Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network

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Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
2021-06-15 17:54:13

When I was in a café I connected to the café's wifi to access the internet. I ran the Deco lab WiFi assistant to see if all was OK and it came up with 'A fake Wi-Fi hotspot'. What does this mean? On what grounds would Deco be deciding it was fake?

 

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#1
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7 Reply
Re:Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
2021-06-23 05:40:43

@Ned01 

 

May I know what is the phone OS version, and how about the Deco app version? We will check this.

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#2
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Re:Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
2021-06-23 07:44:30

@Kevin_Z 

samsung A20e; android 10; build qp1a.190711.020.a202fxxs3buc1

deco version 2.7.9

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#3
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Re:Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
2021-06-23 08:50:04 - last edited 2021-06-23 08:50:39

cont.

there were two networks:

the coffee trader

the-coffee-trader

one came up fake the other didn't

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#4
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Re:Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
2021-06-23 09:40:19

@Ned01 

 

Thanks. When you're connecting to these two the coffee trader networks, are there any obvious difference, such as wireless security type or version?

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Re:Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
2021-06-23 10:45:14

@Kevin_Z 

I couldn't tell you. The 'fake' one had a higher bandwidth. They were different suppliers - the 'fake' one was vodafone, I cannot remember the other one.

I got out of the one labelled as 'fake' very quickly and used the other one. It was only afterwards I realised although I understood the concept of a 'fake hotspot' (somebody else had set up a network with a name indicating the network was valid but was using it to harvest names and passwords) that I didn't know how you could identify it as 'fake'.

 

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#6
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Re:Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
2021-06-25 09:27:50

@Ned01 

 

Hi, thanks for all the information you've provided now. We can confirm that this would happen when there are more than one open network when searching (apparently when the location permission is enabled as well), we will see how to improve this notification in the future firmware.

 

BTW, if you are not sure whether the open network is safe or not, be careful to connect to it, especially when it requires any credentials.

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Re:Wi-Fi assistant: Fake network
2021-06-25 10:03:55

@Kevin_Z 

I don't quite understand. I assume by 'open network' you mean that the network didn't need a password although it might still have asked for an email address.

I assume by 'location permission' you mean the phone's location permission has been set to allow others to see it's location.

This was in a town centre so lots of networks came up, many of them open.

Both networks: 'the_coffee_trader' and 'the coffee trader' were open but asked for an email address as id, yet only one of them came up as a 'fake' network.

 

Does what you say mean that the one that came up as 'fake' may not've been fake? Could it also mean that the one that didn't come up as 'fake' may actually have been fake?

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#8
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