Documenting wifi in airports

For background information, see this blog entry.

Tools

Tricks and rumours

Other howtos

List of airports

  1. Amsterdam (AMS)
  2. Santiago (SCL)
  3. Buenos Aires (EZE)
  4. Montreal / Trudeau (CYUL)
  5. Toronto Pearson (CYYZ)
  6. Budapest (BUD)
  7. Paris (CDG)

Amsterdam (AMS)

Record by
TheAnarcat, kwadronaut
Created
18-9-2008
Updated
26-9-2008

General

KPN access is non-free:

  1. 30 minutes wired (ethernet) (EUR 6.00)
  2. 30 minutes wireless (EUR 6.00)
  3. 90 minutes wireless (EUR 12.00)
  4. wireless day-connect (EUR 16.00) It is also interesting to note that "[they] are legally obliged to make an effort to collect data to be able to identify users on our network" (source). Surprisingly, this seems to be a system similar to the one used in Montreal:

  5. ICMP: opened

  6. DNS: opened, although nstx seems to not be working properly
  7. TCP: blackholed except HTTP
  8. HTTP: unidentified captive portal Schiphol-Group is a bit weird, when I tried connecting to it, the Gnome Network Manager asked me for a password, but it's not a WEP ''or'' WPA password. Not entering any password allows me to associate, but no DHCP...

There is another access point:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"Regus Skynet 001"  Nickname:""
Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point: 00:14:BF:B1:83:B0
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality=15/100  Signal level=-86 dBm  Noise level=-92 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

free and open wireless, could get it outside schiphol plaza (next to the delifrance boot). dhcp, ssh, web... everything you need. -- kwadronaut

Scan results

ams-scan-2008-09-18.txt

Santiago (SCL)

Record by
TheAnarcat
Created
2008-08-18

General

Lots of wifi networks, cannot associate with the telefonica or meteo_aeronautico, for some reason. I can associate with 'default' but it will not give me an IP.

I can, however, assign myself a static IP and it has a secret gateway: 128.140.2.2 that will then give me free access.

AP scan

scl-scan-2008-08-18.txt

Buenos Aires (EZE)

Record by
TheAnarcat
Created
2008-08-18
Last updated
2008-08-18

General

There are two gateways here. ARNET and RED CARPET. The latter seems to be completely opened. I'll detail the second one here:

https://wifi.arnet.com.ar/wifi/login.asp?essid=WLAN%20ARNET&clientipaddress=190.30.246.76&cn3000hostname=ap.arnet.com.ar&cn3000ip=200.3.76.2

Workarounds

Montreal / Trudeau (CYUL)

Record by
TheAnarcat
Created
2008-08-04
Last updated
2012-06-05

General

Wifi is now free in Montreal Pierre-Elliot-Trudeau airport, congrats to the airports management for doing the right thing!

The access point is AERO WI-FI, and works fairly reliably at gate C87.

Old documentation

https://wireless.nnu.com/nw4/sites/opti-fi/YUL/main

"Opti-fi"

Record by
TheAnarcat
Last updated
2008-08-04

General

https://www.boingo.aero/(S(hsr5px55t1uibd45uv0uky55))/Home.aspx

"Boingo"

Fortunatly, Bell's phone booths still allow 1800 calls so I could start talking with tech support right away (no waiting!). We could never get my username and password to work. I was even able to get a "courtesy account" (generic username and password) that wouldn't work either. Tech supports' conclusion: there's a problem with the hotspot at Pearson... So I canceled my account and they better not charge me for this!

The worst thing is that Jessica told me that "free Wi-Fi networks do not provide a good user experience" and they they are "typically slow (because there's no incentive [...] to invest in great technology". She was right in saying there's sometimes "no one to call if you have a problem or need help", but if that's all Boingo can do for me, I'd rather go with the "slow" but free wifi hotspots where I don't '''need''' to call tech support because it "just works"... for free!

Bottomline: Boingo doesn't work for mere mortals. I could hack my way around it, with the marvelous nstx tunnel and the free "datavalet" Bell nicely left open for us [note: "datavalet" is the free network for the Maple Leaf Lounges], but it's otherwise a typical waste of resources.

Workarounds

yyz-scan-2008-08-04.txt

Budapest (BUD)

Record by
TheAnarcat
Created on
22-9-2008

General

Budapest Ferihegy airport has two terminals quite far from each other. This applies to terminal 2.

Two wifi networks are available: T-Mobile and PANNON. I connected without problems to the PANNON AP, and it is completely opened. Thank you Budapest!

Wifi scan

bud-scan-2008-09-22.txt

Paris (CDG)

Record by
TheAnarcat
Created on
22-9-2008

General

A few crypted networks, two opened ones (orange + hubtelecom). hubtelecom is a captive portal requesting a fee. Orange doesn't give me an IP.

cdg-scan-2008-09-22.txt

Created . Edited .