should prevent snooping

~~~
hueving
Nope: [http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/5927/why-does-
wpa-...](http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/5927/why-does-wpa-psk-not-
use-diffie-hellman-key-exchange)

If you're in PSK mode, it's assumed you're trusted. Perfect forward secrecy
wasn't a target of PSK mode.

Also, if you're going to do a DH exchange and give the key out to everyone,
there is no point in having the key in the first place, just do a plain old DH
exchange.

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draugadrotten
Is this "free" Wi-fi used to track the physical location of wifi enabled
phones, like many other public wifi networks?

Will Australian police need warrants to query this network for location data?

Can the NSA access the location data from this network through the 5 eyes
network?

 _" The model works by providing free access in exchange for users’ personal
and behavioral data, which are then used to target ads to them."_

[http://theconversation.com/the-heavy-price-we-pay-for-
free-w...](http://theconversation.com/the-heavy-price-we-pay-for-free-wi-
fi-52412)

~~~
bootload
_" Will Australian police need warrants to query this network for location
data?"_

would the data be held by the ISP and inspected under the existing
legislation?

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jstoja
Luxembourg city has this since almost 2years and it's pretty awesome. It's
available in the whole city center, it's fast enough and there's even a
premium offer. So many people are transiting here for business and offering a
free wifi is a clear comfort offered to travellers!

Big up to Melbourne for doing the same !

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_ao789
I stopped taking it seriously when they said "250mb cap". What the hell are
you going to do with that?

~~~
dagw
What are you doing with your phone? I have a 1.5 GB a month data plan and only
very rarely go over that.

~~~
xuki
Some people use their phones as their main computer.

~~~
dagw
I'm guessing many of those people have a 'real' internet connection at home
and at work which they'll be using most of the time.

~~~
spacehunt
4G LTE nowadays is often faster than the average non-NBN broadband at home or
work though.

~~~
hueving
non-NBN?

I get 85mbps pretty consistently from my cable provider, which is faster than
I get on LTE.

~~~
spacehunt
How about upload? I only get 2.5Mbps uplink via Bigpond Cable.

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benbristow
> World-Class > 250mb cap.

Haha. Practically every free Wi-Fi network over here in the UK is unlimited.

~~~
dagw
Perhaps, but at least in London free Wi-Fi is hardly ubiquitous. I found that
walking down an avg. street in London I did not av access to free Wi-Fi. If
they can blanket the city with this then that would be pretty handy even with
a 250MB/day cap.

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hiisukun
Adelaidian here (another Australian capital). Our city has had free Wifi
provided by a competing ISP, since 2014 [1]. For many years now (as long as I
can remember) they have also provide free Wifi at the Adelaide airport.

I'm very happy to hear something similar has been launched in Melbourne. I
visit there regularly and as most of my social arrangements are via data
(messaging or email) it is always great to have access to Wifi. The trade-off
between security and utility is one I'm comfortable with, as more layers of
security can always be added.

I'd be happy if the splash pages weren't quite so intrusive - but I guess
either there isn't a good way around this, and/or it is the necessary price
for something that is otherwise free.

As an aside, the customer service of Melbourne's Wifi provider is indeed
famously bad, while Adelaide's is famously good. Who knows what the future
holds though.

[1]
[https://hotspot.internode.on.net/partners/adelaidefree/](https://hotspot.internode.on.net/partners/adelaidefree/)

~~~
Benjamin_Dobell
You know TPG own Internode, right? ;)

EDIT: To be fair, it's only recent.

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exodust
Mobile data plans are quite cheap in Australia lately. Lots of competition and
lots of gigabytes thrown in. For this reason I don't know who the market is
for free wi-fi when most people have enough mobile data anyway. I suppose
tourists without roaming might use it, or anyone who has used all their data
and too broke to pay the 2 bucks to top up.

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taneq
I reckon it'll be less than a day before this network bogs down due to the
sheer volume of Instagram photos of lattes.

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fowl2
They're hinting/implying that there'll be no captive portal - that makes it
1000% times more useful and friendly, even with just a small data cap. If only
it extended to the airport - their stupid registration system is a PITA.

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duncan_bayne
Another Melbournian here - for the little it's worth I'm disappointed by the
Government getting involved in something it oughtn't (from the perspective of
a minarchist-Objectivist), and it's _also_ an awful network from a technical
perspective.

I really wish the Government would just limit itself to, you know, Governing,
and stop a) breaking markets and then b) appointing itself to "fix" the
resultant problems with public money.

Finally, calling it free is misleading - taxpayer funded would be much less
like propaganda.

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_ao789
In London we have stations where there's over 150MB throughput on a device
uncapped. Hardly 'on par'

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p4bl0
I don't understand what "world-class" mean, is it just a buzzword or does it
convey any information?

~~~
ryan-allen
World class internet in Australia is a flaky 5 megabit per second.

~~~
lysp
Too true

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caminante
... _[for parts of Melbourne and with no timetable for a city-wide rollout.]_

Good press release :/.

~~~
spacehunt
I guess the "future" locations on the map [1] will be turned on by the end of
this year?

Not exactly great, for example there's almost nothing planned along Swanston
Street.

[1]
[https://www.vic.gov.au/wifi/find.html](https://www.vic.gov.au/wifi/find.html)

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zspitzer
my god, stop complaining about a new free wi-fi network

