T-Mobile One Plus SIM in iPad for free GoGo Internet flights?
Jan 1, 2019, 8:55 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Bye Delta
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Posts: 16,263
You are validated by typing your phone number into the Gogo in-flight portal. But AFAIK access is limited to phones only. I’ve never been able to access the T-Mobile validation process on a tablet.
Jan 2, 2019, 1:25 am
#3
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: DEL
Posts: 1,055
The captive portal has no way of knowing what SIM is in your phone--if you have a friend or relative on T-Mo who's not flying that day, you can use their info to get the free wifi. The only time the SIM matters is if you actually are a T-Mobile customer, SMS over wifi requires the SIM to be in the phone (as does wifi calling, though of course that's blocked on Gogo).
Jan 3, 2019, 3:09 am
#5
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: DEL
Posts: 1,055
AFAIK iOS doesn't allow you to share a wifi connection over bluetooth, only your cell connection. It should be possible in theory on Android. (So of course I'm going to try it when I get home)
Another thing I've used successfully to "misuse" wifi in the past is to connect the phone and then spoof the phone's MAC address on my laptop so the captive portal lets me through. I don't know whether Gogo sniffs traffic to prevent this but I sorta doubt it (plus it's 2018 and even a small-town newspaper website uses https, so sniffing traffic is pointless). In my case it was a work-selected hotel with paid wifi where my $10 got me one device and I refused on principle to pay twice.
EDIT for test results:
Another thing I've used successfully to "misuse" wifi in the past is to connect the phone and then spoof the phone's MAC address on my laptop so the captive portal lets me through. I don't know whether Gogo sniffs traffic to prevent this but I sorta doubt it (plus it's 2018 and even a small-town newspaper website uses https, so sniffing traffic is pointless). In my case it was a work-selected hotel with paid wifi where my $10 got me one device and I refused on principle to pay twice.
EDIT for test results:
- Not possible on iOS because (at least on iOS 12), tethering is all-or-nothing: in order to tether via any method, you have to enable all three (wifi, bluetooth, and USB), which kills your wifi connection.
- My Pixel (Android 9) refuses to play nice with either my Mac or my Win10 laptop for bluetooth tethering--something appears to be broken in Android's bluetooth PAN support. Using a USB cable, though, I was sharing my phone's wifi connection--in airplane mode--within 5 seconds
- If your Android phone plays nice, bluetooth is a viable option for tablets, but neither iOS nor Android tablets are capable of being the USB tethering "client" so the cable trick is only good for laptops.
Last edited by der_saeufer; Jan 3, 2019 at 1:45 pm
