
The rise of passive-aggressive wi-fi names - jofo25
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19760006
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lewispollard
There's a trade-in electronics chain in the UK called CeX, and their WiFi
hotspots are open and named 'Unprotected CeX' by default which I always found
amusing.

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rdwallis
It would be great if everyone just put their phone number as the SSID.

Phone numbers are unique and let others contact you if they want to use your
wifi for some reason. Would probably help neighbors get hold of each other in
emergencies as well.

~~~
alanctgardner2
But then any random passerby could harvest phone numbers easily. And because
of the nature of a) cell phones and b) wireless networks, there isn't really a
good correlation from wifi-availability to geographic location to actual phone
location. You might know all of your neighbours' phone numbers, but not which
goes with whom, nor which ones are on your floor, or even in your building.
And just imagine someone phoning them all to try to find out who's playing
music at night.

~~~
rdwallis
Well yes, if you publish your phone number then people will be able to see it.

You're right about the flat number / street number situation though. It might
be good to add that to the SSID as well.

Loud music seems like a perfect use case for the information.

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nucleardog
When I lived in an apartment building our SSID was "internet-304". 304 being
my apartment number.

No one ever showed up at my door or anything, but it was there. Seems like the
most obvious and succinct way to tie the access point to a physical location,
which seems the most obvious way to open communications.

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rdwallis
Yes, I've had my phone number as SSID for the past three years and have yet to
have anyone call it.

I think it'll need to hit a critical mass before it's useful. People don't
expect SSID's to have useful information so they don't look for it there.

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wisty
Does anyone else think that using the term "passive-agressive" is somewhat ...
passive-agressive?

~~~
zerostar07
Also most of the names are pretty direct, no passive aggressiveness there

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rm999
It's passive aggressive because the people aren't directly speaking to their
neighbors. Kind of like the notes in passiveaggressivenotes.com - those notes
are direct, but they avoid direct confrontation.

~~~
starpilot
Then _all_ notes are passive by nature of not being face to face, and they
should just be called "aggressive notes." Except many of these aren't
aggressive in that they're not deliberately hostile or vengeful, just plain
directives that some readers take as personal attacks for some reason.

~~~
mturmon
No, not all notes are passive, because they are not transmitted as a wi-fi
name.

That's what makes them passive in this instance. They are relayed without
actively delivering them.

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imgabe
My favorite one in my neighborhood is "Hide Yo Kids Hide Yo WiFi"

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incision
I enjoyed an entrepreneurial one to the effect of:

"Pay 1711 10 bones for access"

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lewisflude
Not linking back to the Reddit post (as far as I can see). This seems to be a
bit of a trend recently. :)

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dllthomas
I have two networks, a private one and a public one. The public one has no
password, and the SSID is "My Address Guest". I've received thank-you notes.
If overuse gets to be an issue, I'll throttle the public side, but it hasn't
been so far.

