[HN Gopher] Guest WiFi using a QR code
___________________________________________________________________
Guest WiFi using a QR code
Author : jgrahamc
Score : 284 points
Date : 2022-07-12 13:52 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.jgc.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.jgc.org)
| humanwhosits wrote:
| I'd love a CLI version that just produces an image or pdf file
| ComputerCat wrote:
| Such a cute idea! Definitely wouldn't work when my parents come
| over though
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I started with this quite a long back, way before a separate
| Guest Wi-Fi was commonplace and we were OK just sharing the Wi-
| Fi. My ideology with guest at home was to offer Water and Wi-Fi.
| Guest were happy when Mobile Phone signals were bad (slow) and
| costly.
|
| I've forgotten the tool used but I had a QR-Code for the guest
| Wi-Fi for a very long time. These days, people don't really care
| as the Internet speed on their phones are pretty fast enough and
| the cost is very cheap (India).
| gravitate wrote:
| I switched to guest networks after I accidentally casted a
| browsing session to the TV with Chrome and a Chromecast plugged
| into the TV. Luckily nothing sensitive was shown but it
| could've been embarrassing with other (NSFW) content shown. The
| guest networks are segmented and use their own VLAN
| bradstewart wrote:
| How do guest networks solve this? You switch wifi networks
| before you want to use Chromecast?
| woevdbz wrote:
| You can also generate the QR code from an Android phone by going
| to WiFi settings, and tapping the "Share" from the details view
| of the network in question (assuming the phone is already
| connected to that network)
| davidpfarrell wrote:
| A golang project I follow (and use) that generates wifi QR codes
| from the command line:
|
| https://github.com/reugn/wifiqr
| loueed wrote:
| I made an iOS Shortcut for this so I can ask Siri for the QR code
| when needed. There's a built in "Generate QR Code" action that
| can take a text action containing the wifi string.
|
| Only issue is hard coding the password in the shortcut.
| Fnoord wrote:
| I tell guests its a long, complex password (it is, and it is on a
| separate VLAN where all my IoT resides, too). I then ask them to
| hand over their device so I can enter the password. There's a
| trust thing going on there, but this is deliberate as the trust
| goes both ways (my internet connection). If they don't trust me
| to fill in my password on their device (they may of course watch
| me do it), I wouldn't want them on my network. That never
| happened but I don't run a bnb.
| usr1106 wrote:
| Using WiFi hotspots is very much history in Finland. Nearly
| everyone has unlimited 4G at least and most populated places
| have coverage.
|
| Using a laptop in a cafe might still be a use case if you don't
| want to run your phone hot and drain the battery.
|
| We enjoy the cheapest data rates in Europe and certainly
| cheaper than in the US. Which is kind of weird because in
| general price level is everything else but low.
| no_circuit wrote:
| What is the purpose of typing in the password for them? It's
| not keeping it a secret. Usually the OS lets you see it. For
| example on macOS they can just search for it Keychain Access,
| and even though they may not be able to get to it on iOS, the
| built-in WiFi sharing will bring that password to their Mac for
| viewing there.
|
| IMO it is just easier to display it on a computer screen in a
| large-sized text and let them type it in themselves, e.g., the
| 1Password large type show option.
|
| Seeing separate VLAN being mentioned makes me think you are
| also have the ability to run a temporary additional WiFi
| network when guests are over as well. That could just use a
| rotating password with a memorable word scheme to make it
| easier to type.
| prmoustache wrote:
| Who asks for wifi in 2022? Everybody has a mobile data plan these
| days.
| [deleted]
| Schinken_ wrote:
| Welcome to Germany where your mobile plan is expensive and
| Limited.
|
| Also: Traffic limits suck
| joeframbach wrote:
| I once had an idea to generate "hidden" qr codes in art and
| photos. Initially I wanted to take a photo of a giraffe and
| replace one of its spots with a QR code, and hang it in my living
| room for guests to scan. It turned into this (broken) website:
| https://www.qraffe.com/. I don't have a lot of time right now to
| fix it. The pdf rendering is broken. If anyone likes this idea
| and wants to help with a PR, I'll be mighty appreciative.
| https://github.com/joeframbach/qraffe
| glogla wrote:
| This is so cool!
| tetha wrote:
| Hmm, after tinkering around a bit, I think according to
| https://github.com/yWorks/svg2pdf.js/issues/82 , the mask
| element in the giraffe SVGs is not supported in the PDF
| converter. It is just dropped, leafing the qraffe rather qr-
| less.
|
| But I sadly know neither svg enough to think up an alternative
| approach, or a JS/TS dev enough to see if there are other
| libraries.
| joeframbach wrote:
| That is likely the issue. The alternative is to use Lambda to
| render pdfs on the server side, but I wanted to keep this
| fully on the client side as a static site (to avoid any trust
| issues with sending your wifi credentials to strangers). I
| may have to pay up real $$ if I want to do this "right".
| pluijzer wrote:
| Didn't look at your code but I had good results with using
| dom-to-pdf with converting quite complex svg's to pdf's
| client site. Though I remember it needed a trivial fix to
| render pdf's larger than the current viewport. You might
| want to take a look.
| kazinator wrote:
| Why does the QR code encode whether the access point is hidden or
| not? It has the SSID.
| david-ch wrote:
| Some time ago tried to develop this idea a bit with my friend.
