Hack any Paid WiFi Hotspot in Easy Steps

DON'T hack any paid WiFi hotspots, as that would be bad...

Also, don't turn your WiFi card off and then back on again after the hack to rectify any MAC address conflicts that might arise.

The commands are:

ifconfig en1 | grep ether
arp -a
sudo ifconfig en1 ether [mac address to spoof]

Note that the term "MAC address" has nothing to do with Macintosh computers. All computers, including Windows machines, have MAC addresses. This address is unique to your computer, but can be changed in software. The practice of copying someone else's MAC address is referred to as "spoofing". Spoofing a MAC address can get you through any MAC address filter, like the ones used by public WiFi hotspots.

Step 1: Recon the Network

* Connect to the WiFi network you wish to access. It must be "public" in the sense that it's not encrypted with WPA or WEP. Virtually all paid WiFi hotspots are public, relying on MAC address filtering to control access. The MAC address filter is easily defeated, as shown below.

* Launch Terminal.

* Check your own MAC address:

ifconfig en1 | grep ether

* See who else is on the network:

arp -a

* Select the address of some machine on the network, and Command-C that shit.

Step 2: Spoof the MAC Address

* Spoof the MAC address:

sudo ifconfig en1 ether [mac address to spoof]

Where it says "[mac address to spoof]", press Command-V to paste the victim's, er, I mean the machine-to-be-spoofed's MAC address. Your machine may require an administrator password at this point. This is the password you use to log into OS X on your own machine.

* Confirm the spoof:

ifconfig en1 | grep ether

Your displayed MAC address should now be different from what it was before.

Step 3: Enjoy FREE WiFi!