[NCLUG] Ubuntu CDs for NoCo

[bwood at beww.org]

On Tuesday 25 November 2008 21:27:31 Bob Proulx wrote:
> Jim Hutchinson wrote:
> > bwood wrote:
> > > I had heard something about free WiFi in downtown FtC, is this
> > > true? Do I need to sign up or something?
> >
> > No, it's open wifi around the downtown area. Not sure who supports it -
> > local businesses maybe. Nothing to sign up for but the few times I tried
> > it it was hard to connect to but could have been location/hardware.
>
> There are a zillion access points downtown.  One of the "official"
> free ones is FRII.  (http://frii.com/wireless/faq.html,
> http://cbs4denver.com/seenon/wireless.internet.fort.2.560494.html) But
> it isn't good for me since apparently they block ssh port 22 access.
> That is really annoying.  Probably okay for casual web surfer though.
> But since I would want to use either the ssh port or the openvpn port
> I just find them frustrating.
>
> Instead I would try to connect with any of the coffee shops.  There
> are several within the area that all have good wifi connectivity.
> Also some of the restaurants have wifi too (although some like Eliot's
> have a key that you have to ask for, like an old time gas station
> washroom) but are also no cost.

Blocking port 22 would be a problem. Our local CC does that with my legit 
account, but I discovered that if I log in as "guest" I can use port 22 with 
no problems. This also seems to bypass their blocking of "undesirable" sites.

I figured this out when Google somehow got on their list of "undesirable" 
sites and got blocked. Obviously Google is a threat to the well being of 
students :-)

Maybe I could just run ssh on a non-standard port, if they are blocking port 
22 specifically. They might be blocking everything but port 80. I ran into a 
downtown Denver Hotel that did that, I was pretty unhappy about paying 
$10/day for access and not being able to use it, that on top of over 
$300/night for the room :-(

I'm working on trying to figure out a way to use Verizon's VZAccess with a 
Unix box (need a driver, ndiswrapper?), as that has no restrictions and will 
work pretty well anywhere. It's also reasonably fast.

But the coffee shops are probably a good answer, as you suggest.

FtC might be more sophisticated, but here in Cheyenne I can find an unsecured 
WiFi router almost anywhere I try. I found one with an SSID of "USAF", though 
I decided to not try and connect to that one :-) I would hope the military is 
not that stupid, maybe it's just a "spy trap".
-- 
beww
beww at beww.org