Free Republic

This is my use case--maintaining the Wifi connection as I move around the yard (1.2 acres). I work in the yard a lot, and the fact that I'm moving (around the yard) also means that the Wifi signal can be in and out. I have an Asus RT-AC5300 as my base and it provides fine coverage over most of the house. And covers most of my yard, although there are some weak spots on the farthest extremes. The router itself is on one end of the house in a spare bedroom. The wife doesn't want it in the middle "where...

BROOKLINE, MA — Talia Glass admits she was apprehensive about hitting the off switch on the public wireless service in Allium Market and Café. The Coolidge Corner shop's owner said she wants to make as many of her customers happy as possible, and that there were sleepless nights and much anxiety in advance of Friday's termination of the Wi-Fi that had turned her friendly boutique restaurant into tables full of computer screens and silence.

A former aide to Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is headed to prison Wednesday for what prosecutors said was the largest known data theft in Senate history. The former aide, Jackson Cosko, pleaded guilty in April to crimes related to an unparalleled effort to ransack a Senate office, extorting a Democratic senator, illegally harming Republicans for their political views, and blackmailing a witness. Prosecutors asked for nearly five years in prison for Cosko, a onetime congressional IT aide to Hassan. Cosko admitted he stole the New Hampshire Democrat’s data out of revenge for being fired, then used...

Fr. John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, recently decided to cover murals of Christopher Columbus because they were deemed too offensive to be viewed by Notre Dame students. One week later, he rejected a student petition calling for a pornography filter on Notre Dame’s Wi-Fi. We are dumbfounded. Does the University of Notre Dame really believe Christopher Columbus is more harmful than porn? Notre Dame has taught us to make a difference in our community, and we saw a chance to do just that through the filter initiative. Pornography consumption is an enormous problem at Notre Dame and for all people...

OK I brought the new computer home today and was finishing the set up and when I went to connect it to the wifi I note that there is a wifi connection called "Hidden connection" and it is password protected. I am on lots of acreage in the woods, and the nearest house is probably 3-500 yards away. I checked with everyone in our house, no one knows about hidden network. Any ideas? I have a fair-sized linksys wifi with four or six of those aerials sticking up in back. What does this mean? is there someone on my wifi?...

Amazon is joining the race to provide broadband internet access around the globe via thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit, newly uncovered filings show. The effort, code-named Project Kuiper, follows up on last September’s mysterious reports that Amazon was planning a “big, audacious space project” involving satellites and space-based systems. The Seattle-based company is likely to spend billions of dollars on the project, and could conceivably reap billions of dollars in revenue once the satellites go into commercial service. It’ll take years to bring the big, audacious project to fruition, however, and Amazon could face fierce competition from SpaceX,...

It was a crowded primary field and Tony Evers, running for governor, was eager to win the support of officials gathered at a Wisconsin state Democratic Party meeting, so the candidate did all the usual things: He read the room, he shook hands, he networked. Then he put an electronic fence around everyone there. The digital fence enabled Evers’ team to push ads onto the iPhones and Androids of all those attending the meeting. Not only that, but because the technology pulled the unique identification numbers off the phones, a data broker could also use the digital signatures to follow...

Your smart lightbulb is probably storing your wifi password in the clear, ready to be recovered by wily dumpster-divers; Limited Results discovered the security worst-practice during a teardown of a Lifx bulb; and that's just for starters: the bulbs also store their RSA private key and root passwords in the clear and have no security measures to prevent malicious reflashings of their ROMs with exploits, network probes and other nasties.

An offer from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to provide free Wi-Fi at Washington Redskins football games sparked a federal complaint that ultimately led to the end of the partnership, according to a Wall Street Journal article on Monday. In 2014, Huawei and Redskins officials struck a deal that would have allowed Huawei to provide Wi-Fi to suites at the team's home, FedEx Field. In exchange, Huawei would advertise during broadcasts and in the stadium, the Journal reported. Huawei advertised in FedEx field at two games. Redskins Vice President Rod Nenner even presented Huawei general manager Ming He on the field...

A terrifying moment for a Houston-area family. The parents of a four-month old boy say a man hacked into their Nest Wi-Fi camera and threatened to kidnap their baby. "We heard sexual expletives being said in his room. So we throw on the light in our room. He turned that camera on and told us, said 'turn off the light' and then said, 'I'm going to kidnap your baby, I'm in your baby's room,'" said Ellen Rigney, the baby's mother. The parents raced up the stairs and found their son safe and sound.

