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Wireless Networking Businesses Communications Network Security United States

Planet Fitness Evacuated After WiFi Network Named 'Remote Detonator' Causes Scare (windsorstar.com) 168

Posted by BeauHD from the false-alarm dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Windsor Star: A Michigan gym patron looking for a Wi-Fi connection found one named "remote detonator," prompting an evacuation and precautionary search of the facility by a bomb-sniffing dog. The Saginaw News reports nothing was found in the search Sunday at Planet Fitness in Saginaw Township, about 85 miles (140 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. Saginaw Township police Chief Donald Pussehl says the patron brought the Wi-Fi connection's name to the attention of a manager, who evacuated the building and called police. The gym was closed for about three hours as police responded. Pussehl says there's "no crime or threat," so no charges are expected. He notes people often have odd names for WiFi connections. Planet Fitness says the manager was following company procedure for when there's suspicion about a safety issue.
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Planet Fitness Evacuated After WiFi Network Named 'Remote Detonator' Causes Scare More

Planet Fitness Evacuated After WiFi Network Named 'Remote Detonator' Causes Scare

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  • What's the craziest name for a WiFI network that you have used or seen?

    • Re:WiFi names? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by R3d M3rcury ( 871886 ) on Monday April 16, 2018 @07:35PM (#56449143) Journal

      I have to admit, I always liked "FBI SURVEILLANCE VAN #34" or something similar.

    • FBI Mobile 3

    • I used to have a neighbor with "ICanHearYouFucking".

      • I used to have a neighbor with "ICanHearYouFucking".

        You need to rename yours to "ILikeItWhenYouListen"

    • ive used "RIAA Monitor Node" for years.

    • I've got McNet and Mead nearby right now. It's urban, about 25 connections at this time. There's also one called "getoffmyinternet".

      Nothing too crazy, but not bad for right at this moment.

      • Nothing really spectacularly crazy in my neighborhood right now. I'm seeing Ravenplume, Crow's Fan (those two are mine), Lily, Bodyparts, FbiSurveillanceVan1, and then assorted default named routers that keep popping into and out of existence.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by erice ( 13380 )

      I use "Malware Depot" for my mobile hotspot.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      Best one I've ever seen...

      HideYourKidsHideYourWifi

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PPH ( 736903 )
      Abraham Linksys
    • Strangelove's Doomsday Device.

    • Re: WiFi names? (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      My mom was having issues with the encryption on her wireless network, so I set it to no paraphrase so I could get her a new router (a few days while it came in the mail). In the meantime I set her wireless SSID to "disabled" and told her "nobody will try to connect to it, because of that name."

      She called me a couple times a day to tell me "my wireless isn't working - because it says disabled" even though she could open a browser and get online.

      Lesson learned. Thanks mom!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      My fave:

      8====D

    • Someone in my apartment block had "It Hurts When IP"

      • Bonus points if that WiFi point is open and they transparently proxy requests along with a script that flips, blurs or eitherwise mangles the data as it is sent to you.

    • Unfortunately my neighbors have no imagination, all networks in the area use standard names or thinks like "[name of the guy] network"

    • When I had crappy DSL my wifi name was "Everyday I'm Bufferin"

      Other favorites:

      Nacho Wifi
      This LAN is your LAN
      Bill Wi the Science Fi
      NSA Drone Command
      Taco Bell

    • I originally named mine "Oh, we don't have wifi" simply so I could have an amusingly confused conversation when guests ask "what's your wifi network?" I later named mine "What's wifi?" so I could have an even more confusing "who's on first?" style conversation.

      Yes, I am kind of a dick.

    • I'm using Unicode to get an upside down text. (Unfortunately, Slashdot seems not to want to show it, but see here https://www.fileformat.info/convert/text/upside-down.htm?text=upsidedown). As a bonus, it is a passwordless AP but uses a modern way of upside-down-ternet (see https://openoffice.nl/2016/01/01/upside-downternet/ for a howto) to flip any non-https-page.

    • Like everyone else here, I am my parent's tech support. At one time there was a wifi in their neighborhood named:

      MARTHA SUCKS!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by arth1 ( 260657 )

        At one time there was a wifi in their neighborhood named:

        MARTHA SUCKS!

        Well, did she?

    • Not crazy per se but I do like "Pretty Fly for a Wi-Fi". Someone in my building has this one.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Disconnect

  • now any wifi will trun on the lunk alarm

  • Really? People need to relax and grow up. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16, 2018 @07:46PM (#56449207)

    If you over react to every non-incident the cost of reacting exceeds the damage of all the real incidents combined. I've got no idea what you people think "remote detonator" is actually going to do- but there is zero threat here and given the cops apparently agree you need to learn to relax. And cops *ALWAYS* over react.

  • Hopefully they only fall for it once (Score:3)

    by chispito ( 1870390 ) on Monday April 16, 2018 @07:47PM (#56449209)
    I hope the pranksters don't learn about the ESP8266 [wikipedia.org]. I think those things only cost a few bucks each.

    • I hope the pranksters don't learn about the ESP8266. I think those things only cost a few bucks each.