| Wanted to provide a ready to print layout - https://waflee.app/
|
| Although we ended up using a virtual card more frequently as the
| printed card is always somewhere far away :)
| JadoJodo wrote:
| This is cool, and I have done this in the past, but it's worth
| keeping something in mind:
|
| Make sure the QR code is NOT visible from outside via the windows
| in your house.
| slaymaker1907 wrote:
| Has anyone gotten bluetooth connections via QR code working? I
| really miss the time when you could listen to a friend's music in
| the car just by letting them plug into the aux port.
| archi42 wrote:
| Even more handy when you're using enterprise auth and just add a
| user for each guest (that's were I'm eventually going, but first
| the self hosted stuff gets SSO).
|
| A made-up word also works well and even thwarts a dictionary
| attack (which is a real issue).
| mishftw wrote:
| I've been doing this ever since I discovered my OnePlus 5T years
| ago generated a QR code to share WiFi details.
|
| It's more of a cool factor with friends but still pretty
| convenient. Folks in my age group almost intuitively know how to
| point a camera / get the results.
| beckingz wrote:
| I do this and it's great. Everyone enjoys scanning it and doesn't
| have to fiddle with the credential entry.
| sdfhdhjdw3 wrote:
| > Everyone enjoys scanning it
|
| What kind of backwards country do you live in where people
| _enjoy_ scanning QR codes?
| ream88 wrote:
| Build something like this on my own, renders 4 QR codes when
| printing it out on your printer: https://wifi.mariouher.com/
| koins wrote:
| Bit of a self-plug I know, but this reminds me of something I had
| made a while back (https://github.com/kmanc/wifi_qr). Nice work!
| Always fun to see others' take on neat projects
| metadat wrote:
| It took me a second to understand what this does, but wow what
| a neat project!
|
| Thanks for sharing, this sort of overkill is my favorite kind~
| Cheers @koins!
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Amazing. I literally did this and then decided it was overkill.
| Almost with the same hardware!
| koins wrote:
| Lol that's awesome
|
| EDIT - I had an idea that I'm currently working through that
| I like but am a little stuck so taking a break before I
| revisit. TLDR is to use an ATTINY85 to auto-"type" the
| password in for folks who bring a laptop and can't scan the
| QR code. I wrote the Python code to generate the .ino script
| that would actually do the writing, but I'm having a little
| bit of trouble getting micronucleus to write the script to
| the ATTINY without an un/re plug. You can see the WIP on my
| digispark branch in that repo
| sokoloff wrote:
| Wouldn't it be easier/maybe more practical to print the
| password to the e-ink screen as well?
|
| (QR code error correction is usually enough to let you just
| knock out part of it and put the text right there.)
| koins wrote:
| Maybe! The problem I was trying to solve was that a 30
| character password randomly generated is a pain to type
| out by hand haha. That said I think having the text would
| be a step in the right direction
| ok_dad wrote:
| Bootstrap it with a shorter password:
|
| 1. Have the display show a 5-digit PIN (TOTP or something
| that changes every minute or few)
|
| 2. Let anyone connect to your network, if they go to a
| browser window it will show the capture portal
|
| 3. Enter the 5-digit PIN and press "enter" and the page
| will show the 30-digit password so the user can
| copy+paste
|
| 4. User pastes password into WiFi screen and logs in
|
| Make sure to rate-limit this endpoint to prevent random
| PIN attacks.
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| I solved this by having a framed piece of paper on my wall:
| GUEST WIFI SSID: AAA Guest Password: squirrels2
|
| I should add a QR code to it. :)
| lostmsu wrote:
| https://www.eff.org/pages/openwirelessorg
| js2 wrote:
| Here's what I do in my home: I've had the same easy-to-type WiFi
| password (it's a name and a four-digit year) since 2005 and I
| just tell my guests. It's not even a guest network. It's just my
| network. Free hugs in my house too.
| ryanianian wrote:
| That seems fine until someone's compromised device joins your
| network, sniffs for open ports, and starts uploading or
| ransomware-encrypting your NAS.
| js2 wrote:
| My NAS is more likely to melt down into slag in a house fire.
| I have offsite backups of critical data.
| deathanatos wrote:
| Secure the NAS.
|
| I.e., treat the network as an extension of the Internet, that
| is, assume it's compromised. Since ... it basically _is_ ,
| given the crap hardware ISPs foist upon people.
| roozbeh18 wrote:
| :)
| 3dprintscanner wrote:
| A QR code by itself is completely unreadable to a human. Can't
| this have the SSID / password too? All too often you see what
| should be simple textual data wrapped in this obtuse form which
| only specific machines can read. Text _and_ a QR code can be read
| by everyone.
|
| See: <https://twitter.com/adambowie/status/1521078234057695233>
| for context
| mrkramer wrote:
| >Can't this have the SSID/password too?
|
| Already linked by people in this topic
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code#Joining_a_Wi%E2%80%91F...
|
| >All too often you see what should be simple textual data
| wrapped in this obtuse form which only specific machines can
| read.
|
| >See:
| <https://twitter.com/adambowie/status/1521078234057695233> for
| context
|
| This is misuse of QR code; QR codes should be used to encode
| large data or some other clunky data that is hard for people to
| process that's why it is easier to look up such
| data/information with QR code and process/read it digitally.
| After all you have a camera in your pocket and a preinstalled
| QR code scanner(at least all new Android phones have). The main
| use case of QR codes that I see is simply linking you to a
| website. For example your favorite food brand links you to
| their website to explore their offering.
