Re: Breaking the internet (hotels, guestnet style)

[Stephen Sprunk <stephen () sprunk org>]

Jens Link wrote:
> Owen DeLong <owen () delong com> writes:
>   
> > I expect my connections to my mail server to actually reach my mail server.  I use TLS and SMTP AUTH as well as 
> > IMAP/SSL.  Many of the "just works" settings in question break these things badly.
> >     
>
> One of my customers has an appliance for his WLAN guest access access
> which filters out AAAA records. :-( 
>
> jens@bowmore:~$ dig AAAA www.quux.de @8.8.8.8 +short
> jens@bowmore:~$ 
>   

That, unfortunately, is not uncommon.  Actually, it's one of the _less_
broken systems I've seen, since IPv4 presumably keeps working.

One major vendor of hotel guestnet equipment returns an A record for
0.0.0.1 if you do an ANY or AAAA query for any hostname--even ones that
don't exist.  At least with WinXP, you have to disable IPv6 just to get
IPv4 to work!  Worse, their tech support sees nothing wrong with this;
if you disagree, all they'll do is offer a refund.  Unfortunately, "take
your money elsewhere" doesn't work when you've already paid for the
hotel room--and they know it.

S

-- 
Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

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