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In-Flight Wi-Fi Makes its Debut
mindless4210 writes "German airline Lufthansa will become the first carrier to provide Boeing's Connexion service to its passengers. The service will be unveiled on May 17 on non-stop flights from Munich to Los Angeles, with plans to outfit their entire fleet over the next year. Passengers will be able to purchase access using their credit cards and Wi-Fi enabled laptops. The cost is set at $30 for the entire flight or $10 for 30 minutes."
I used to look forward to flights because it gave me time to get lost in a book while sipping some whiskey. now I'll be answering (and dealing with) crap from work? I'm not sure if I'll do this; some times you just can't reach me (this is why all of my phones are off when I'm asleep).
CVS
free ipod and free gmail!
...before we start hearing horror stories about sitting next to sketchy guys who are checking out pr0n on the plane?
I'd rather take the charter flights with no internet access thanks.
You still don't have an electrical outlet. Lets hope you have 9 hours of battery life to get your money worth!
Its much easier to explain to the general populus that NO electronics can be used during take off, as opposed to explaining a whole list of items that can't be used.
I myself am used to editing my talks while on the plane and in flight access to the databases that I use will be of great help. Can't wait to get this. Something else though - I'm wondering about in flight information. You can usually get really up-to-date weather info and so on during the flight. I can imagine a scenario where flyers with wi-fi access will know of bad weather and, possibly, impending disaster before it's being announced by the captain (who usually won't announce impending disaster anyway). We could get a new kind of panic - Airport panic (capitalization is intentional :)).
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
Old skool airlines price for business first - the passengers out back are there to make the numbers.
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30 bucks is negligible for business travellers. Especially those who spend half their time in the air.
Everyone here is looking at it as whether it's worth 30 bucks. More to the point, easy net access reduces a major barrier to business travel. Workers are more productive, can respond to stuff as it happens, and managers can be more confident they're actually working rather than catching up on the latest blockbusters.
Less barriers, more flights. That's what the industry desperately needs right now.
Now if only the whole industry could get its act together and reduce the waiting times at either end of the trip
the airfare, which on any flight is ample
You can cross the country for ~$200. That's cheap by any standard. Seriously. how can you say that airlines are overcharging and should be adding services for free. The idea that you can get from New York to LA in 6 hours. That is madness. Tell that to the pioneers that took 6 months and spent hundreds of dollars (in 1850's money) and they would shit a brick.
If anything you should get free airplane flights with your starbucks. They are the ones overcharging. $2-3 for a cup of coffee. At that price it better come with some pr0n.
I tried for 5 years to come up with a clever sig...only to realize that I am not clever.
I don't think spoofing is a very great concern. The point of Lufthansa installing this is that business customers will fly Lufthansa and not BA. It's not to get thirty bucks.
OK, to do security one must think like the bad guys. So let us put on our black hats for a moment.
/me removes black hat
Only fairly well off people will fork over $30 to feed their Internet addiction - most of all the super-type-A types who cannot tell the difference between "being busy" and "being productive".
Most of those people will be running Windows, probably Win98 or WinXP.
So, if I just sit back, wait for them to get their mail, sniff the password they use for email, and then use that password in an attempt to access their computer, I will probably get right in.
Then I can Trojan their machines (for later access to the inside of whatever corporate network they use), download their My Documents folder and desktop, and see what I can dig up.
The beautiful thing about this is that I have every excuse to be close to these people for extended period times, then I get off the plane and go my own way, never to cross the guys path again.
Gosh, I am SO glad I am not in IT management....
www.eFax.com are spammers
Isn't that a bit high? Seems like its expensive to just check your spam, err email..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
You may only use your laptop if you can disable your wireless connection.
I call bs, good thing i never turn off my wireless or my cell phone.
Wouldn't 100baseT be more appropriate? A single cat5 jack in the backs of the seats, and no worry that if someone switches to 802.11g instead of 802.11b that the plane's navsystem will hiccup.
Wireless is for me sitting out in the backyard and websurfing, or walking around the worksite with my iPaq. It's not that great of a replacement for wires, it's for doing what wires never could. Duh.
Speaking as someone who has piloted a Cessna through the slipstream of a heavy (it was a military transport), I can tell you unequivocally that this is a BAD idea...
Do a little research on wake turbulence then come back and talk to me.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Yes they can.
Alright then genius explain to me how they will enforce it? They don't prohibit you from using your laptop if you haven't paid for the Wi-Fi service -- how are they going to know that you have an Ad-Hoc network setup? Are they going to walk around using spectrum analyzers and packet sniffers? Something tells me they have better things to do.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Today, they don't let you use electronics during takeoff and landing. What possible reason do they have not to let me use my gameboy or my discman? None. But they don't want to deal with certifying every possible piece of electronics that might or might not be safe because it's not worth the trouble and the risk of being wrong is so high. Similarly, anything involving broadcasting over radio frequencies is going to make them uncomfortable, unless it's the specific application they've set up.
Understood but you still aren't answering the question of how are they going to know you are doing this. I wasn't suggesting that you hack their internet access -- I was suggesting that you setup a private ad-hoc network to communicate with your buddies on the plane. There is simply no way they are going to know that you are doing this.
As for "What possible reason would they have to do this other then pure greed?" Isn't "pure greed" enough? They are providing you a way to have wireless that they have set up and verified is safe. You are trying to get around paying for it in a way that they are not confident is safe. They aren't going to like that.
What am I trying to get around paying for? They are selling me Internet Access. What if I only want to be able to send ICMP echos to my friend in 6B? It's still a moot point as I maintain that there is no way they could tell that you were doing this. If they start allowing wi-fi on the plane do you really think they will notice if somebody sets up a little ad-hoc network? If they are allowing wi-fi in the first place it's obviously safe.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.