Hotspot

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Hotspot (Wi-Fi)

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This article is about Wi-Fi hotspots. For hotspots running on a mobile telephone and tablet, seeTethering. For other uses, see Hotspot (disambiguation).

A diagram showing a Wi-Fi network

A hotspot is a physical location where people may obtain Internet access, typically using Wi-Fi technology, via a wireless local area network (WLAN) using a router connected to an internet service provider.

Public hotspots may be created by a business for use by customers, such as coffee shops or hotels. Public hotspots are typically created from wireless access points configured to provide Internet access, controlled to some degree by the venue. In its simplest form, venues that have broadband Internet accesscan create public wireless access by configuring an access point (AP), in conjunction with a router and connecting the AP to the Internet connection. A single wireless router combining these functions may suffice.^[1]

Private hotspots may be configured on a smartphone or tablet with a mobile network data plan to allow Internet access to other devices via Bluetooth pairing or if both the hotspot device and the device/s accessing it are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

UsesEdit

The public can use a laptop or other suitable portable device to access the wireless connection (usually Wi-Fi) provided. Of the estimated 150 million laptops, 14 millionPDAs, and other emerging Wi-Fi devices sold per year for the last few years,^[when?] most include the Wi-Fi feature.

The iPass 2014 interactive map, that shows data provided by the analysts Maravedis Rethink, shows that in December 2014 there are 46,000,000 hotspots worldwide and more than 22,000,000 roamable hotspots. More than 10,900 hotspots are on trains, planes and airports (Wi-Fi in motion) and more than 8,500,000 are "branded" hotspots (retail, cafés, hotels). The region with the largest number of public hotspots is Europe, followed by North America and Asia.^[2]

Security issuesEdit

Security is a serious concern in connection with public and private hotspots. There are three possible attack scenarios. First, there is the wireless connection between the client and the access point, which needs to be encrypted, so that the connection cannot be eavesdropped or attacked by a man-in-the-middle attack. Second, there is the hotspot itself. The WLAN encryption ends at the interface, then travels its network stack unencrypted and then, third, travels over the wired connection up to the BRAS of the ISP.

Depending upon the set up of a public hotspot, the provider of the hotspot has access to the metadata and content accessed by users of the hotspot. The safest method when accessing the Internet over a hotspot, with unknown security measures, is end-to-end encryption. Examples of strong end-to-end encryption are HTTPS and SSH.

Some hotspots authenticate users; however, this does not prevent users from viewing network traffic using packet sniffers.^[3]

Some vendors provide a download option that deploys WPA support. This conflicts with enterprise configurations that have solutions specific to their internal WLAN.^{[citation needed]}

In order to provide robust security to hotspot users, the Wi-Fi Alliance is developing a new hotspot program that aims to encrypt hotspot traffic with WPA2 security. The program was scheduled to launch in the first half of 2012.^{[needs update][citation needed]}

LocationsEdit

Public hotspots are often found at airports,bookstores, coffee shops, department stores,fuel stations, hotels, hospitals, libraries, publicpay phones, restaurants, RV parks and campgrounds, supermarkets, train stations, and other public places. Additionally, manyschools and universities have wireless networks on their campuses.

TypesEdit

Free hotspots operate in two ways:

• Using an open public network is the easiest way to create a free hotspot. All that is needed is a Wi-Fi router. Similarly, when users of private wireless routers turn off their authentication requirements, opening their connection, intentionally or not, they permit piggybacking (sharing) by anyone in range.^{[citation needed]}
• Closed public networks use a HotSpot Management System to control access to hotspots. This software runs on the router itself or an external computer allowing operators to authorize only specific users to access the Internet. Providers of such hotspots often associate the free access with a menu, membership, or purchase limit. Operators may also limit each user's available bandwidth (upload and download speed) to ensure that everyone gets a good quality service. Often this is done throughservice-level agreements.^{[citation needed]}

Commercial hotspotsEdit

A commercial hotspot may feature:

• A captive portal / login screen / splash page that users are redirected to forauthentication and/or payment. The captive portal / splash page sometimes includes the social login buttons.
• A payment option using a credit card, iPass,PayPal, or another payment service (voucher-based Wi-Fi)
• A walled garden feature that allows free access to certain sites
• Service-oriented provisioning to allow for improved revenue
• Data analytics and data capture tools, to analyze and export data from Wi-Fi clients

