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Comment on Has ethernet become illegitimate? A librarian flipped out after spotting me using ethernet

I plugged into ethernet (as wifi w/captive portal does not work for me). I think clearnet worked but I have no interest in that. Egress Tor traffic was blocked and so was VPN. I’m not interested in editing all my scripts and configs to use clearnet, so the library’s internet is useless to me (unless I bother to try a tor bridge).

Yeah… Trying to bypass their security by using ethernet instead of Wi-Fi to use your own stuff that’s being blocked is tantamount to abusing the library’s services. Someone should let the IT staff know so they can properly block those services on ethernet as well.

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deweydecibel@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
They should just be disabling the ports, frankly. If you need to use a computer on an Ethernet connection, most libraries provide them.

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- DoomBot5@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, I agree that’s the easiest path to take in properly securing it.
  
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coffeeClean@infosec.pub ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Someone should let the IT staff know so they can properly block those services on ethernet as well.

Someone should let the IT staff know that wi-fi does not work for everyone, including:

People running free software whose wifi NIC has no free driver and firmware

People without a mobile phone to perform the mandated SMS verfication

People with a mobile phone but who want to exercise their GDPR right to data minimization

Pro-environment people who prefer not to spend 30 times more energy needed for wi-fi radios

People who want the security of other wi-fi users not eavesdropping on their traffic by simply pointing a yagi antenna from a block away (on a network that blocks the VPNs that would protect them from that on wi-fi)
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- Buelldozer@lemmy.today ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Someone should let the IT staff know that wi-fi does not work for everyone, including:
  
  HI there. I’m someone in IT for a Public Library so let me review these points.
  
  People running a free software platform that lacks support for a wifi NIC that needs a proprietary driver and firmware
  
  That’s a you and your hardware problem, not a public library IT problem. You need to purchase hardware that is adequately supported by your chosen Operating System.
  
  People running free software who ethically object to running the proprietary non-free driver and firmware their wifi NIC requires
  
  This is a you and your hardware problem. Buy hardware that is adequately supported by your chosen Operating System.
  
  People without a mobile phone to perform the captive portal-mandated SMS verfication
  
  This one is a semi-serious complaint however I’ve never seen a portal system where the Librarian’s didn’t have the ability to issue a day pass for use. Aside from that you sound like someone who should be technically able to stand up an ephemeral phone number for the purpose of receiving SMS.
  
  People with a mobile phone but who want to exercise their GDPR right to data minimization
  
  Same as above.
  
  Pro-environment people who prefer not to spend 30 times more energy needed for wi-fi radios
  
  What an absolutely petty complaint.
  
  People who want the security of other wi-fi users not eavesdropping on their traffic by simply pointing a yagi antenna from a block away.
  
  I’d bet that as soon as you enter a code your VPN stops being blocked. They’re not trying to block VPN they are preventing you from sidestepping their ToS.
  
  I’ve dealt with Patrons like you before and the instant someone starts yammering at me about ClearNet / Tor I know exactly what kind of person I’m dealing with.
  
  You selected your path for whatever reasons you chose and the inconveniences that come with that path are yours to deal with. Suck it up buttercup, you weren’t promised that a privacy respecting internet lifestyle would be easy or convenient.
  
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  - lemmyreader@lemmy.ml ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    I’ve dealt with Patrons like you before and the instant someone starts yammering at me about ClearNet / Tor I know exactly what kind of person I’m dealing with.
    
    You selected your path for whatever reasons you chose and the inconveniences that come with that path are yours to deal with. Suck it up buttercup, you weren’t promised that a privacy respecting internet lifestyle would be easy or convenient.
    
    I guess Meta, Google, Amazon and countless other companies are with you on this one for the ad and tracking riddled mass exploitation Internet of today.
    
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    Buelldozer@lemmy.today ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I began my struggle with F/OSS and its drivers with Slackware V3 shortly after it’s release. I long ago memorized absolutely every argument you could possible come up with and have myself repeated many of them over the years. That doesn’t change the fact that Networks and Systems are not configured for your convenience and YOU are responsible for how your own damn hardware works.
    
    Now get the hell off my lawn.
    
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  - coffeeClean@infosec.pub ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    That’s a you and your hardware problem, not a public library IT problem. You need to purchase hardware that is adequately supported by your chosen Operating System.
    
    Forcing people to buy more hardware is yet another variation of discrimination against the poor. Imposed needless consumerism is also reckless from an environmental standpoint. If you choose not to step your competency up to the level needed to serve the public without costing them more money, you’re only getting off the hook in the view of right-wing conservatives.
    
    Not being “your problem” is simply a problem of an ill-defined contract that allows irresponsible policy.
    
    This is a you and your hardware problem. Buy hardware that is adequately supported by your chosen Operating System.
    
    It’s not a hardware problem. It’s an ethics problem, and the problem is on your part whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. If you lack the higher level of competency needed to support ethical consumers, you should either gain the competency our leave your line of work.
    
    This one is a semi-serious complaint however I’ve never seen a portal system where the Librarian’s didn’t have the ability to issue a day pass for use.
    
    Not a single public library in my area has that option as an alternative authentication. If you have no phone, they are helpless.
    
    Aside from that you sound like someone who should be technically able to stand up an ephemeral phone number for the purpose of receiving SMS.
    
    I’ve not heard a burner phone called that before, but there is no way to get a phone nor an active SIM chip gratis in my area. You can get a pinger number online, but it only works if you’re already online. Apart from that, your suggestion is absurd as an official policy in response to public complaint about phoneless people being officially excluded.
    
    Same as above.
    
    It fails here too, for the same reason.
    
    What an absolutely petty complaint.
    
    What an absolutely pathetic failure to support a claim to the contrary.
    
    I’d bet that as soon as you enter a code your VPN stops being blocked. They’re not trying to block VPN they are preventing you from sidestepping their ToS.
    
    This is not a /me/ problem. You are responding to a list of demographics of people who are being excluded by a public service. If not every single person has a gratis VPN, this is a broken argument.
    
    I’ve dealt with Patrons like you before and the instant someone starts yammering at me about ClearNet / Tor I know exactly what kind of person I’m dealing with.
    
    You selected your path for whatever reasons you chose and the inconveniences that come with that path are yours to deal with. Suck it up buttercup, you weren’t promised that a privacy respecting internet lifestyle would be easy or convenient.
    
    Inconveniences are borne out of the kind of incompetent infosec that you’re peddling. A competent tech firm can do this job without violating the GDPR and without violating human rights.
    
    BTW if you’d plugged your laptop into one of my systems you’d have gotten vlan’d into the same Captive Portal System that the WiFi has which is precisely how any publicly available Ethernet port should function. Your little length of wires coated in vinyl with plastic shoved on the ends still wouldn’t have gotten you where you wanted to go.
    
    And that would still be violating peoples’ Article 21 rights to equal access. Imposing a mobile phone is among the injustices I’ve mentioned. I would still favor the ethernet regardless of the captive portal for many of the reasons I’ve mentioned. I avoids discriminating against people without functioning wifi h/w.
    
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- catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You’re welcome to use the library PCs (if available) or get your own ISP connection.
  
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- DoomBot5@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, this argument is bullshit once you actually know what you’re talking about instead of following some cult videos that teach you to repeat them.
  
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cooopsspace@infosec.pub ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
To be fair. That’s your ethernet jack and your security that you’re abusing.

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