One thought on “Status Update: How is it that we are not at a place technologically that all businesses offer free wi-fi?

  1. Partly because of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_piggybacking

    Years ago I used to go to a summer Baroque music festival in Ohio at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. One summer the rules had changed and there was no longer anonymous free Wi-Fi. When asked, the dean (whom I knew well) said that there was federal legislation in place which required that each person who wanted access had to be known to the system for legal reasons: you had to sign a form to get the password for free access 🙂

    This happened simultaneously at several universities around the country, so I’m thinking that there is some truth in it. Why some businesses still allow free, anonymous access is a mystery to me, but I still use it whenever I can.

    I think that the MAC address of the actual network device is still tracked, isn’t it? You’d think that would be enough to prove access. Although I guess MAC addresses can be spoofed just like anything else if you have smart enough hardware and software.

    -J

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