# Free Rogers/fido "HotSpots" until December 31, 2008--with a Mac (no iPhone required)



## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

*Free Rogers/fido "HotSpots" until December 31, 2008--with a Mac (no iPhone required)*

I haven't tried this, but have seen it reported.

Anybody with an Apple computer and the Safari internet browser can access Rogers and fido hotspots for *free* until at least the end of 2008.

It you activate your *"Develop"* menu (Leopard only, or the Tiger version of Safari enhanced menu) and emulate iPhone Safari and then log into any Rogers/fido hotspot, it will allow it, without asking for a phone number or other information.

The system only looks to verify that you are using an iPhone. The menu "Develop > User Agent" (or the Tiger version, with Safari enhanced) does the trick.

It has been pointed out that other browsers have user agent plugins (Firefox, including the PC version) that might do this.

This also provides access to lots of iPhone-related sites, apparently, that can only be surfed from iPhones.


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## cap10subtext (Oct 13, 2005)

Cooooooool.  I'm going to have to check this out. I'm not sure I quite follow all of it but I'll look into the plugins you mentioned.

Thanks for the tip!


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

Way cool. Thanks, However.


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## Corbeau (Apr 25, 2008)

So it's

Step 1) find the hot spot
Step 2) open safari
Step 3) from the develop menu, pick "user agent" and choose "mobile safari 1.1.3. iPhone

Have I got it right?

BTW, folks, you can have your Develop menu show on the menu bar by going into Safari preferences, last tab, and check the box at the bottom.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

And emulate different environments, too! Super way cool.


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## Visnaut (Jul 22, 2004)

Wow, I'm surprised Rogers used such basic security in order to "verify" an iPhone on their hotspots. Here I was thinking they have all the WiFi MAC address of the iPhones they sell.

However, how can you ascertain that it's until the end of 2008? And I thought it was only those who sign up for the special iPhone plans that qualified for access to those hotspots?

This would also imply that all 1st-gen iPhones will work on those hotspots too.


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## doubles87 (Jul 15, 2008)

that is sweet, so it strictly wifi right?


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

Corbeau said:


> *Step 1) find the hot spot*
> Step 2) open safari
> Step 3) from the develop menu, pick "user agent" and choose "mobile safari 1.1.3. iPhone


Handy list of Robbers 'hot spots' locations. 

Anything one can wring out of these %$#**&#%$#@*s for free is, as Martha would say, "A good Thing". :clap: 

Now we just need someone to actually try it and report back!


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## serenaray (Jul 31, 2007)

doesn't work... still asks for an email address/creditcard/cellphone#

tried it at 2 second cup's in Mississauga

even tried it with my gen1 iPhone...


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## BobbyFett (Jan 12, 2005)

so who does this work for? 

specifically for me, as someone who upgraded to the iPhone from an existing plan (ie keeping my voice plan, but adding the 6GB / $30 data plan) - can I just use it?


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## Gene Rayburn (Jun 30, 2007)

Yeah, AT&T also suffered from this vulnerability since it also depended on a user-agent check. Expect Rogers to shut this down soon and retool it (if they follow AT&T's lead)


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

Has anyone tried this and actually got it working? I'm interested to know. I'd love to get me some free Wifi in a coffee shop!


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## JSvo (Nov 12, 2007)

Wow, Vancouver has all of *two* hotspots! How useful!

tptptptp


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## askywalker (Sep 30, 2007)

wow - is that list seriously all the rogers hotspots? Didn't Rogers, Bell and Telus all team up and share their Hotspot access, providing tons of hotspots? 

Are there any other good hotspots? Does Starbucks provide their services in Canada for iPhone users?


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## Maverick (Sep 18, 2007)

JSvo said:


> Wow, Vancouver has all of *two* hotspots! How useful!
> 
> tptptptp


Yeah, I was wondering what the heck they were talking about because I'm always hunting for good wifi in Vancouver and I've never seen one that was Rogers/Fido. Two locations explains it. There's only 9 in all of BC! Where's the love?!


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

The main question here still remains unanswered, namely, has anyone been able to make this work? ie. WiFi for free at Robbers/Fido Mutt hotspots?


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## photonut13 (Oct 9, 2007)

If i can remember to do so I can check up the Carrot Common one tomorrow (Edit: technically today, its after midnight). I will be around there.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

I still haven't had a chance to check on this, but I have seen this screenshot of it working on an iPhone that does *not* have one of the expensive Rogers voice/data plans, but does have a $30/6GB plan instead:


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

If it's supposedly unlimited, why does the special offer end in 167 days?


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

fjnmusic said:


> If it's supposedly unlimited, why does the special offer end in 167 days?


It's eternal as well. If you use it, you'll live forever. And the universe is always expanding; how does that work?


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

In a Second Cup right now, and testing this. It *does* work on my iPhone 1G, which is not on an iPhone plan (but does have the $30/6GB Data plan on it.

