[qingcharles]

It really was revolutionary. Surprisingly the biggest target market for WiFi ended up being phones, which already have a wireless connection to the Internet.

2003 WiFi was routinely awful, though. Generally unstable, poor compatibility and lousy range. A lot better now, but still could be easier for non-techs.

[GuB-42]

Also unsecure. I remember driving around looking for Wi-Fi to steal internet from, I routinely found network shares full of sensitive documents. And I only looked for open WiFi and wasn't even trying to hack anything.

If I actually wanted to hack into networks, encrypted WiFi used WEP which could be cracked in minutes on a typical laptop. Most communication was unencrypted too, pwning entire WiFi networks wasn't even fun considering how easy it was.

[qingcharles]

Yikes. I forgot you could get free WiFi practically anywhere you could get a signal because everyone's WiFi was open or easy to hack.

[Gigachad]

I miss when free wifi was everywhere. When I was traveling Italy my phone seemed to almost never have signal despite paying for roaming data. And I couldn’t find free wifi anywhere. The few places that did have it like mcdonalds wanted me to authenticate with sms which wasn’t working since I had no phone signal.

Used to be that every cafe and business just had an open wifi network. Now if they provide it at all it’s password protected

[bonoboTP]

Part of the general decrease of trust.

[ghaff]

Or just greater awareness of possible bad outcomes if you just leave your WiFi open.

[bonoboTP]

> Used to be that every cafe and business just had an open wifi network. Now if they provide it at all it’s password protected

I reacted to this. Not personal open wifi. In cafes the password is often on the wall, in the menu or otherwise easily obtained.

[throw0101d]

> Also unsecure.

One of my early IT jobs in the 2000s was at a SME with Wifi: after you connected radio-wise, you had to start the VPN client, because at the time there really wasn't any (effective) encryption of the signal in 802.11 itself.

[ghaff]

In the early 2000s hotels also still routinely charged for WiFi. But someplace like NY, you could usually find an open ssid within range. But, yes, in that period many WiFi transmissions didn’t have a password.

[qingcharles]

God yeah, every time I stayed at a hotel I prayed that there was a business next door with open WiFi so I wouldn't have to pay $30/night.

[bee_rider]

I think it is more correct to say open wifi made it easier to connect to otherwise already insecure systems. After all, anybody in the house with an Ethernet cable could get those sensitive documents, right? Open wifi just expected users to actually follow the mantra of the time: don’t trust the infrastructure!

[mumber_typhoon]

>the biggest target market for WiFi ended up being phones

If a particular category is considered then yes, phones are the biggest chunk. But virtually every device these days comes with WiFi. So wifi is now the default method of connecting something.

[Marsymars]

I had 2005 wifi with 56k dial-up, so even at the wifi’s worse I could sustain my full internet speed.

[carbocation]

Biggest market agreed. But relative impact on utility of laptops seems enormous.

[ghaff]

Certainly before every electronic device on WiFi became ubiquitous.

[lloeki]

Interestingly, I see an increasing number of young-ish people that simply skip "landline" ISPs (hence WiFi) entirely and only use their phone.

Mostly because around here you can have 100GB over 5G for less than 10€ + they mostly don't use computers (a.k.a laptops) except for a) school (where they have free WiFi+Internet) and b) binge-watching the occasional Netflix (and then they use connection sharing)

Their first move upon setting up a new phone is to disable Bluetooth+WiFi to, uh, "save battery" (their cargo-cult answer, every single time)

[ksec]

That is increasingly true and will only get more mainstream as times comes by. Why pay for Home WiFi. ( Internet ) when you have 5G / Mobile Data. 5GSA will further increase Mobile network capacity, and mobile network will be all you need. MNOs will specially those without cable / fibre to home infrastructure are already promoting 5G home solution as replacement.

[delta_p_delta_x]

I wouldn't be able to do what I do at home if I had to do it entirely through a mobile network. I have a 10 Gbps symmetrical fibre-to-the-home connection.

[lozenge]

This has also happened for entire countries.