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« Solar Powered Wi-Fi in Minnesota | Main | NY Post to Parks: Drop Dead »

October 19, 2006

Nebulous Authority Shuts Down Cafe Wi-Fi Due to Spam

20060917-130932-GreenbeanI'm cracking wise at the expense of a business reporter in Greensboro, North Carolina: The reporter is clearly just representing what was told to him in good conscience by the owner of a cafe in that fine city that had its Internet service yanked when it was discovered that millions of pieces of spam were initiated from their network. The Green Bean's owner is paraphrase by the reporter saying, "the agency that monitors the Internet for spam violations temporarily closed off the Green Bean's wireless access early this week after the spammer's mass mailing." I think he meant "monitors the internets"--all of 'em.

However, I crack wise because it's a problem that's been widely suggested as a flaw in free and/or open Wi-Fi networks operating all over. The terrorists might use them. Spammers might use them. Child porn aficionados might use them (remember the wrong-way driving, pants-down Canadian?).

What's more likely to have happened here is not that millions of pieces of spam were sent over the Wi-Fi network, but that a spam push was tracked down to having been initiated from that network. Sending a million pieces of email over a 384 Kbps to 768 Kbps upstream connection would take an inordinate amount of time and be noticed. Still a little tricky to state precisely what happened.

The "agency that monitors the Internet" would most likely be the ISP from which Green Bean purchases its Internet access. Green Bean charges a dollar a day for access, and might switch to a time-delimited password system. The owner might also put in filtering software to restrict outbound email.

3 Comments

I'm curious as to how they know the Green Bean is the source. For one, isn't it possible that it was someone's computer that was compromised and became a zombie to send out the information?

Being one that has been close to the source (I knew about this issue before it broke in the paper) and have been to the Green Bean numerous times for business meetings, I'm wondering if it's not a miscommunication by those that don't understand the technology.

There isn't much in the article nor from what I'm told that tells you it was a spammer's source. I'll let you know when I get to the bottom of it.

Good point about free networks being a portal for all kinds of potential abuse.

We had a location where someone attempted to hack into a government network from the parking lot. The ISP came thisclose to shutting it down.

Users of that free network now have to sign-up for access with a valid email address.

We had this situation some time ago with a hotspot at a downtown cafe. Albeit not being pleased with the notice form the ISP, we took the necessary steps and blocked the illegal activities. Can't really say we are happy with our users.