Friday 25 January 2013

WiFi Names

It seems there are four categories of WiFi network names. Some of them, well, are just wrong (e.g. someone was prosecuted for a racist WiFi name in the US).
  1. The default names. TALKTALK-123456, linksys, NETGEAR etc. These are from people who either can't be bothered renaming or those who don't know how to. Often targeted by leechers.
  2. The funny (or not) names. Virus.exe, keylogger, Abraham Linksys, Series of Tubes, Get Off My LANd etc. These are from people with a sense of humour they need to express. I used MI6 Surveillance Van 42 for a while for my legacy G network.
  3. The references. Archangel Network, Skynet, AnswerToLife etc. These are usually from people who are fans of a particular TV show, series of novels or film. (AnswerToLife's password was, incidentally, fortytwo.)
  4. The personal names. Anything really that has a personal meaning or is an inside joke.
I've always been wary of networks named "Free Wi-Fi", as these can be hackers masquerading as Wi-Fi hotspots (yeah I know, paranoid). However, there is an increasing trend of hackers masquerading as "linksys" and "NETGEAR".

No comments:

Post a Comment