|
| >Text and a QR code can be read by everyone.
|
| Yea I agree with you that both plain text and a QR code should
| be shared so people can use what suits them the best at that
| particular moment.
| rntksi wrote:
| Agreed. Where I used to work, IT started replacing the guest
| wifi (password changes monthly) with QR code instead of
| printing out the password on a piece of paper. It's really
| cumbersome when I want to join on my laptop.
| bennyp101 wrote:
| I do the same thing, I had some little wooden etched boards made
| up with the ssid and and password on, then on the back is the
| qrcode for it.
|
| Super easy to hand to a visitor that can either scan or type in.
| tkuraku wrote:
| I print out a sheet with some text (including the network SSID
| and password) and a QR code to connect to the guest wifi using
| libre office writer. It has a built in qr code generator. The QR
| code text for a wifi password is here:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code#Joining_a_Wi%E2%80%9....
|
| No need for any special third party tools.
| wahern wrote:
| There's also the LaTeX qrcode package, bundled with
| distributions like TeX Live. Minimal working example reduced
| from my own template:
| \newcommand*{\SSID}[0]{NETWORK}
| \newcommand*{\PASS}[0]{PASSWORD} \documentclass{letter}
| \usepackage{qrcode} \begin{document} \begin{center}
| \LARGE{``\SSID'' WiFi QR code}
| \qrcode[height=5cm]{WIFI:S:\SSID;T:WPA;P:\PASS;H:false;}
| \end{center} \end{document}
| andrewshadura wrote:
| qifi.org
| egberts1 wrote:
| WARNING: Dad Joke
|
| Admin: Make up a password, make sure your password has at least 8
| characters and have capitalize letters.
|
| Blonde: Ok, my password is
| "MickeyMinniePlutoGoofyDonaldHueyDeweyLouie"
| santamex wrote:
| Standard in the AVM FRITZ!Box.
|
| https://avm.de/ratgeber/wlan-zugang-teilen-mit-qr-codes-geht...
|
| Edit: English: https://en.avm.de/guide/how-to-share-your-wi-fi-
| access-with-...
| peteri wrote:
| Thanks for that, I have some visitors next week and I _knew_ I
| 'd seen that as a feature somewhere (just couldn't find it in
| the UI)
| dangrossman wrote:
| I print wifi QR codes on wood signs and on cork coasters for
| Airbnb/VRBO hosts. It's a good little side business.
|
| https://www.etsy.com/shop/ligninandlight?section_id=28828952
| Fnoord wrote:
| Nice, but I don't like such being forced to be a static PSK.
|
| Instead, could also make an e-paper device for this. Perhaps it
| would work on badgerOS?
| vanadium wrote:
| I 3D printed a QR code puck for my house wi-fi. It's an easy
| demonstration of at-home fabrication that elicits some
| conversation, without having to hand over a password.
| phoronixrly wrote:
| Making an online wifi QR code generator seems like a nifty way to
| make a good password dictionary. Just saying.
| btmiller wrote:
| For Wi-Fi though? Seems relatively low risk to me. Concerns
| over password security can be mitigated by those that care by
| using unique, randomly-generates strings per service.
| bee_rider wrote:
| People are generally less worried about wifi password
| quality, so perhaps a DB of the general types of passwords
| people use would be useful for an attacker? (regardless of
| the ability to defend oneself -- in any dense population
| area, the attacker only has to find one person with a poor
| password)
| banana_giraffe wrote:
| The random string I use for my IoT devices' wifi password
| showed up on haveibeenpwned, so some IoT device cared enough
| about it to leak it.
| phoronixrly wrote:
| Don't know... Having an intruder in your home wifi seems
| pretty high risk to me. And I don't even live in a country
| with high chance to get killed upon a visit by your friendly
| neighbourhood SWAT team...
| jve wrote:
| Wifi QR code generation is built-in within Android:
| https://www.mysmartprice.com/gear/how-to-scan-wifi-qr-code-o...
| toyg wrote:
| The one featured seems fairly legit, I believe it pre-dates the
| wifi spec.
| noobermin wrote:
| I am freaking tired of QR codes. I recently moved to another
| country (SG) and QR codes are literally used for almost
| everything now, essentially requiring a phone (and good lighting
| and a clean camera) to do almost anything. At least once a week I
| have to idle around waiting for a link to load in order to pay a
| vendor because scanning a qr-code under a glossy plastic standee
| is taking too long to read.
|
| I love how developers are all so lovingly inconsistent. On one
| hand they swear up and down that binary formats are shite and now
| human-readable formats are the new thing (or at least that was
| the story a few years back with various markup languages and
| json) but now, for those stupid fucking idiot users opaque
| formats that require a functioning camera line of sight clear to
| a piece of paper are now IN. Minimized urls are too passe, I
| suppose?
|
| And it's great too, because scammers and hackers are now dropping
| QR codes on the ground or leaflets, or placing stickers on the QR
| codes that dot the landscape (like on public info posters or ads
| put up in HDBs) so poor folks who have learned that the QR code
| is how you do things now just load up the QR codes without
| asking. Again, opaque formats are NOT good for many reasons, ease
| of hacking/social engineering is one reason obvious reason! Of
| course you can put a sticker on poster on a url but it's easy to
| recognize the difference between mysite.com/about and something
| else vs qr code 1 and qr code 2.
