Tracking a Lufthansa flight on the Internet
by Cem Basman
Todd Underwood, Chief Operations and Security Officer of Renesys Corporation, an internet routing and market intelligence firm, describes in detail in his company blog:
I just saw my plane cross the mid-Atlantic, not by looking out the window, but by watching routing updates cascade across the Internet. I'm writing from a Lufthansa jet right now, travelling from Munich to Boston. This plane offers the (relatively) new Connexion by Boeing wifi + satellite Internet service.
Pretty smart. But in these days this is a bit scary too. Not only the air control will watch you ... This is how Lufthansa presents their in-flight service which is available since 2003.
Comments
Scary? Why? Do you have fear that someone blows the plane out of the sky? The plane is about 10 km high and up to 900 km fast while internet is working. You need a cruise missile or a plane-bases air-air combat missile for such a job. Guys that have access to that kind of weapons don't need a traceroute for their target. The other guys (if they exist in real) try to hit the plane while starting or landing. And there it makes no difference wether your plane has internet access or not. But if you told your wife that you are flying to moscow but the ping shows you near Hawaii than you have a lot reasons to feel scary...;-)
apart from the ready, aim, shoot thingy which seems rather hypothetical to me, I wonder if anybody has checked out skype on a LH flight lately.
@ Armin:
Ed and Mitch did "some time" ago:
http://vowe.net/archives/005480.html#010660
Besides the high latency, VoIP (SIP, skype) works very well.
Greetings!
Post a comment
Recent comments
Ben Poole
on Apple TV: First impressions at 15:05
Ben Poole
on Jehovah at 15:03
Chris Linfoot
on Doc Scrubber cleans your Word document at 14:50
Philipp Sury
on Apple TV: First impressions at 14:50
Tony S Lee
on Jehovah at 14:46
Felix Binsack
on Michael Sampson: "Hello, I'm an Angry PC" at 13:08
Ben Poole
on Jehovah at 11:01
Volker Weber
on Jehovah at 10:53
Stefan Opitz
on Google voice search for iPhone finally out at 09:58
Sebastian Keil
on Apple TV: First impressions at 09:58
Klaus Peter Schmidt
on Apple TV: First impressions at 09:43
Martin Hiegl
on Jehovah at 09:30
Philipp Weirauch
on Sync Lotus Notes with iCal and Address Book on the Mac at 08:53
Volker Weber
on Apple TV: First impressions at 08:50
Alexander Koch
on Apple TV: First impressions at 08:29
Daniel Haferkorn
on Jehovah at 08:07
Markus Dierker
on Apple TV: First impressions at 07:07
Ed Brill
on Jehovah at 06:30
Colin Williams
on Apple TV: First impressions at 01:19
Joel Demay
on Apple TV: First impressions at 00:39
Volker Weber
on Apple TV: First impressions at 00:19
Ben Rose
on Apple TV: First impressions at 00:02
Joel Demay
on Apple TV: First impressions at 00:00
Heiko Müller
on This movie cannot be played at 22:48
Armin Roth
on This movie cannot be played at 21:00
Click here to subscribe
