If you’ve seen a flashing blue light high above your grocery store’s parking lot this is probably what the light is attached to. Most of our customers are used to seeing it now but were curious at first. It’s a mobile camera system with solar power to charge a set of deep cycle batteries inside.
The store I work at has had one for a few months and could use a couple more to really cover the lot but it’s the only way to place a camera other than the light poles in the corners of the lot. Takes up a single parking spot even with the leveling jacks extended. The company just backs it into a spot and sets it up in a few hours. Management can check the footage via an app.
Haven’t seen any around the grocery store’s parking lots, but there have been a lot of them around the Targets and Big Mall area and strip malls for quite a few years now… I just thought they were a police thing though, neat to know what they really are…
As the old TV Show goes, “Warning, Warning, Will Rogers…”
One of the biggest risks associated with using public Wi-Fi is that it can be unsecured and vulnerable to attack. Hackers can use this vulnerability to steal your personal information or install malicious software on your devices without you knowing.
The best way to protect yourself when using public Wi-Fi is by ensuring it’s a secured network with encryption technology. Make sure you use a strong password on your devices and consider using a virtual private network (VPN) when you’re connected to public Wi-Fi.
A VPN encrypts all the data sent between your device and the router, making it harder for hackers to access your data. You should also avoid visiting sites that require you to enter personal information such as passwords or credit card numbers.
I think it was “Will Robinson”, not “Will Rogers”… lol … but I do remember hearing that tv-show phrase a lot more than I wanted. Geezer-me is able to still enjoy some tv shows I liked as a kid from that era, but not that one. IIRC you are the poster who mentioned the old Dragnet mp3 audio files. I’ve been enjoying one of them each week since, so thanks for the tip.
Conspiracy theory: During the Covid lockdown era I used a coffee-shop public WIFI as my main access to the internet. I noticed the same white, unmarked van with no rear windows was parked in the same place of the parking lot most every time I visited. I got to wondering what is going on w/that van? So I positioned myself to the rear door and waited. Eventually somebody inside had to go to the bathroom, and I was able to see what was inside the van as the door opened. It was completely chock full of racks of electronics gear. I’m not sure if the van was providing the wifi, or the van’s occupants were hacking the wifi for passwords, etc. Definitely looked suspicious.
If your phone can Hot Spot (also called Tethering…) then you can allow another user to connect to your Wi-Fi so they can use a computer or tablet… To do this your phone has a default Service Set Identifier (SSID), a unique name for your Wi-Fi network (for example (LG77341290) and if you are letting someone use your data via your Wi-Fi, they would log onto that Network, it also comes with a password…
It is recommended that you change that password as it is standard for all models of your phone… But you can also change the SSID, I change mine to to different SSIDs based on what I am doing (it’s really easy…), and some of the SSIDs that I use are: “York_County_Sheriff”, “FBI_Surveillance_Van”, and “NSA_Surveillance…”
Hot Spotting can be turned on or off easily and if you are not using it, put in a really unique password that is not easily hacked if you want to play games like I do…
Then if that occasion comes up again, turn on your Hot Spotting and see if they jump in the driver’s seat and drive off (that would be suspicious…) or they come out of the van and start surveying the area looking for the other “spooks…”
My understanding is ones like what we have in the lot use a cellular connetion to connect to the internet and the app that store management can use to review footage. The store has free wifi that came with a business internet and phone package. Similar to what you’d access at Starbucks or McDonald’s among others.
On vacation my dad would send photos and a quick update from public wifi spots, On a cruise in Norway he ran out of Starbucks and found wifi at a visitors lodge. Wasn’t going to pay the highway robbery for wifi on the cruise ship.
I take one step further. I have a VM on my home laptop that is used for any internet. All personal data is kept off the VM. At best a hacker could do is corrupt my VM. So I just reload from the protected backup and I’m up and running. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m pretty secure from hackers.
There’s a new Russian virus that’s attacking routers and switches. If you haven’t updated your routers software in a while you should. At the very least change the default passwords.
When you set your phone up to act as a “Hot Spot” you are doing the same as a FREE Wi-Fi site like Starbucks, McDonalds, etc… the difference is that anyone using your Hot Spot is using your data… If you have a plan with “Unlimited Data” that it is probably OK… But some plans have “limits” on your Unlimited Plan…. What they do is called “Throttling” that means that you might have been getting 500mbps at first, but as your data usage goes up, they turn down your access to 400, 300, and so forth…
It is their way of controlling folks who let all their friends use their Hot Spot streaming videos and that eats a low data… When you go to a FREE Wi-Fi location (Starbucks, McDonalds, etc…), you are using their bandwidth to download the data… It’s much the same as if I came to your home as a guest and you gave me the password to your Wi-Fi and I would then be using your data…
Here is some more information on Hot Spotting…
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