| fernvenue wrote:
| That's true, QR code is now being abused where they are not
| really needed, which is a very bad phenomenon.
| samstave wrote:
| QR codes should be REVERSED.
|
| ALL vendors should be required to have a camera. I have an app
| that produces a unique QR code for each transaction.
|
| The VENDOR scans MY QR code and REQUESTS for my to PAY them,
| showing me my receipt for auth on my device.
|
| The only VENDOR QR-read codes should only be for information
| about the product, menu etc.
|
| -
|
| I used QR codes on product descriptions that led to the product
| page and lab testing results for said product onto which the
| physical size of the product was not large enough for pertinent
| information -- this was for cannabis product company for which
| I did some contracting labeling...
|
| The upside of this, is that it ran through bitly and I was able
| to also, included with the QR scan, the geo-loc of the product
| scan which allowed me to map out the interest of various
| products based on the scan and location...
|
| QR codes are FANTASTIC, but implemented so poorly...
| aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
| A shortened URL is just as opaque for humans as a QR code.
|
| http://bit.ly/gAtJlyc
|
| Would you trust this URL?
| u801e wrote:
| I trusted using curl to find out it just returns a HTTP 404
| page :)
| GranPC wrote:
| Doesn't look like a 404 to me
| aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
| Hehe, nice trick!
| cowtools wrote:
| What if instead of QR, it was a special human-readable text
| format that was optimized for image recognition? Like a special
| font or something.
| itake wrote:
| I suspect that the cameras on low-end phones would struggle
| with OCR text in suboptimal conditions (low-light or damaged
| text).
|
| QR codes have redundancy, which makes them resilient in a
| variety of conditions that plaintext isn't.
|
| Also, you can 'hide' ugly tracking urls in QR codes (e.g. a
| short-link that lets you count number of scans or update the
| redirect location).
| lolcat_cowsay wrote:
| could just use the torch
| jonah wrote:
| Yup, we've been doing this in our office for guests for quite a
| while. Works great!
| UIUC_06 wrote:
| I've done techie things just because they were fun & cool, so
| this isn't a criticism.
|
| However, having a phone number not your own (or indeed, any
| number of less than 7 digits) that you can memorize and tell your
| guests works just as well. Change it as soon as they leave, bada
| bing, bada boom, done.
| ircop420 wrote:
| Well, firstly you have to have a password of >=8 chars for WPA.
| Secondly, having such a short non-complex password is going to
| easily be crackable with a deauth and 3-way handshake capture
| attack. Would easily crack on a 5 year old laptop in minutes
| even w/o GPU.
| [deleted]
| UIUC_06 wrote:
| wow, these hackers sure are clever & patient: they're hanging
| around outside your house, just waiting for you to have a
| guest, so they can use your limited-BW guest network where
| you can log everything they do.
|
| OK, go ahead and set up a QR code. Who said you can't?
| wingspan wrote:
| Nice! I put together a single file offline HTML version [1] with
| a demo [2] using only a CDN-hosted QR library.
|
| [1]
| https://gist.github.com/ianobermiller/9f17f1022bc75c2228d742...
| [2]
| https://bl.ocks.org/ianobermiller/raw/9f17f1022bc75c2228d742...
| Jamie9912 wrote:
| Funny I was just at Bletchley park and one of the exhibits
| mentions you JGC for contacting Gordon Brown in 2009 about Alan
| Turing's pardon :)
| _def wrote:
| I have a qr code on my wall, with the guest wifi password written
| below the code and an nfc tag sticked on the back. I think so far
| most people just typed it
| emilfihlman wrote:
| Please do not only offer qr codes. Some people might not have
| (working) cameras.
| steve918 wrote:
| Or they could just be trying to connect from a laptop! Or a
| mobile device that doesn't understand how to parse this sort of
| WIFI connection code. Is this any sort of standard? Do Kindle
| devices support it?
| mcculley wrote:
| https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Barcode-Contents#wi-
| fi-n...
| phailhaus wrote:
| You can also do this with NFC tags, though I've had mixed success
| with iPhones.
| shujito wrote:
| Anyone using zxing bar code generator [1]? it has a Wifi option.
|
| [1] https://zxing.appspot.com/generator
| dotBen wrote:
| Sure a QR code is cool, but it's pointless for getting laptops
| onto a network and for the most part isn't that the main usecase
| for needing to get onto someone's 3rd party wifi (eg at an
| office, airBnB, etc?).
|
| My phone has existing connectivity most of the time and it's rare
| that I need to connect it to wifi. Or that wifi would be
| preferable over my own 5G (or LTE) data connection.
|
| Not hating, this is neat, but it seems low value. Certainly
| printing _only_ a QR code feels sub-optmial as it doesn't cover
| the laptop usecase.
| jimmaswell wrote:
| I find service often poor inside buildings even with a new
| phone and using Verizon towers, so I always connect to WiFi if
| it's present.
| umvi wrote:
| "Which when scanned with the default camera app on iOS or Android
| will pop up something similar to this. With one click you're
| connected to the network."
|
| I have never had an Android phone with the ability to scan QR
| codes with the "default camera app". The closest I've gotten is
| taking a picture of the QR code and then going into my pictures
| and using "Google Lens" to scan the picture for QR codes. Usually
| I end up downloading a dedicated QR scanner app from the app
| store, which I have zero confidence will be able to auto-connect
| me to someone's WiFi.
