PhotoJim

Tax seems to be charged based on point of departure, and since most people would buy WiFi early in the flight, that's probably the correct way of doing it.

SparseFlyer

When we purchase go-go, can my partner use the log in?

Is the connection specific to my mac address?

Can I connect my phone to the wifi and my laptop at the same time with a single purchase?

If I want to share the Internet, should I connect from my phone and tether?

superangrypenguin

I can only give you my best educated guess based on my understanding of the system and my experience using it. I don't think anyone can definitely give you the answer, so here goes.

1) Yes, I believe it is. When I spoof the MAC address on my laptop to reflect that on my phone, it appears to work. Obviously you can only have one MAC address that's active, so if you have two with the same MAC ID, your internet won't work. So yes, it should be (I mean it has to be, based on how anything works, like hotel Wifi, DHCP etc)

2) No, not at the same time. see #1

3) I guess this would work. I'm not sure as to the implication from this from a law perspective. I thought that broadcasting/transmitting functions are not allowed? Technically speaking, it should work, but again, not sure if you're breaking any aviation laws, if any.

SparseFlyer

Oh well, thanks for the answers

Isn't WiFi a broadcasting/transmitting function?

I wish an FT electronics specialist could weigh in

superangrypenguin

Yeah, you're right. That safety video (the old one with the boy) is stuck in my head. I remember it saying that it was prohibited. Obviously times have changed.

I'm not sure if it's permitted for us, as passengers to be broadcasting a wifi hotspot. I guess from a technical perspective, why not? given your question. Still, I'm not entirely sure. Either way, would I? Probably...

Mind you, my phone does not allow me to connect via Wifi, and then broadcast a Wifi hotspot. I can connect to cellular, and tether. I'd be surprised if any phone can do both (connect to wifi and broadcast wifi)

tracon

15 minutes of free wi fi until the end of September...
http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...oard/wifi.html

pitz

No, tethering would *not* work on AC's system, *unless* your device (whether cell phone or laptop) had dual WiFi radios. Nearly all cell phones have a WWAN (ie: 3G/4G LTE) and a WLAN (ie: 802.11n) radio, but not more than one of each.

Why? Because WiFi radios can be set *either* in client mode, or "infrastructure" mode. To host a hot-spot, you need the radio in 'infrastructure' mode. But to connect to the WiFi, you need the radio in client mode.

A number of years ago, I had to spend a lot of time in a building that had good WiFi reception in one room, and poor WiFi reception elsewhere. In a nutshell, they used a single 5GHz access point to cover a single room, and that was it. So what I did was take an old laptop running Linux, installed 2 WiFi radios in it, stuck it in a room, and set it up to be both a client and an access point (on the 2.4GHz band that actually could penetrate out of the room!). A little bit of magic with iptables later, and voila, it worked.

Theoretically one could do this on an aircraft, and 'share' a single WiFi subscription amongst other devices. However, one would need to have a laptop equipped not only with dual WiFi cards, but also dual sets of antennas to support such. And of course there's the ethical problems, and any anti-rogue-hotspot equipment that might be installed.....

lcohen999

That isn't true at all.

Any windows 7/8/10 device can become its own wireless router/repeater using the existing WiFi connection...for free

https://virtualrouter.codeplex.com/

jaysona

There are no anti-rogue hotspot equipment installed on the aircraft, and what you did with your laptop while technically feasible probably wouldn't work for all that long - as in maybe 10 - 30 seconds or so, then pretty much everyone's connection would probably drop off.

Have a look at this http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/27141540-post660.html post to see what the wireless spectrum looks like for Go-Go Wi-Fi. Basically the Go-Go APs use all the channels and broadcast at high enough levels that another client would have a hard time maintaining a wireless connection with the Linux laptop AP - don't ask me to tell you how I know this.

pitz

Interesting chart, but there's nothing (other than regulatory compliance) that would preclude someone from setting up their own "access point" in the 5GHz bands. Or even on Channel 14 if one's willing to "cajole" their equipment into thinking that its Japan-based.

BTW, access points certainly can and do co-exist on the same channels, albeit bandwidth is effectively 'shared' because its the same physical transport. I don't see why things would stop working because someone set up their own AP unless the Gogo equipment is specifically set up to jam. With how limited the ground to air bit-rate is on Gogo, it doesn't seem very likely that there'd be any meaningful demand on the 3 radios that appear to be installed in that A321 that you surveyed.

pitz

Its more complicated than that. Only certain WiFi cards can even be placed into infrastructure mode. And none of them can be both an AP and a client at the same time. The "use case" for that software is to basically turn a Windows PC into a wireless access point, ie: bridge between two physical interfaces.

Similar functionality for supported cards is actually directly built into Windows 10. But again, with only a single WiFi card, it cannot simultaneously connect to an AP, and *be* an AP.

jaysona

What I posted was a very brief snapshot in time of what was captured and was a very narrow view if the entire spectrum. 5GHz bands were in use as well and I agree on the Channel 14 idea too. To date I have not seen any use of Channel 14 on any of my flights.

When I said stop working it wasn't a things will stop working due to a concerted reason. Things will stop working due to how ill-behaved the Wi-Fi radios are - probably due to poor/lax configuration.

Any client associated with your dual radio laptop setup would probably keep dropping the connect, re-associate, drop, re-associate, etc to the point of being uber annoying that someone would just rather pay for the Go-Go service.

I posted only a very small fraction of what I captured during the flight. If you're really curious about what goes on Wi-Fi wise, get yourself one of these for your next flight.

Sean Peever

If you need a work around let me know

jaysona

I'm good thanks. I have no desire to interfere with the on-board Wi-Fi equipment in such a manner that Go-Go and AC would be alerted which would result in bringing about the rubber glove treatment from the men in black.

* while the above is unlikely today - I am working on a way that would make such a scenario feasible.

Sean Peever

Your spectrum report only showed it using 2.4, could easily isolate to 5 and not interfere. lol!! I know I know, you don't want to do it, just saying I could without interfering :P