Problem with Wireless Redirect Authentication

[Matthew Flaschen]

King, Lance E. wrote:
> I have learned through persistent inquiry that BAM uses the services of
> Pronto Networks to authenticate customers.  As is typical in other
> hotspots, such as Panera Bread, one is normally redirected a an
> authentication page whenever an external URL is invoked.

I think these work through DNS forgery.  The wireless router falsely
gives the IP of the authentication page when asked for the IP of, e.g.
google.com .  Then, once you pay up/log in, it starts providing real DNS
info for your MAC address.    I thought this was a platform-neutral
solution, since DNS is a standard.

> Any suggestions?  I'm really frustrated regarding this situation as I
> hate being forced to work in Windows.

It's ethically questionable, but you could try one-upping them and
manually setting your DNS to a third-party DNS server using
/etc/resolv.conf (http://tldp.org/LDP/nag/node84.html).  63.226.12.96 ,
which is supposedly in Arizona, seems to work; see
http://www.tech-faq.com/public-dns-servers.shtml.  Then, you might be
able to use the internet without bothering with their login scheme.  If
they're smart, though, they'll block all third-party DNS requests going
through their wireless network.

You could also try manually setting /etc/resolv.conf with the address
they give you, but DHCP should take care of that automatically.

Matt Flaschen