| jonathantf2 wrote:
| Both my Pixel phone and Samsung tablet pick up URLs and SSIDs
| from the QR code using the stock camera app.
| umvi wrote:
| My last phone, LG Nexus 5X, couldn't do this. My current
| phone, Unihertz Jelly 2, also can't do this. Guess I have to
| buy the "premium" brand Androids for this feature.
| jonathantf2 wrote:
| The Nexus 5X is nearly 7 years old at this point and from a
| quick Google the Unihertz is advertising the fact that it
| runs Android 10 (released in 2019) so it's probably to do
| with the out of date software.
| toast0 wrote:
| You're not missing out. My moto g power (2020) can
| sometimes manage the feature, but only sometimes. Sometimes
| it just won't scan with the regular camera and you've got
| to open a dedicated qr scanner... So you're really better
| off starting with the dedicated qr scanner... except I have
| a button on the home screen for the camera and have to dig
| for the dedicated app.
| jonah wrote:
| I have the same model - amazing phone for the price btw.
| - and have the same intermittent issue. But, I can switch
| to Lens which will always work - just not as seamlessly.
| toast0 wrote:
| Well... I'd have preferred to get a phone that can
| consistently get my attention in silent mode, but
| otherwise, I've been pretty happy with it.
| mherdeg wrote:
| latchkey wrote:
| Call me paranoid, but I've taken to not scanning "public" QR
| codes any longer [1].
|
| [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/07/are-
| qr-...
| btmiller wrote:
| There is way too much human interest to that article and way
| too little substance on the problems. Tl;dr - there's no
| security risk unique to QR codes are that aren't simply present
| on the Internet at-large.
| kube-system wrote:
| Yes, but there are security risks unique to QR code menus at
| pizza joints that aren't present on pizza joint menus at
| large. The status quo for restaurant menus is printed text.
|
| Also, QR codes obfuscate the request that is being sent.
| latchkey wrote:
| The link to the article wasn't intended to be the be-all
| reason... just a general "something to think about here".
|
| There is an inherent security risk... it is trivial, as the
| OPs article suggests, to print out a QR code, cover an
| existing public one, and send people to a phishing site.
| Unless people are being very careful about what sites they
| are on, they could easily be scammed.
| kevincox wrote:
| I've done this for years, quite convenient. I also have an NFC
| tag with the WiFi which works quicker (no need to open a QR
| scanner and no need to focus on the image for a sec) but I'm not
| sure if iOS supports it. I've put the tag behind the wifi "frame"
| so that you can just tap it instead of scanning it.
|
| Android also has the option to "share" wifi via a QR code from
| the WiFi settings menu. It is quick and much easier than reading
| out the password to someone else.
| toyg wrote:
| What do you need, to produce (or rather program) nfc tags...? I
| guess they don't have usb ports, lol.
| kevincox wrote:
| You can program them via NFC. I use this app https://play.goo
| gle.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wakdev.wdn... which can do
| it for free and has lots of neat NFC tools.
| MilaM wrote:
| Programming NXP NTAG21x tags works on most recent iPhones
| too. Two apps I successfully used are "NFC Tools" and "NFC
| TagWriter by NXP". You can also associate the tags with
| Shortcuts and with automations in Home Assistant.
| dcdc123 wrote:
| iOS lets you share wifi passwords with someone else around you
| if they are trying to connect. I _think_ it uses your AirDrop
| privacy settings so for most reasonable people it would only
| work for people in their contact list.
| bee_rider wrote:
| It is a pretty neat feature.
|
| The only thing I don't love about it is, there's very little
| user feedback. The person requesting just goes to the wifi
| password prompt and hopefully this generates the notification
| for one of their contacts.
|
| Nice when it magically works (you go to wifi, and then
| someone in the room is like "Hey, dcdc123 wants the wifi
| password" and you are like "yep," and then it's all sorted),
| annoying when you are intentionally trying to use it with one
| particular person.
|
| It would be nice if it showed something like "looking for
| contacts" "found <NAME>" etc etc.
| MikeKusold wrote:
| If you want to 3D Print your QR code, this site generates an STL:
| https://printer.tools/qrcode2stl/
|
| If you add the key tag, you can hang it on the wall. Works well
| with a light-color background, and a dark foreground.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| That's a great idea!
|
| Of course, it has potential security issues; but no more than
| your standard sign in a store or boardroom.
| willis936 wrote:
| The risk is small if you isolate clients from everything on LAN
| and limit bandwidth.
| jeffbee wrote:
| I'm guessing nobody remembers "warchalking".
| dbg31415 wrote:
| https://www.qr-code-generator.com/
|
| Works for Text Messages too! (=
|
| I made a QR Code for my contact info in a VCard and set it as the
| home screen of my phone -- when I go to conventions it makes it
| really easy to connect with people.
|
| There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with QR Codes now. Most of
| this stuff is 5-10 years old even, but the pandemic really helped
| educated people to look for QR Codes. Yay, Covid! =P
| bityard wrote:
| It would not use that one, it sends the network name and
| password to a server. This was easy to verify with browser dev
| tools.
|
| There are QR code generators that are work entirely client-
| side, I would trust those much more, or just use a native app.
| graton wrote:
| It uses the form of:
| WIFI:T:WPA;S:{ssid};P:{password};;
|
| Can generate these on Linux with the qrencode program.
|
| Wikipedia has information on this
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code#Joining_a_Wi%E2%80%91F...
