Re: Marriott wifi blocking

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

> On Oct 6, 2014, at 11:20 PM, Jay Hennigan <jay () west net> wrote:
>
> > On 10/6/14, 8:41 AM, Owen DeLong wrote:
> >
> > Actually, in multiple situations, the FCC has stated that you are responsible
> > when deploying a new unlicensed transmitter to insure that it is deployed in
> > such a way that it will not cause harmful interference to existing operations.
> >
> > Using the same SSID of someone else who is already present would, IMHO,
> > meet the test of “causing harmful interference”.
>
> Really? From a radio perspective if it isn't on the same RF channel?

In fact, yes. Since clients bind based on SSID and return to whatever channel the AP tells them to as a result, it's 
still an issue and still fits within the purview of RF regulation. Further, most of the channels somewhat overlap as 
it's a spread-spectrum technology, so the traditional concepts of "channel" don't actually completely apply (this is a 
good thing, actually).

> I'm not so sure about that. It might cause interference to the revenue
> stream, it could be considered a trademark infringement especially if it
> leads to a fake "splash page" with the Marriott logo, and it could
> certainly be used for malicious MITM purposes, but it doesn't cause
> harmful interference to the existing user from the perspective of radio
> frequency use.

It does, actually, because the client may well rebind to the other AP thinking it's still part of the same ESS (since 
ESS are usually identified by sharing a common SSID).

Owen