      You can get an ESP-01 for about a buck fifty, even if you only buy one. But you'll also need some way to program it, and some way to feed it 3.3v.

      • $3+ even on banggood.com you only save about 20 cents compared to the ESP-12.

        To pay $1.50 you'd almost certainly need to first travel to China and open a Chinese bank account. And still, the way to get single quantities would be to buy samples, which isn't very repeatable.

        • All I ask is tree fiddy.

        • $3+ even on banggood.com you only save about 20 cents compared to the ESP-12.

          Well, they've gone up slightly... $1.79 [ebay.com] each. Banggood, snerk. Never the cheapest. Ever.

          • "5 available."

            It only takes a few dozen sales in a day to increase the prices, the Chinese companies are good at this; if you mention something like that on 1 popular youtube channel, the ebay price went up. The amazon prices are more stable, but they still jump. Good deals like that are real, but it is often in error to insist that it is a repeatable activity.

            The banggood prices are real prices, not teasers; they're high, sure, but they'll tend to track the local price, and if you're ordering in volume you

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        and some way to feed it 3.3v.

        Lithium battery stack will do it just fine, a 3.3v stack won't run you more then $0.50 US and will probably keep it running for a few weeks.

  • Someone got Trolled HARD on this! I wonder how much money they lost looking for this Non-Criminal? LMMFAO!

  • I called mine "Flowers By Irene".

  • Scared silly little humans (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 16, 2018 @08:00PM (#56449273)

    People are so paranoid these days its ridiculous. Paranoid over germs, the result they created super germs. Paranoid over war, they created super weapons. Children brought up completely shielded from reality that cant cope in the real world... We are our own worst nightmare.

  • I think we have a winner, Agent Johnson.

  • Good Cop, Have a Donut (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bestweasel ( 773758 ) on Monday April 16, 2018 @08:51PM (#56449437)

    I'm cheered by Chief Pussehl's reaction. No SWAT team, no one got shot or arrested, he didn't call for new laws, he didn't even say it was a bad idea to call your wifi "Remote Detonator".

    • I'm cheered by Chief Pussehl's reaction. No SWAT team, no one got shot or arrested, he didn't call for new laws, he didn't even say it was a bad idea to call your wifi "Remote Detonator".

      Tell me about it. I just googled to see if another country had a placed named Michigan to see if we're just confusing it with the USA. Turns out we're not. This person is unbecoming of a police office in the USA and should be fired at on the spot!

      #notatypo

  • That thing will first verify that it is paired with approved explosives, which will never happen because it requires gigabit internet to do so, the authentication servers are down, and the explosives you bought need a firmware upgrade, which isn't available because you bought them last week and their long term support lasts 5 days.
    It can still show you ads though.

  • Shades of Ignignokt and Err (Score:4, Funny)

    by ewhac ( 5844 ) on Monday April 16, 2018 @09:23PM (#56449539) Homepage Journal
    My mobile hotspot SSID is, "ERR:Buf overrun; restart WiFi".

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Along the same lines, I call mine "Connection Failure."

  • What next? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Todd Knarr ( 15451 ) on Monday April 16, 2018 @09:32PM (#56449573) Homepage

    What next, evacuating an entire shopping mall because someone wrote "Bomb" on a sticky note and slapped it on a garbage can?

    • What next, evacuating an entire shopping mall because someone wrote "Bomb" on a sticky note and slapped it on a garbage can?

      Yes.

      We ARE at that point.

      But for easier shits and giggles, do it in the men's room at the airport and watch all hell break loose.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      We've gone beyond that. They suspend children from elementary school because they broke a zero-tolerance rule by biting a piece of toast into the shape of a gun.

    • Re: What next? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Here's one better...

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic

    • What next, evacuating an entire shopping mall because someone wrote "Bomb" on a sticky note and slapped it on a garbage can?

      Well, local school did that due to a scrawl in a bathroom ...

    • What next, evacuating an entire shopping mall because someone wrote "Bomb" on a sticky note and slapped it on a garbage can?

      My own city removed all the bins from the train station during the G20 summit for that reason. ... They didn't get replaced after that. I make it a point to throw my garbage on the ground where the bins used to be.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Pussehl says there's "no crime or threat," so no charges are expected.

    Planet Fitness *is* a "Judgement Free Zone". :-)

  • ...their bagels and pizza.

    "Diet Destruction Confirmed. Next Target Aquired."

  • Now leave a rock in one of their gyms, with the words "Remote Detonator" scrawled on it, and see how many people panic.

  • So I guess my router connection named "FBI Surveillance Van 3" is right out?

    One of my neighbors mentioned it; didn't have the heart to tell him it was me :-)

  • in english: terrornetwork

  • Actual headline should be: "Decades Later, We're Still Underestimating the Enemy"

    This reaction implies law enforcement and citizens think terrorists will stamp "TNT" on their bombs, run around in unusual clothes, attack in the same way they did last time, and name their detonators "remote detonator".

    The truth is terrorists are way smarter than that. When doing the act, they will blend in [wikimedia.org]. I'd feel much safer if everyone was ready for that.

  • > search of the facility by a bomb-sniffing dog.

    They called in the wrong sniffers. https://wigle.net/ [wigle.net]

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