|
| Section of the Wikipedia article:
|
| Joining a Wi-Fi network
|
| By specifying the SSID, encryption type, password/passphrase, and
| if the SSID is hidden or not, mobile device users can quickly
| scan and join networks without having to manually enter the data.
| Note that this technique is valid for specifying only static SSID
| passwords (i.e. PSK); dynamic user credentials (i.e.
| Enterprise/802.1x) cannot be encoded in this manner.
|
| The format of the encoded string is:
| WIFI:S:<SSID>;T:<WPA|WEP|>;P:<password>;H:<true|false|>;
|
| Order of fields does not matter. Special characters """
| (quotation mark), ";" (semicolon), "," (comma), ":" (colon) and
| "\" (backslash) should be escaped with a backslash ("\") as in
| MECARD encoding. For example, if an SSID were "foo;bar\baz", with
| quotation marks part of the literal SSID name itself, this would
| be encoded as: WIFI:S:\"foo\;bar\\\baz\";;
| [deleted]
| makeworld wrote:
| > Can generate these on Linux with the qrencode program.
|
| If you're using Network Manager, you can also just run this
| command! nmcli dev wifi show-password
|
| You get the password as text, and a nice in-terminal QR code.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| Recent Plasma Desktop lets you show a network QR code right
| from the right-click context menu.
| msravi wrote:
| Wow! Had no clue this was possible! Thank you!
| jhgb wrote:
| That is actually quite cool. I wonder how many command line
| tools could take advantage of such a feature. Like, I don't
| know, upload a file somewhere and show a one-time QR code to
| transfer that file into your phone or something.
| ircop420 wrote:
| Can you encode a BSSID (MAC-based) or just the ESSID (assigned
| name)? The formatting isn't very pleasant I imagine for putting
| a MAC in with all those backslashes..
| tepitoperrito wrote:
| You would use "H" for BSSID or a hidden network I assume
| andix wrote:
| Can I also put my networks with Emoji SSIDs into the QR code?
| InvaderFizz wrote:
| Yes, I've been doing this for years with QR codes for WiFi.
|
| Works for emoji in both the SSID and Password.
| silvestrov wrote:
| why couldn't they just use normal URL query param escaping?
| Always reinventing the wheel, badly.
|
| WIFI:t=wpa&s=My%20Network&p=secret%20word
|
| would have been much better.
| ircop420 wrote:
| Data is expensive in QR land or your resulting QR code
| becomes larger in size, requiring more physical space to
| display. URL encoding has a lot of overhead. Also '\'
| escaping has preceded the existence of URLs. I'm not sure who
| is doing the reinventing here.
| silvestrov wrote:
| Only encoded characters take up more space and you don't
| have to escape: quotation mark, semicolon, comma, colon or
| backslash.
|
| So I think the difference is small. QR codes can contain
| quite a bit more information than what's needed for WIFI
| name and password.
| nemetroid wrote:
| At equal printed sizes, QR codes with less information
| are much easier/more forgiving to scan.
| SCLeo wrote:
| In countries that do not use English as the main
| language, it is fairly common to have non-English SSIDs.
| URL encoding is incredibly inefficient when encoding
| those characters.
| deathanatos wrote:
| Now if only Comcast modems could scan these, I could use this to
| set the WiFi password (/s), since it forgets every time it is
| reset (...less /s).
|
| ... too bad I'm with a different monopoly ISP now. Their Wifi
| just drops you if you are on the 5 GHz bands and transmit
| anywhere remotely near full throttle. So you have to stay on the
| 2.4 GHz and weep.
| zaptrem wrote:
| Why not buy your own router or access point? Spectrum even let
| us buy our own modem.
| Schinken_ wrote:
| I did a set of 3D printed QR codes with integrated NFC stickers
| used as drink coasters for a friend and myself. They're pretty
| neat and always a talking point.
| [deleted]
| nahimn wrote:
| Someoned posted https://wificard.io/ a while ago... pretty neat
| K7PJP wrote:
| Thanks! This site actually produces attractive output which
| includes some instructions, as well as the network name and
| password, something other sites don't offer. It is handy to be
| able to have the password visible for situations where the QR
| Code isn't a viable option, like setting up a laptop.
| SamuelAdams wrote:
| Yeah we use this for our AirBnB, print a page and put it in the
| guest book. Super convenient and clients like it.
| josefresco wrote:
| This is super cool and would be awesome for situations where your
| guests are familiar with QR codes. But from my experience the
| process would go something like this:
|
| Visitor: What's your wifi password?
|
| Me: No password needed! We have a cool QR code you can scan that
| will auto-join you!
|
| Visitor: Oh cool, how do I use a QR code? Do I need an app?
|
| Me: Nope, just point your camera at it.
|
| Visitor: Like .. .take a picture of it? And then what, do I...
|
| Me: No just point your camera at it.
|
| Visitor: Ok let me try it ... oh cool it's prompting me to join
| your wifi network? what do I do now
|
| Me: Yes Yes, just proceed, that's what it's for.
|
| Visitor: That's soo cool, thanks.
|
| Vs
|
| Visitor: What's your wifi password?
|
| Me: ShinyTortoise78
| system16 wrote:
| That might have been the case a few years ago (at least here in
| BC, Canada) but these days virtually every sit-down restaurant
| I go to has their menu available - often exclusively - via QR
| code.
| Fatnino wrote:
| Visitor: what's your wifi password?
|
| Me: it's the entire alphabet in order.
|
| Visitor: I don't want to type 20+ obnoxious letters.
|
| Me: can I interest you in a QR code?
