I recently learned about LocalSend and was intrigued by how it functioned by only using the WiFi network of the devices. I did not know my LAN had these capabilities.
Now that I’ve learned about it, I am excited to know if there is anything else I can do with it. Perhaps there could be a way to send prank notifications to all the connected devices, create a private chat room, or have custom LAN parties.
I genuinely do not know anything about how WiFi or LAN in general works in this matter. Is it possible for me to build my own applications that make use of these features? If so, I would love to get a direction on what resources or guides I should be looking for. If not, I would still be happy to use similar pre-built applications.
As far as the administration side goes, I think whitelisting is a pretty awesome feature on most routers. This gives you an extra layer of security on top of your password for your WiFi. Someone may get your code from someone else or you may have let a neighbor use it for a moment, but then what? Change the password and then have to update all your other devices?
Nah, just whitelist and you can remove devices as you wish any time you want.
It’s not foolproof as MAC spoofing is a thing, but it’s a cool layer to have.
You can also more safely create a QR code for getting on the WiFi with whitelisting enabled. So if someone happens to see it, they don’t necessarily get access just by scanning it. That’s just the first step. But this makes QR codes a little safer to have for joining the WiFi easily.
I think creating your own DNS server at home with a Raspberry Pi through PiHole is also another cool thing to do. Gives you the ability to block ads as well as many other things like known malware websites and even restricting adult sites easily if you have kids or just wanting to do it for yourself.
Combine that with a VPN server on that same Raspberry Pi so you can remote into your network from anywhere and also have the adblocking from the PiHole server at home. I did this for a while but disabled it because I wanted to ensure my home network was a little more secure before opening that up again. But it was a cool thing to have and use.
Guest networks are also a quick and easy way to allow strangers into your network without giving them privileges to change anything, and prevent others from messing up your network if they get a hold of the password.
I also use my guest network for the (notoriously insecure) IoT stuff. Oftentimes I’ll take it a step further and use my PiHole to block whatever servers they’re phoning home to.
A good example is my smart TVs. My TVs are the single most blocked devices on my network, by far. Like on a day of heavy use, my phone or PC may generate ~2000 blocked requests. On an average day, my TVs generate 7000+ blocked requests. That’s ~5 attempts to send telemetry data back to the mothership per minute, even when they’re not in use.
If you live near a Starbucks, you can buy a cheap router, name its network “Starbucks Public Wifi”, make it public with no password, but also not connect it to anything.
People will connect, and get really really mad and Starbucks will be just as confused as the customers.
Na, the staff are overworked enough. Don’t lump something they have no control over on their laps.
That’s a special kind of evil. I think I’m mostly ok with it.
This is done in Hotels everyday to use Keyboard loggers and get your information.
Always use a VPN when connecting to an open network.
This, always put protection around your tube when using it with other connections.
I connected to Starbucks and then got a baby 🤷♂️
send prank notifications to all the connected devices
Net send has entered the chat.
Oh god, Net Send.
At one point it was my job to track down and upgrade old PCs that had been moved by users. To my delight, I found that Net Send was enabled on all the org’s devices. I had the bright idea to use it to pop up a message on the affected PCs asking them to call me and provide a location. I copied a script from an old website and modified it to work with a list of hostnames. It, uh, worked - but while I was testing my script I ran it without commenting out the line that sent the message to all devices on the subdomain.
I turned my phone off for the rest of the day.
