The first world problem to rule them all, slow wifi
In terms of i-landsproblem (Swedish for first world problems) having slow internet might be a strong contender for the first world problemest of them all.
But having slow internet when you actually have to get work done is tiring. Yesterday I waited 6 hours while uploading a backup using SFTP. Sure in the meantime I created this blog but still.
Coming from a place with awesome internet I sometimes feels that all the beautiful sunsets in the world can’t make up for sucky internet.
Sometimes you should just accept defeat and watch the sunset but if you plan on staying longer in the same place you should do your best to get the most out of your wireless network.
The thai simcard paradox
I already have an unlocked phone with a thai simcard and a data plan. The problem is that ridiculously gorgeous places have rubbish wifi and 3g.
So what is a boy to do?
The easiest thing to do would be to compromise and stay in a slightly boring town with great wifi (Chiang Mai). But if I wanted compromise I should just have stayed in Stockholm with stellar internet and terrible weather.
Instead of compromising on my standards for internet speed we could try to compromise some wireless networks.
A brief history of networks
In the good old days we all used cables to connect our computer to our local area network. Now we are way more civilised and use Wireless Local Area Networks.
The first password is free
The trouble is that with wifi every person with a passcode gets one step closer to gaining access to your router settings and since we are all staying in cafés and hotels we always have the initial passcode to get us access to the network.
Accessing your router as admin
The step from gaining access to a network (logging in with a password) to having complete control of it is actually tiny.
All you have to do is type in 192.168.1.1 in your computers browser. Most of the time this will land you directly in the control panel for your browser. But to get to another page you need to figure out the username and password for the router.
The tale of the default passwords
Being a designer of router has to be a terrible job. 99.99% of your customer only care about your router once when they set it up and never want to be bothered with your product ever again.
They also might want to be able to adjust some settings without completely resetting the router. And for that they need a password.
But since almost nobody cares about their routers most people just keep their default passwords which is *drumroll*
username: admin password: admin
Typing in this username and password will get you access to lots and lots of routers.
With our new found access we can do a lot of things.
- We could potentially give my computer the highest priority on the network and increase its share of network traffic (faster internet hurray!)
- We could also kick devices of the network. I could try this out by kicking my girlfriends iPhone from the network.
- But we aren’t gonna do any of those things since accessing other peoples routers might be illegal. Instead I’m just gonna relax and watch another sunset.