Many services provide payment services to hotspot providers, for a monthly fee or commission from the end-user income. For example, Amazingports can be used to set up hotspots that intend to offer both fee-based and free internet access, and ZoneCD is aLinux distribution that provides payment services for hotspot providers who wish to deploy their own service.^{[citation needed]}

Major airports and business hotels are more likely to charge for service, though most hotels provide free service to guests; and increasingly, small airports and airline lounges offer free service.^{[citation needed]}. Retail shops, public venues and offices usually provide a free Wi-Fi SSID for their guests and visitors.

Roaming services are expanding among major hotspot service providers. With roaming service the users of a commercial provider can have access to other providers' hotspots, either free of charge or for extra fees, which users will usually be charged on an access-per-minute basis.^{[citation needed]}

Software hotspotsEdit

Many Wi-Fi adapters built into or easily added to consumer computers and mobile devices include the functionality to operate as private or mobile hotspots, sometimes referred to as "mi-fi".^[4] The use of a private hotspot to enable other personal devices to access theWAN (usually but not always the Internet) is a form of bridging, and known as tethering. Manufacturers and firmware creators can enable this functionality in Wi-Fi devices on many Wi-Fi devices, depending upon the capabilities of the hardware, and most modern consumer operating systems, including Android, Apple OS X 10.6 and later,^[5] Windows mobile,^{[citation needed]} andLinux include features to support this. Additionally wireless chipset manufacturers such as Atheros, Broadcom, Intel and others, may add the capability for certain Wi-Fi NICs, usually used in a client role, to also be used for hotspot purposes. However, some service providers, such as AT&T,^[6] Sprint,^[7] and T-Mobile^[8] charge users for this service or prohibit and disconnect user connections if tethering is detected.

Third-party software vendors offer applications to allow users to operate their own hotspot, whether to access the Internet when on the go, share an existing connection, or extend the range of another hotspot.

Hotspot 2.0Edit

Hotspot 2.0, also known as HS2 and Wi-Fi Certified Passpoint,^[9] is an approach to public access Wi-Fi by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The idea is for mobile devices to automatically join a Wi-Fi subscriber service whenever the user enters a Hotspot 2.0 area, in order to provide better bandwidth and services-on-demand to end-users and relieve carrier infrastructure of some traffic.

Hotspot 2.0 is based on the IEEE 802.11ustandard, which is a set of protocols published in 2011 to enable cellular-like roaming. If the device supports 802.11u and is subscribed to a Hotspot 2.0 service it will automatically connect and roam.^[10][11][12]

Supported devicesEdit

• Some Chinese tablet computers^{[citation needed]}
• Some THL smartphones^{[citation needed]}
• Apple mobile devices running iOS 7 and up^[13]
• Some Samsung Galaxy smartphones^[14]
• Windows 10 devices have full support for network discovery and connection^[15]
• Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 lack network discovery, but support connecting to a network when the credentials are known^[15]

BillingEdit

EDCF User-Priority-List

		Net traffic
		low			high
		Audio	Video	Data	Audio	Video	Data
User needs	time-critical	7	5	0	6	4	0
	not time-critical	-	-	2	-	-	2

The so-called "User-Fairness-Model" is a dynamic billing model, which allows volume-based billing, charged only by the amount of payload (data, video, audio). Moreover, the tariff is classified by net traffic and user needs.^{[16][citation needed]}

If the net traffic increases, then the user has to pay the next higher tariff class. The user can be prompted to confirm that they want to continue the session in the higher traffic class.^[dubious ] A higher class fare can also be charged for delay sensitive applications such as video and audio, versus non time-critical applications such as reading Web pages and sending e-mail.

Tariff classes of the User-Fairness-Model

		Net traffic
		low	high
User needs	time-critical	standard	exclusive
	not time-critical	low priced	standard

The "User-fairness model" can be implemented with the help of EDCF (IEEE 802.11e). A EDCF user priority list shares the traffic in 3 access categories (data, video, audio) and user priorities (UP).^{[16][citation needed]}

• Data [UP 0|2]
• Video [UP 5|4]
• Audio [UP 7|6]

See Service-oriented provisioning for viable implementations.