The next data minefield is your car. ... GM captured minuted details such as station selection, volume level, and ZIP codes of vehicle owners, and then used the car’s built-in Wi-Fi signal to upload the data to its servers. The goal was to determine the relationship between what drivers listen to and what they buy and then turn around and sell the data to advertisers and radio operators. And it got really specific: GM tracked a driver listening to country music who stopped at a Tim Horton’s restaurant. GM spokesperson James Cain says that connected vehicle data can help develop...

Was at a mall today, bored and waiting for my wife to stop spending my money. So I tried to go onto Free Republic to pass the time. I didn’t know I was on JC Penny’s WiFi (I was not in the store). Can’t quite figure out what word has been banned... Free? Republic? No wonder they’re going out of business.

Rutgers-led study demonstrates low-cost technology for security screening at public venues like stadiums, theme parks and schoolsOrdinary WiFi can easily detect weapons, bombs and explosive chemicals in bags at museums, stadiums, theme parks, schools and other public venues, according to a Rutgers University–New Brunswick-led study. The researchers’ suspicious object detection system is easy to set up, reduces security screening costs and avoids invading privacy such as when screeners open and inspect bags, backpacks and luggage. Traditional screening typically requires high staffing levels and costly specialized equipment. “This could have a great impact in protecting the public from dangerous objects,” said...

Elon Musk’s plan to use satellites to beam Internet to Earth just got a key endorsement Wednesday from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. Pai issued a statement Wednesday in support of the project and urged his colleagues to follow suit: Following careful review of this application by our International Bureau’s excellent satellite engineering experts, I have asked my colleagues to join me in supporting this application and moving to unleash the power of satellite constellations to provide high-speed Internet to rural Americans. If adopted, it would be the first approval given to an American-based company to provide broadband services...

I was attached to a local wichita ks hardee's wifi and recieved the following message - "This website is blocked by your network operator. If you feel you have received this message in error, please contact your network operator with the following information: URL: http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/*/index Category: Philosophy and Political Advocacy Server: 209.157.64.200:80" Several other conservative friendly sites are accessable and the DU website.. Are any of you able to visit a hardees and report back your experience.

I am hoping that some of our techie FReepers could give me some guidance on this annoying issue. I have a Samsung "smart" TV which is a couple of years old, which I use exclusively to watch Netflix movies ( I don't watch TV and have not for at least 35 years. But I enjoy watching family fare movies). It is not the latest and greatest TV with all the cutting edge stuff. I see "1080" appear in a box when it first comes on, if that helps. I have a cable internet modem with its own wi-fi hotspot. I...

The company last week quietly patched vulnerabilities in the WPA2 protocol used to secure wireless networks, but did not reveal the fix until today. Microsoft today revealed that it quietly patched Windows last week against vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) protocol used to secure wireless networks. Details of the security update were only published Monday to Microsoft's Security Update Guide, the catalog-like portal that earlier this year replaced the decades-old practice of delivering explanatory bulletins. All supported versions of Windows received the update, according to the catalog listing, including Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server...

"Krack Attack" allows hackers to steal credit cards, bank info and more. Researchers have discovered a key flaw in the WPA2 WiFi encryption protocol that could allow hackers to intercept your credit card numbers, passwords, photos and other sensitive information. The flaws, dubbed "Key Reinstallation Attacks," or "Krack Attacks," are in the WiFi standard and not specific products. That means that just about every router, smartphone and PC out there could be impacted, though attacks against Linux and Android 6.0 or greater devices may be "particularly devastating," according to KU Leuven University's Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens, who found the...

If your home is plagued by Wi-Fi dropouts and other router issues, you may want to think about an upgrade, perhaps to one that offers multiple bands to up your choices and, with luck, performance. Hence TP-Link's AC5400 Wireless Tri-Band MU-MIMO, also known as the Archer C5400 Gigabit Router. This sucker offers a total of six distinct networks, kind of: 1 x 2.4 GHz, and 2 x 5 GHz, with all three options available for both regular use or as specially noted "Guest" networks, so you won't get in trouble for some overnight interloper's porn downloads. Or whatever your issue...

...and I need recommendations.