MAKE | News From The Future – Androids Kill Wi-Fi…

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By Phillip Torrone
Posted 2011/10/26 @ 3:00 pm
Category General

…with this app you can disable internet connection for a device on the same network. So if someone (anyone) is abusing the internet wasting precious bandwidth for a Justin Bieber videoclips you could just kill their connection and stay happy with a full bandwidth just for yourself. “allows you to scan your wifi network for devices, see their vendor and cut network connection for specified devices.”

Underground app markets and rooted phones will make it possible for anyone to disrupt internet connections. Begun, the Android war has. Couldn’t the Cylons knock out electronics too?

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0 Responses to News From The Future – Androids Kill Wi-Fi…

Kevin Hagerty on October 26th, 2011 at 4:42 pm said:

Free version available on this thread, at the end of the first post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1282900

Edit: just realized this is the link in the post. I had clicked the “with this app” link and got a site asking me to pay for the app.

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orvtech on October 26th, 2011 at 9:02 pm said:

Did a little Spanish article a couple of weeks ago about this here http://orvtech.com/?p=5549 the only thing that I still have doubts is that if render unusable a public wifi is legal.

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Pete Zeigler on October 28th, 2011 at 4:30 am said:

Unless someone is abusing your WiFi without your permission, I don’t know if I am comfortable with the ethics of just knocking other people off line simply for your own personal enjoyment. Being smart does not come with a license to abuse the rights of others. OMHO.

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Anonymous on October 28th, 2011 at 10:16 am said:

Under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, it is a federal crime to “intentionally access a computer without authorization or exceed authorized access”. It is entirely plausible that ARP spoofing falls either under the “exceeded authorized access” or under a similar wiretapping law – this app just convinces someone else’s computer that your phone is the router, so it starts sending all its packets to you. Don’t do this. A felony prank is still a felony.

Phillip, this is irresponsible. If you are going to link to things like this for educational purposes, please attach disclaimers.

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Anonymous on October 28th, 2011 at 2:18 pm said:

This (among other reasons) is why for anything mission critical, I advise that folks use wired Ethernet.

While this is just the latest in a whole genre of disruptors, I’ve seen similar disruption from other more mundane sources (old microwave ovens, cordless phones, 2.4ghz wireless video, etc etc).

Wifi is unlicensed bandwidth, which means that you have no legal recourse to speak of if someone is abusing it nearby. (which is distinct from use of an app such as this, which is probably felonious, although not necessarily under the “exceeds authorized access clause”, which is only tangentially appropriate here). I’m a network engineer, not a lawyer, so I’d have to look it up, but in a practical sense it wouldn’t take much to get the book thrown at you if you’re caught.

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