The South China Morning Post has a funny (or ridiculous?) story about how a man dumped his girlfriend as they checked into a hotel, after her phone auto-connected to the Wi-Fi. I wouldn’t usually cover stories like this, but the twist here is that she wasn’t lying, and there was an innocent explanation.
Continue reading: Chinese Man Dumps Girlfriend Over Hotel Wi-Fi Auto-Connect
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Why do you need to say 'Chinese man'? If he was black would you say 'black man' dumped girlfriend?
You missed a CRUCIAL part of the story! They were not checking into any hotel, it was a love-themed hotel. (According to Chinese news)
I don't believe her.
Each network has its own unique IP address, even with similar name and password, you can't jump connections easily.
Hotels often share ownership. It is not farfetched to imagine the router was moved from one owned hotel to another. I would also point out that the router need not be moved. I often change settings on a new router sop I do not have to change all my attached devices. So, if the hotels share or previously shared ownership or a lazy technician they can share credentials.
"A local TV reporter went to her previous workplace to connect to the Wi-Fi, and then went to the hotel that she had visited with her ex-boyfriend."
What a piece of investigation journalism!
My phone automatically connects to "Hilton Honors" each time I'm in a Hilton.
I guess the issue here is that it's a love hotel, although apparently it's a chain.
I once audited a hotel (out of many I did back in the day) and the GM or someone made a comment about how sometimes 4 hour reservations skewed their numbers, or something along those lines. So I asked “who books a hotel for 4 hours???” Everyone around the room looked at each other and smiled like thinking “you must be new here”. Then kindly explained it to me lol.
Ben, you've just lost a reader! How dare you post this! This is a miles and points blog, and no self-respecting journalist would publish this prurient garbage! YOUR NO BETER THEN THEE POITS GUY!!!!!!!1!!!! GOODBYE!*
*Just kidding. I wanted to see what it felt like to do a flounce. I can report that it feels stupid.
Because he is Chinese? Chinese is a nationality, not a race. And nothing wrong with describing someone as a black man either. Try to relax a little, Liam. Have a kale smoothie.
Wait, this is OMAAT? Given this content, I assumed it was View from the Clickbait.
Yeah, no. We have Google at home in the US and Orange in Europe. Wifi SSID and PW are the same on both. Devices autoconnect in one location if they've been already been online on the other. I set that up specifically for that reason. The IP address assigned by DHCP to your home router (from your ISP) does not affect your device's ability to join that network. If you packet traced data coming from one network to the other, then you'd see a difference - hello, WireShark. At the user level, it doesn't matter.
Actually, this is very common for data / identity theft. Give your (free/open) Wifi-network a common name that's actually used elsewhere by a big corporation (AA onboard wifi, BA Lounge, etc. etc.) and many devices will connect automatically and leak data.
Neither my phones nor laptops auto connect and that's because I have set my phones and laptops not to do so in settings
Turns out the network was "@Hyatt_Wifi" and the girl was a lifetime Globalist so her phone connects everywhere.
Chinese is more than a nationality but not quite a race.
Have you ever heard of the Republic of China, not to be confused with the People's Republic of China?
True yet wrong at the same time. If a WiFi network's SSID (the name of the network that it broadcasts, and the one that you see on your phone/tablet/laptop's WiFi menu) and password are identical to that of a different network you have saved on your device, your device will connect to it. The underlying IP address (which, as you rightly point out, is different on each network) is irrelevant on this particular point. Try it for yourself with two WiFi networks that you can change the SSIDs and passwords of; you'll see how your device does not need to relearn the connection details: once you've connected to one, it will connect to the other network as soon as it's in range.
"She then contacted a local TV station..."
As one does after a fight with one's boyfriend.
Seriously Ben? You're better than this. It's this kind of crap that cause me to not read Gary's blog anymore
I enjoyed the story. I just wish news crews would investigate corruption with the same vigor!
I had the opposite issue in a provincial capital in Mexico (possibly Morelia). I had a four hour connection to CDMX at the local bus station (there were frequent coaches but I wanted the super duper angled-flat seat service) and I had been at an all-you-can-drink bar the night before where you could say I hadn't been consuming alcohol very responsibly, so I was desperate for a shower and a couple of hours' rest so I went to the motel-like place that was next to the station (quite basic but clean and admittedly not obviously love-themed) and was surprised that they weren't offering a day rate.
I had to pay the full night's price which obviously only came to a few hundred pesos but still managed to both baffle and annoy me (for anyone not familiar with Mexico, the country definitely has many more love motels than Taiwan and South Korea combined, and they're regularly featured in memes and popular culture).
That’s a dumb story. But the cover photo shows the fabulous Chongqing InterContinental which is someplace I’d really like to stay! It’s part of the Raffles City complex designed by the great Moshe Safdie…. Not that anyone asked.
Username and password?
WiFi networks using PSK authentication do not feature a username, so that's nonsense.
If authentication via a captive portal is involved, that requires that the user opens a web browser and authenticates, and even then the idea that there's a static username and password is nonsense.
Jack, I'm truly curious, so maybe you can help. When I read a airline/travel blog and come across a story that doesn't interest me, I skip it (or stop reading) and move on. What prompts someone to take the effort to post on their lack of interest? Honest curiosity here.
She's a lucky woman who dodged a bullet. The fact he would not listen to her explanation shows it.