[AusNOG] Interception?

[Jake Anderson]

On 06/07/12 09:14, Brad Henshaw wrote:
> Maybe I'm just a luddite but it seems to me that the most feasible 
> solution is to deal with the limitations of the system and manage this 
> as a procedural issue. Print an instruction card for all guests 
> informing them (a) how to configure their wireless interface on the 
> devices of choice and (b) to launch a web browser and browse to 
> http://<auth-portal> before trying to use the Internet. Inform 
> reception staff (or whomever is relevant) to have this as the first 
> stage of troubleshooting. Preferably, even have them brief guests on 
> arrival - which also gives the business an excuse to highlight the 
> presence of the [probably costly] service offered. "did you follow the 
> instructions on the card? Did you visit <auth-portal> in your browser? 
> No? Well do it." <thwack with a LART> I doubt this would gain you any 
> more support calls than you already receive because a given user can't 
> figure out how to associate their ancient wifi-free blackberry to the 
> wireless network. Of course this doesn't address your question around 
> resolving the issue by technical means... but tough titties. Regards, Brad

The problem is at least 50% of users don't know what an address bar is.
If they see *any* error page 15 seconds later a "your server is down" 
phone call appears (yes even for a 404 on *any* website).

I had one company set up with a squirrelmail setup for webmail.
I showed them how to get to it, www.companyname.com/squirrelmail, went 
through it 3 times.

get a support call the next day "its not working"
she was typing squirrelmail into google, then clicking on random links 
and trying to login to random peoples sites.

Its impossible to underestimate the "average" user.
maccas have a 5 way folded brochure full of pictures telling people how 
to get online on their wifi.


People really have no concept at all about how the Internet works, 
actually if somebody had some kind of training package on that I'd be 
interested.
It has to start from the fundamentals, DNS, tcp/ip etc but in a way that 
its relevant to the end users, if they have an understanding of whats 
going on i feel I'd get less dumb questions.
Sure their screwups would be way more epic but thats a price i'm willing 
to pay lol.