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

Posted by Soulskill on from the deja-vu-all-over-again dept.

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."

7 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Old news by lavagolemking · · Score: 5, Informative

    Steve Gibson covered this over 3 years ago. https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-082.htm

  2. Re:I see this alot by TrisexualPuppy · · Score: 5, Informative

    The "hpsetup" ESSID is from HP bloatware. It is used to connect the computer to wireless peripherals, namely HP wifi-enable printers.

    I researched this myself, and it ended up that there were a bunch of better ways to implement it, but HP flat out didn't care.

  3. I don't see it very often... by damn_registrars · · Score: 4, Informative
    The claim of

    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.'

    Doesn't match my experience. I have done a fair bit of flying lately - and always needing at least one connection each time because my closest airport sucks - and haven't seen it at the airports I've been to. I have checked for WiFi at coffee shops and restaurants and haven't seen that SSID there either. Lately I have been connecting through some of the busiest airports in the country (O'Hare and Newark Liberty in particular) and haven't seen this.

    In fact, I can't think of the last time I did see it. I often use my blackberry to access open WiFi spots, and I don't have a record of a network that I have connected to called 'Free Public WiFi'.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:I don't see it very often... by kidcharles · · Score: 4, Informative

      I commute through New York Penn Station twice every day. I don't think I've ever NOT seen "Free Public Wifi" on the list of connections on my Nokia N900.

      --
      Ceci n'est pas une sig.
    2. Re:I don't see it very often... by CrashandDie · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, and this is from my logs, I've seen 'Free Public Wifi' in ad-hoc mode:

      2009-03-29 LHR
      2009-03-29 LAX
      2009-04-03 LAX
      2009-04-05 DTW
      2009-04-06 LHR
      2009-04-06 LGW
      2009-04-12 LGW
      2009-04-18 LHR
      2009-04-18 LAX
      2009-04-29 DFW

      And that's just over the course of one month.

      Looking at another random month:

      2010-01-04 LGW
      2010-01-04 LHR
      2010-01-06 BKK
      2010-01-06 SYD
      2010-01-06 BNE
      2010-01-14 BNE
      2010-01-14 LHR
      2010-01-18 LHR
      2010-01-18 LAX

      I'd pretty much say this exactly confirms what the article spells out. (For the record, I was a Consultant, getting drunk in airplanes was my job).

  4. Your machine would have to be years out of date by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    to be affected. This was fixed in XP SP3. Love lines like "When a computer running an older version of XP ...." without further explanation. Haters gonna hate!

  5. Re:Dupe by deeweef · · Score: 3, Informative

    Mod parent up and GP down. The "duped" is about a scam, while this is about a big in XP. Bigg diff.