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What’s a local hotspot and how does Starbucks block it? It’s illegal to jam signals (assuming a “local hotspot” is some Wi-Fi network from a neighboring business or center?)

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It's using your phone's "hotspot" feature to get your other devices online without signing into the wifi. Modern smart phones have this built into the OS. The phone broadcasts its own SSID and the laptop or other device connects to that, and then the phone acts as a router with its own mini NAT and DHCP stack.

It can be blocked because the wifi equipment at the cafe can see multiple MAC addresses emanating from one client, among other techniques.

That doesn’t make sense. Why do you care about the wifi equipment in the cafe if you’re connecting through your phone? The cafe’s wifi isn’t even in the loop.

What I meant is that I’ve noticed cable-provider hotspots often stop working inside cafes like Starbucks and you can reconnect to them as soon as you step outside.

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