goes by the name veron. a definitive leo born august 1, 1984. a solo traveler. loves cats, coffee, sensual music, yummy food and technology. when she's not at her job as an IS developer for the government, she's likely to be out dining, or visiting an interesting art gallery or event.
i commuted on an SMRT bus recently. it was a long bus ride. feeling bored, i started fiddling with my PDA phone.
people who have been with me enough would know that i have a constant urge to check my email. so when the bus lurched to a stop at the traffic junction, i turned on the wireless on my phone to scan for an available network.
lo and behold, i managed to get connected to the bus’ own internal network! see?
i was so surprised that there could even be a network within the bus! “SMRTBUSES0640″ was the name of the network. (it was an SMRT bus and its license plate number was 640.) i was confused too, as i wasn’t sure what the network was used for. it certainly wasn’t an internet connection.
it might have something to do with the GPS technology that some/all SMRT buses employ to display location information on board. although this doesn’t seem to make much sense since it still doesn’t explain the need for a wireless network within the bus.
would someone please clarify what this network is really for? i am so curious!
anyway, how cool would it be if wi-fi users could surf for free on public transport? the recently launched wireless@sg program promises to turn singapore into one giant wireless hotspot where seamless surfing is possible (ha!). it would be truly awesome if this was extended to buses and trains too. imagine the amount of work that can be accomplished during those long mundane commutes!
but back to that bus network. what does it do? anyone?
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Haha it never occurred to me that they are using Wi-Fi to connect the devices inside the bus. Now that you showed it, I believe it would be to connect the GPS device and the EZLink devices. View all comments by uzyn
I think you are right! (Damn, you’re the first commentator too. This is no fun!) View all comments by Veron
Well yeah, since they’re using the GPS device at the front of the bus to communicate with the satellite, might as well shun bian connect wirelessly to the EZ-Link tappers. Although I did wonder if was wired under the bus floor.
Can connect = can wreck havoc? :D View all comments by Farinelli
If it is really WiFi between the GPS and the EZLink tapper, I must say the designer is a noob.
Un-encrypted Wifi, that’s just totally asking for it. View all comments by NTT
I can confirm the existence of the 802.11 signal as well as I’ve seen it on my devices. It’s worrying how the internal system would be using such a public protocol for it’s transactions. The last time Barnes and Nobles did that, I read about how a hacker could see all the transactions and sniff the traffic between cashiers / inventory system. It’s just asking for trouble. View all comments by Kevin
Then the way it is it’s just a matter of time before some smart evil guy figures out a way and a nifty device to pretend to be an EZ-Link card and travel round Singapore buses for free, isn’t it? View all comments by Farinelli
On a unrelated note: Wah! Gucci bag leh!
Now, we are back to our regular transmission about wifi on sbs buses. :) View all comments by Cobalt Paladin
I thought they would set the WIFI to not display SSID View all comments by DK
arghh more numbers to buy liao..0640 if kanna then can give treat liao… View all comments by tyc76
I’ve read about it somewhere (forgotten where already), and the Wifi is used as an uplink at the bus interchanges to upload data to the main computers when the buses reach the interchange.
My guess is that the data is probably Ez-Link transactions or something… View all comments by pkchukiss
darn! and i just sold off my pda. having wireless net access on the bus sure would make my life a hell lot happier View all comments by mervkwok
It’s definitely an internal WiFi used by the company. Doesn’t show the access point icon when you scanned it - looks like a client-to-client WiFi connection.
Wireless@SG? I wish! View all comments by Brennan
Some transportations companies in the States are tapping on the free wifi to send certain information like traveling speed, arrival time etc together with the GPS to pin point and calculate these details.
Paddy
BAK2u.com View all comments by Paddy Tan
looks like an ad-hoc network going on there. would be cool to have net access on the bus and train though! the nearest we have to that now is if you get m1 broadband. View all comments by hucks
no. smrt do not have wifi. perhaps ur tapping on an internal gprs. since d buses r tracked via the same system. if u weren’t careful, maybe they’ll trace u too. haha..jus kidding.
so ermm..dun try surfing. u’ll end up paying for d svc dat u nvr use. View all comments by Jane
know about the new system in which SMRT is able to tell when the buses are arriving??
Maybe they are using it for this system… Who knows?
OR about bus driver abusers.. the bus driver just press one button and the police comes.. hehe
;P View all comments by cedricyeosj