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Numb3rs: Can you dial into a wireless conection?

May 5th, 2006 by Mike

So Numb3rs just came on and like usual, I made a point to watch it. In case you missed the opening sequence, let me lay it out for you: Two kids are in a car trying to find an open Wireless Access point to do something (they were in the middle of a phishing scheme). After a bit of bickering back and forth, one of the kids finds an open network with a resounding “Found one!” The kid then proceeds to login to the wireless network and as he does you can clearly hear the sound of…wait for it…A MODEM HANDSHAKE! You know, the annoying sound that is synonymous with logging into AOL….with a modem…over a phone line…as in NOT WiFi. Numb3rs is usually so good about being pseudo-correct, but this has to be one of the worst tech-TV-goofs/stupid director move of all time!

Anyone else notice that, or am I the biggest nerd on the planet?

This entry was posted on Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 9:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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  • danielcole
    haha - that's kinda funny. same IP across the nation... I would say very improbable if he's using something like DSL or Cable. I would be possible for the phone company to have service in both areas and they *could* be using the same class-c's in both areas as well, but My God what a network management nightmare.

    Now, if he had a satelite service (like Wildblue) it's possible that he took his dish antenna with him when he moved and therefore would have the same internet connection. Although even the satelite services are divvied up into geographic regions in regards to where they beam the signal to. NY and PA might be close enough to be in the same region.

    He could be using Dialup and be paying his ISP a higher rate to be able to dial in and have the same static IP each and every time. But why a bad guy would do such a thing would be a little hard to explain within the time limits of a 44-minute long show.
  • I didn't actually catch the handshake, but my favourite tech faux pas was in the episode with the sniper from last season.

    They were able to catch him because of his IP - he had the same IP after he moved from (I think) somewhere in PA to a place in NY.

    Of course, maybe such thing is possible in the US of A. But not up here in Canada, anyway.
  • Apple's Airport Extreme had a ethernet jack as well as a telephone jack. That was the only consumer router I knew of that had both.

    That information was good to have in my pocket when I worked at Best Buy and all kinds of hoosiers would come in asking how they can make their free connection through the library wireless. I think maybe 2 out of the literally hundreds of people that asked that questions actually went out and bought the Airport Extreme.

    Also, Numb3rs is an awesome show despite the absolute fakeness of this week's episode.
  • danielcole
    As an side-side note, the dialup handshake is the ringtone on my brother's cell phone. I cringe every time I hear it. too many bad memories.
  • danielcole
    Speaking as a Wireless Interet Professional I can say with a fair amount of confidence that Numb3ers goofed in a way that rivals the black dude in 'Hackers' jizzing over the 28.8 baud laptop modem or any part with Ryan Phillippe in 'Antitrust'. But then again, it's Numb3rs. What do you expect? *

    For an intersting side-note, I infact *have* come across routers that have both a standard ethernet WAN port and a telephone jack for dialup. It's been a while since I've seen it but I do want to say that it had linksys-style wireless antennas coming out of it. Can you imagine how horrible it must be to share a dialup connection?



    * that was a cheap shot to piss off Mike. the show could be ok. I've never seen an episode because, well, you know, it's 'Numb3rs'.
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