~~~
thesloth
And what if someone uses it for illegal activities? The buck would stop with
you (or at least start there). I'd be very wary about an Open WiFi these
days....

~~~
dllthomas
Having been stuck without access in the past, I think the benefit to others is
worth the risk.

See also:

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wirele...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wireles.html)

<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/04/open-wireless-movement>

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nicholassmith
Surprised the 'FBI Van' one wasn't mentioned as I've seen that more than a few
times in the wild and posted around the internet.

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hellweaver666
It was on the example pic about half way down.

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nicholassmith
True, but as it's become a bit of a geek in joke I was surprised it wasn't
mentioned during the article as well.

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mjn
I've recently run across a handful of political messages in prominent
locations. Taking the train from Tampere to Turku, Finland, for example,
someone on the train was broadcasting a really long SSID that translates
roughly to "Support tram construction in Tampere and Turku!"

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hcrisp
"FBI Surveillance van" wasn't directly mentioned, but it does partially appear
in one of the photos.

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francov88
That person is a genius imo

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Nursie
No 'Free Public Wifi' ?

Awesome windows virusy-thing that was...

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christoph
Actually not a virus, just a bug in Windows XP -
[http://www.npr.org/2010/10/09/130451369/the-zombie-
network-b...](http://www.npr.org/2010/10/09/130451369/the-zombie-network-
beware-free-public-wifi)

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keithpeter
I've been using "just sit down and have a nice cup of tea" for some time. I
use hyphens in the actual name. Alas, my neighbours still have SKY-some-large-
number or the BT equivalent. They all do have wpa2 turned on however.

<http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/exhibitions/current/?id=50>

I think goto10 have automated the id string thing. I saw something like this
in Birmingham some months ago, goto10 did a residence then.

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sergiotapia
Quick hypothetical scenario.

If I were to open a free wifi network and let anybody use it, say call it:
"Free Internet!" and many people used it.

Could I intercept those users personal information suck as Facebook usernames,
passwords, emails, etc?

How deep would me penetration go? Or will I only be able to intercept packets?

I always tell my wife to not use online banking etc when she visits a cafe
with free internet, but it's just a hunch - not based on my actual knowledge
on the matter. That's why I'm asking. Thanks!

~~~
joshAg
> Could I intercept those users personal information suck as Facebook
> usernames, passwords, emails, etc?

Yes. You'd have to do a bit of work, since the info would be encrypted, but by
being in-path you would get all the info you need to decrypt the messages.

> I always tell my wife to not use online banking etc when she visits a cafe
> with free internet, but it's just a hunch - not based on my actual knowledge
> on the matter. That's why I'm asking. Thanks!

Unless she does her web browsing over a secured vpn, then there's a chance
that information could be seen by someone.

~~~
jiggy2011
Not necessarily. Facebook now uses SSL for login and I'm assuming any sane
Online banking service does the same.

On the other hand there things to watch out for like SSL strip.

<http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/sslstrip/>

So make sure that you are actually using the HTTPS version of any site.

If you are using standard HTTP (or another unencrypted protocol) then you can
assume that the network owner can intercept everything you are doing.

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Create
Paper always works.

[http://static-mb.minutebuzz.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/06/c...](http://static-mb.minutebuzz.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/06/chers-voisins-1.jpg)

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jug6ernaut
Am i the only one who doesn't broadcast their SSID?

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travisp
You're almost certainly not the "only one." But, most of us don't bother
because it doesn't provide any additional security (and might mislead you into
thinking you can make your network less secure).

See "Why Non-broadcast Networks are not a Security Feature" at
[http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/bb726942.aspx#EDA...](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/bb726942.aspx#EDAA)

~~~
harshreality
Doesn't it also make it more difficult for neighbors to check for channel
conflicts?

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ek
No, it doesn't. Spectrum analyzers can detect WiFi signals regardless of
whether or not they are broadcasting an SSID, which includes discerning what
channel they are on. By extension, most software built-in to WAPs that
automatically chooses the channel to reduce conflicts will do similar spectrum
analysis. You can read GP's article from TechNet for more information on this.

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quarterto
A couple of years ago visible form my student house were "227 epic house" and
"229 even more epic house".

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code_duck
My favorite are the ones that leave you wondering what's going on where, such
as "Make Out Party".

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francov88
Does it make me a bad person if I find some of these really funny and
creative?

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rmcastil
Ultimate passive agressive one would be "I'm not mad, just disappointed".

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civilian
One in my apartment building is: "Inside Bristol Palin's Uterus".

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foxhop
my wireless SSID has been 1337haxz0r for the last 6 years. Nobody has
attempted to break in, I hope to confuse people who don't use 1337 speak or
scare off people that do...

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mouseroot
this really isnt news I mean back when everyone left thier routers open be
default alot of the network names where even more aggressive its funny they
know howto change the sisd but not the damn password or encryption type lol

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eps
I stick to "Honeypot".

~~~
pyre
Not everyone knows what that is. They might just assume that you're a fan of
Winnie the Pooh.