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| It's remarkable how something as trivial as typing 26
| characters is onerous on our glassy slabs, but image
| processing to resolve a high-resolution two-dimensional
| barcode in a video stream is easy.
| yakshaving_jgt wrote:
| Computers are fast and they usually don't complain when you
| make them do work.
| robbitt wrote:
| Had very similar experiences. Setup QR readers for a convention
| where users could scan for our website and a text bot...
| Absolute disaster, on both accounts.
| notatoad wrote:
| before covid, that's completely true. since covid it's flipped
| the opposite - when every restaurant has a QR code instead of a
| printed menu, people get used to it quickly.
|
| in the last few months, i've had visitors at events ask why we
| didn't have a QR code posted because they'd prefer that to
| typing in the name of our website.
| hapticmonkey wrote:
| If you're both using Apple devices it works like this:
|
| Guest: "What's your wifi network?"
|
| Me: "It's XXXX"
|
| Guest: _selects network_
|
| Me: _Prompt on my device "Would you like to share your wifi
| password with Guest" . Selects Yes_
|
| Guest: "oh wow I'm connected. Thanks!"
|
| Now that only works if I am present. But it works wonderfully.
| It should be standardised across platforms.
| woevdbz wrote:
| Thank COVID for teaching more people how to use the dang camera
| on their phones as a barcode scanner (by way of many
| restaurants moving to QR menus)
| Consultant32452 wrote:
| If you're not tech savvy enough to scan a QR code, do you
| really NEED to be on my home wifi?
| beastman82 wrote:
| vs Whats's your Wifi password?
|
| A: I don't know it's written on the back of the modem.
|
| <finds modem after 10 minutes on top of a dusty cabinet>
|
| <dictates code which is in hexadecimal to someone typing>
| jjkaczor wrote:
| Aha... apparently you have met ALL of my relatives who have
| absolutely no understanding that they _could_ login to the
| device and change the password to something better.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| Some of the rental hardware no longer allow users to login
| as admin. Some of the ones that do the ISP landlords make a
| lot claims that leases/monthly fees go up if they think to
| try. There's a growing disparity between modem/router
| hardware owners and "this lease seemed like the best deal
| from the cable/phone company" average users.
| BadOakOx wrote:
| It might be only my bubble (of non-tech-savvy people), but
| recently I started to use QR code to share my WiFi and there
| was never such friction you described. I don't do it with a
| printed out image, but my phone has an option to share the WiFi
| via QR code. Also, modern phones have a direct button from the
| WiFi connection screen to directly scan a QR and connect to
| WiFi... This is a thing... and it's easier to use it as typing
| `ShinyTortoise78`...
| dr_orpheus wrote:
| > Also, modern phones have a direct button from the WiFi
| connection screen to directly scan a QR and connect to WiFi
|
| I recently did this with a few (some more tech-savvy, some
| less tech-savvy) people and it seemed to blow their mind. I
| don't know if this is a commonly known feature.
| PebblesRox wrote:
| My phone has this feature and now I know about it! :) Never
| would have noticed the little icon on the wifi settings
| page without knowing to look for it.
| SteveDR wrote:
| In the suburban/rural southeast US I see lots of QR codes and
| lots of old people using them. Especially since 2020
| theandrewbailey wrote:
| Vistor: Ok, I took a picture of it. Now what? Do I send it to
| you?
|
| Me: Is it doing anything? What did you do?
|
| Vistor: No. I pointed my phone at it like you said. Then I took
| a picture.
|
| Me: What app are you using?
|
| Visitor: The photo app I always use.
|
| Me: Can you be more specific?
|
| Visitor (showing where the icon is): That one. I always use it.
|
| Me: That one sucks. Do you have any others?
|
| Visitor: I don't know. There's photos in the Facebook app.
| Should I try that?
|
| Me (grabs a piece of paper from the fridge, exasperated): Here.
| This is my wifi info. Use the 5ghz one. If that doesn't work,
| try the other one.
|
| Vistor: Oh, ok, whatever. Thanks.
| dubswithus wrote:
| I'm in an Airbnb and the access point has the same name for
| 5ghz and 2.4ghz. Apple doesn't let you manually switch. The
| only way I've found to switch when one is not working is to
| toggle the wifi on/off fifty times.
|
| I think there must be some sort of crazy interference going
| on because I can literally be sitting right next to the
| router and 5ghz has about 5k of bandwidth available.
| otherme123 wrote:
| Has this really happened to you? I got the WiFi QR printed
| and hanged in my living room, and to this day nobody has ever
| had a problem. QR might seem too techie, but they are so
| pervasive that everyone knows how to use them.
| dataflow wrote:
| > but they are so pervasive that everyone knows how to use
| them.
|
| Nope. I know people first-hand who don't. Hell, even I
| don't know how the average person does it. My own phone's
| camera app doesn't detect them so I had to find a random
| 3rd party app and trust that it's not stealing the info. In
| fact I'm not sure I've ever used the stock camera app on
| any phone to scan a QR code before. For some folks it might
| be "press Camera and scan", but for others it's _way_
| harder than it looks.
| mikestew wrote:
| I take it your visitors either cook all of their own food at
| home, or with their inability to use what passes for a
| restaurant menu these days, they have starved to death by now.