When I try to spoof the user agent with Safari - it doesn't work. Is there a different version of Mobile safari in iPhone 2.0? Safari on my computer will only spoof Safari 1.1.3.

Hmm... I also reset Flock to display the iPhone 2.0 user agent string:
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5A345 Safari/525.20

(This is confirmed to be the same user agent string my iPhone is sending to the hotspot).

And It still didn't work. I wonder what other checks the Rogers HotSpot has in place?


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

HowEver said:


> It's eternal as well. If you use it, you'll live forever. And the universe is always expanding; how does that work?


Good question.


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## Gene Rayburn (Jun 30, 2007)

fyrefly said:


> In a Second Cup right now, and testing this. It *does* work on my iPhone 1G, which is not on an iPhone plan (but does have the $30/6GB Data plan on it.
> 
> When I try to spoof the user agent with Safari - it doesn't work. Is there a different version of Mobile safari in iPhone 2.0? Safari on my computer will only spoof Safari 1.1.3.
> 
> ...


Hmm, sounds like Rogers is doing more than just a dumb user-agent check. The only other thing they could be checking for (through WiFi) is your MAC address. I don't know of any Mac progs that can spoof your MAC address, but if there is one, try changing your laptop's WiFi MAC address to that of the iPhone.


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## expergo (Feb 28, 2005)

I have an iPhone 3G with no data plan and have been able to connect to Rogers Hotspot (2nd cup).


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

Any movement on your data usage meters? If not, then I think we have our answer, kids.


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

fjnmusic said:


> Any movement on your data usage meters? If not, then I think we have our answer, kids.


Well, we do have our answer. It does work on your iPhone - only in a Rogers/Fido hotspot - no Bell or Telus ones (like those in Starbucks). 

But...we're still trying to get the Wifi working on a laptop instead, which makes it hugely more useful. When that happens, I'll say we have our answer


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## JustAMacUser (Oct 21, 2007)

Gene Rayburn said:


> I don't know of any Mac progs that can spoof your MAC address, but if there is one, try changing your laptop's WiFi MAC address to that of the iPhone.


It's built into the OS: Spoof MAC address on some machines

Obviously you'll want to turn wifi on your iPhone off before trying it.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

Be careful! If you spoof your iPhone's MAC address on your Mac, and you get a call, your Mac will ring!



JustAMacUser said:


> It's built into the OS: Spoof MAC address on some machines
> 
> Obviously you'll want to turn wifi on your iPhone off before trying it.


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## CdnPhoto (Jan 8, 2006)

HowEver said:


> Be careful! If you spoof your iPhone's MAC address on your Mac, and you get a call, your Mac will ring!


LOL


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

But how would Rogers tell what iPhone MAC Addresses were? Would they get a list from Apple? And also why would they allow iPhone 1G MAC Addresses?


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## CdnPhoto (Jan 8, 2006)

fyrefly said:


> But how would Rogers tell what iPhone MAC Addresses were? Would they get a list from Apple? And also why would they allow iPhone 1G MAC Addresses?


Each vendor of Ethernet (or wifi devices) is given a prefix. As long as you know the prefix, you can look up the vendor/manufacturer of the device.

there are sites that can help identify vendors for you.


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

CdnPhoto said:


> Each vendor of Ethernet (or wifi devices) is given a prefix. As long as you know the prefix, you can look up the vendor/manufacturer of the device.
> 
> there are sites that can help identify vendors for you.


Hmmm, so theoretically, the iPhone could have a MAC address prefix all of it's own... and Rogers could somehow be filtering based on that? OK, so how do we find out the iPhone MAC address/prefix?


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## rgray (Feb 15, 2005)

fyrefly said:


> Is there a different version of Mobile safari in iPhone 2.0? Safari on my computer will only spoof Safari 1.1.3.


Hint: Take a look in the Apple Developer Connection site. ADC membership required. There is a developer version of Safari 4.


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## Gene Rayburn (Jun 30, 2007)

You can check your iPhone's MAC address under About in General Settings. However, the iPhone uses the same prefix as all Apple products. Therefore, if filtering by MAC address is occuring, then Rogers must either have a list or Apple has internally set some type of "sub-prefix" for iPhones which Rogers can look for.


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## JustAMacUser (Oct 21, 2007)

HowEver said:


> Be careful! If you spoof your iPhone's MAC address on your Mac, and you get a call, your Mac will ring!


LOL... That's funny..


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## fyrefly (Apr 16, 2005)

rgray said:


> Hint: Take a look in the Apple Developer Connection site. ADC membership required. There is a developer version of Safari 4.


Safari 4 Developer Preview (at least the version I have) will only spoof Mobile Safari 1.1.4. Besides, I found the user agent string for iPhone 2.0 Mobile Safari and it still didn't fool the Rogers Hotspot.


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## doubles87 (Jul 15, 2008)

so anyone get this to work on the 3G iPhone without having a data plan?


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