Why You See 'Free Public WiFi' In So Many Places

An anonymous reader writes "Almost anywhere you go these days (particularly at airports), if you check for available WiFi settings, you have a pretty good chance of seeing an ad hoc network for 'Free Public WiFi.' Of course, since it's ad hoc (computer to computer) it's not actually access to the internet. So why is this in so many places? Turns out it's due to a bug in Windows XP. Apparently, the way XP works is that if it can't find a 'favorite' WiFi hotspot, it automatically sets up the computer to broadcast itself as an ad hoc network point, using the name of the last connection the computer attempted. So... people see 'Free Public WiFi' and they try to log on. Then their own computer starts broadcasting the same thing, because it can't find a network it knows. And, like a virus, the 'Free Public WiFi' that doesn't work lives on and on and on."

Comments

Not so

[GWBasic]

Of course, since it's ad hoc (computer to computer) it's not actually access to the internet.

Regarding ad-hoc WIFI networks, that's not true. One node on the network needs to act as a proxy.

This is the case if you share an internet connection on a Mac laptop, such as sharing a 3G dongle over WIFI, or sharing a wired internet connection over WIFI. The network will be ad-hoc and will have access to the internet. The same thing applies with the MiWi application on jailbroken iPhones. It creates an ad-hoc network for accessing the internet through the iPhone.

The point of ad-hoc networks is to save battery and CPU resources and be more responsive at the expense of some reliability. In a normal WIFI network, computer-to-computer connections always go through the router. In ad ad-hoc network, computer-to-computer connections go directly between the computers, creating a strange reliability situation when two computers on the network are far away from each other. Of course, if all you're doing is getting on the internet, it's kind of a wash.

"Ad hoc"

[KC1P]

As Inigo would say: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.