| dmtroyer wrote:
| my recommendation would be to also just print out the password
| below the QR code and people can select the one they recognize.
| acchow wrote:
| "ShinyTortoise78, no spaces, capitalization on the first letter
| of each word. Seventy Eight is the numbers 7 then 8, not spelt
| out as a word"
|
| "Uhh English is my 3rd language and I don't know how to spell
| tortus. is there a QR code I can scan?"
| na85 wrote:
| The optimal solution is thus:
|
| "What's your wifi password?"
|
| "It's written right there on the fridge"
| itake wrote:
| "oh, I have to get up from my table, carry my laptop over
| to your fridge and attempt to type in the password without
| dropping anything?"
|
| (I have a horrible short term memory and struggle with
| short phrases)
| samatman wrote:
| I have solved this (and a surprising number of similar
| problems) by pulling out the powerful camera I carry
| everywhere and taking a picture of the text I would
| otherwise need to remember.
| pjerem wrote:
| You don't talk like this when you are invited somewhere?
| You do ?
| itake wrote:
| I internally think this every time I bring my laptop to a
| cafe and the barista points at a 'cute' wifi password
| sign (or bathroom unlock code).
| denysvitali wrote:
| Is that an O or a 0?
| na85 wrote:
| I would never write something so ambiguous.
| justnotworthit wrote:
| Is that a 0 or a O?
| noSyncCloud wrote:
| Return to monke: password123
| [deleted]
| luhn wrote:
| My solution to this is that "password" is the literal
| password of my guest WiFi.
| brewdad wrote:
| I agree with scenario one but also think you went too
| simplistic on the second scenario. Even with a simple wifi
| password like you suggested, you still need to specify the
| uppercase letters and plenty of people might have trouble
| spelling tortoise correctly on the first try.
|
| Nevermind the fact that my friends group tends to be about 50%
| passwords of the type you used and the other 50% of them use a
| randomly generated one from a pw generator or add enough random
| capitalization of things like family member names to make it
| awkward. More often than not, I end up handing them my device
| to type it themselves.
|
| The QR code seems a much simpler solution once people know how
| to use them. Thanks to things like electronic menus at
| restaurants due to Covid more folks than you might realize
| actually do know what to do. If grandma can learn how to use a
| QR code to access the high school band concert program online
| (true story), then anyone can.
|
| Teach a man to fish.
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| I solve this by having a framed piece of paper on my wall:
| GUEST WIFI SSID: AAA Guest Password:
| squirrels2
| citizenkeen wrote:
| It's fourwordsalluppercase, one word, all lower case.
| Obviously.
| scatters wrote:
| https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/e-mail-addresses-it-
| woul...
| dr_orpheus wrote:
| But you could also just put the password in that same frame
| and then you don't need to specify it. Just like every small
| coffee shop does with their guest wifi (assuming they don't
| have a captive portal)
| josefresco wrote:
| > Teach a man to fish.
|
| I keep teaching my family members to fish, and they keep
| asking me for fish.
| sigg3 wrote:
| And a boat. And a little island, with a cabin.
| aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
| I just use the automagical p20 Apple WiFi password sharing.
| dcdc123 wrote:
| I've suggested this to every AirBnB I have stayed in. Sadly I am
| up to about 75-100 of them and have come across this a grand
| total of zero times.
| dmosley wrote:
| This right here. I've done the same. It's absurd the level of
| password hoops at some places. I appreciate the secure
| password, but when it's hand written in marker and faded it can
| be quite frustrating.
| tlrobinson wrote:
| Idea: make one for each AirBnB you stay in. If you don't have
| access to a printer while you're there email them a PDF.
| megraf wrote:
| I've done something similar, but didn't like the static
| passwords. My guest wifi password is the current date, in YYYY-
| MM-DD format, it's been a great way to keep my guests (mildly)
| satisfied. The format changes on occasion
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| Is this automated or do you need to change every time Guests
| are expected?
| megraf wrote:
| This is automated, with a shell script and DDWRT
| vel0city wrote:
| I had a lot of WiFi QR codes around the house and in the office.
| People seemed to often just ask for the WiFi password instead of
| bothering to figure out how to scan the QR code. Maybe things are
| different post-COVID where QR-code menus became the norm for a
| while, but in the past people seemed to not really care or
| understand QR codes.
| eimrine wrote:
| This weekend I went to my dacha neighbor to ask a wifi password.
| All I had is a laptop with half-tuned Debian (do not use no
| smartphones). He gave me that QR and I could not read it because
| QR is not text. He is not a technician and I did not want to
| persist in my ask, so the situation ended up with no internets
| for me :( Please stop using human-unreadable protocols if
| opposite is possible.
| ircop420 wrote:
| If you have an integrated webcam there's a nifty package called
| 'zbar-tools' in debian repos that has a utilty named 'zbarcam'
| that identifies barcodes from your webcam and outputs them to
| standard output. Too little too late, I know, but nifty to have
| in the future.
| ris58h wrote:
| So just install a program to read qr? Oh wait, I don't have
| internet.
| volume wrote:
| > Please stop using human-unreadable protocols if opposite is
| possible
|
| how about use both
| usr1106 wrote:
| Of course using Debian you can decode that QR (don't remember
| how from the top of my head, but I remember decoding my EU
| COVID-19 certificate. Well, unless you don't even have a
| digital camera with some data path to your Debian.
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