X-post: Public library wifi oddity, Linux vs Android

[Ottavio Caruso <ottavio2006-usenet2012@yahoo.com>]

A few days ago I posted this to my local LUG mailing list:

Am 08/08/2023 um 09:16 schrieb Ottavio Caruso via Sb:
> XXXX "community" libraries offer free wifi, courtesy (?) of 
> *cough* O2. Tech support is non-existent. If it works it works, if it 
> doesn't, tough.
>
> The last few weeks I noticed wifi performance degrading. Today, I 
> couldn't even connect the wifi network.
>
> "nmcli device wifi list" was giving me the SSID "BCC_Free_WiFi" at 72db, 
> which should be enough.
>
> Then I tried to connect with my Android phone and everything was ok. I 
> connected the laptop to the phone via USB tethering and the connection 
> was great.
>
> Is there a chance that my wifi card is dead?
>
> This is the output of:
>
> $ sudo lshw -C network
>    *-network
>         description: Ethernet interface
>         product: Ethernet Connection I218-LM
>         vendor: Intel Corporation
>         physical id: 19
>         bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
>         logical name: enp0s25
>         version: 04
>         serial: 28:d2:44:b2:f9:bb
>         capacity: 1Gbit/s
>         width: 32 bits
>         clock: 33MHz
>         capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 
> 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
>         configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e 
> driverversion=6.0.0-0.deb11.6-amd64 firmware=0.6-3 latency=0 link=no 
> multicast=yes port=twisted pair
>         resources: irq:45 memory:f0600000-f061ffff 
> memory:f063e000-f063efff ioport:3080(size=32)
>    *-network
>         description: Wireless interface
>         product: Wireless 7260
>         vendor: Intel Corporation
>         physical id: 0
>         bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
>         logical name: wlp3s0
>         version: 83
>         serial: 7c:7a:91:ba:29:67
>         width: 64 bits
>         clock: 33MHz
>         capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet 
> physical wireless
>         configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi 
> driverversion=6.0.0-0.deb11.6-amd64 firmware=17.3216344376.0 
> 7260-17.ucode latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
>         resources: irq:49 memory:f0400000-f0401fff
>    *-network
>         description: Ethernet interface
>         physical id: 3
>         bus info: usb@2:1
>         logical name: enxbe835fe0832f
>         serial: be:83:5f:e0:83:2f
>         capabilities: ethernet physical
>         configuration: autonegotiation=off broadcast=yes 
> driver=rndis_host driverversion=6.0.0-0.deb11.6-amd64 duplex=half 
> firmware=RNDIS device ip=192.168.42.10 link=yes multicast=yes 
> port=twisted pair
>
>
> Any clue?

This is a Debian Bullseye installation with kernel from backports.

$ uname -a
Linux t440 6.0.0-0.deb11.6-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 
6.0.12-1~bpo11+1 (2022-12-19) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Somebody suggested that the Wifi provider might have a rule in place 
whereas if they see "Linux", they would rate-limit  or throttle the 
connection.

Authentication is via browser, which is already configured to spoof user 
agent to Windows.

Question 1: is rate limiting via OS sniffing a thing?

Question 2: is there a way around it?

Tech support  is non-existent and in any case they wouldn't be able to 
handle the question.

Thanks.


--
Ottavio Caruso

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
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