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BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 1:46 pm
by shorty
So the BBC have said it has new wifi detector vans to detect people watching BBC iplayer and catch up with out a licence.

How are they going to do it then, yes they can detect if there is a wifi signal doesn't mean your watching BBC iplayer, you could be watching youtube or any other content from around the world, are they saying there going to hack password protected wifi networks or 3g/4g networks, sounds like BS to scare people into buying a licence or is this the first step towards a licence fee if you own any electronic device, laptop, tablet or mobile phone.

They will need to get into peoples homes to verify your watching BBC i player therefore will need a court order backed up by local plod to keep the peace to enter your property as they already do to see if you have a TV, just more BBC bollocks.

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 2:06 pm
by McDonalds
really the only real way would be to give fee payers a code to put in or to register and people with out a code would not be able to watch or charge them?

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 2:44 pm
by bristolpirates
I'm convinced that TV detector vans were once upon a time completely possible and very real. Maybe technology has changed over time, but the basic idea of a detector van is that you just need to know how to pinpoint, enhance and decode the emissions from the devices people are watching on. That doesn't require hacking wifi. Anybody who's used an SDR knows how many emissions there are out there that you wouldn't necessarily see or hear using a conventional radio.

I'm sure governments already have multiple ways to spy on us besides hacking our wifi, not that they'd shy away from doing that, they don't give a shit whether we like it or not. Embedded devices that you find in phones (office phones, not just mobiles) and printers are vulnerable to being hacked and made to transmit data for example.

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 2:54 pm
by s2000
I read a little bit about it yesterday. Apparently you don't have to decrypt the data, you just look at the packets being sent over a wifi network. Each one is a specific size and frequency, its possible for bbc to send out their data in such a way that it could be recognisable to someone sniffing the data stream.

I would imagine it is possible but then again it might just be more BBC propaganda! Lets face it the whole station is corrupt from top to bottom and is nothing more than a matrix of deceit and lies...

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 2:56 pm
by bristolpirates
And then again, this could all be bullshit...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/06 ... i_iplayer/

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 3:02 pm
by s2000
bristolpirates wrote:I'm sure governments already have multiple ways to spy on us besides hacking our wifi, not that they'd shy away from doing that, they don't give a shit whether we like it or not. Embedded devices that you find in phones (office phones, not just mobiles) and printers are vulnerable to being hacked and made to transmit data for example.
Yes! Saw this a few days ago...

https://www.facebook.com/motherboardtv/ ... 052177561/

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 3:09 pm
by MiXiN
The BBC are full of shit, just like their news reports.

The only "detection" they implement are sending old cunts with clipboards around.

If they enter the living room, you're fucked, if you don't you're fine.

I've avoided a TV Licence for over 20 years now, simply by having net curtains and not allowing one of those old cunts past my front door.

My Mrs, on the other hand, allowed one into the living room and was prosecuted as a result...

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 3:53 pm
by bristolpirates
s2000 wrote: Yes! Saw this a few days ago...

https://www.facebook.com/motherboardtv/ ... 052177561/
Yeah, can't see the link but I expect it's what I saw. It was posted on an SDR group on Facebook and somebody made the comment that they already had examples and evidence of governments using this kind of exploit.

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 6:33 pm
by radionortheast
i'm pretty sure tvs transmit carriers in the fm band particularly around 108, I get alot of silence when going throught build up areas, sometimes the carrier will go for 100 meters, so i've no doubt they be picked out by a detector van back in the old days. (thought traffic lights and buses also seemed to produce them :? ). i'm not sure why i'm still hearing them since tv turned over to digital, i pick up a blank carrier hear around 88, is on constantly, its impossible to track down it must be something thats been generated locally.

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 6:51 pm
by Albert H
Those clowns are really funny! From my desk, I can detect (and identify) over 50 2.4GHz wi-fi networks around here. I can also see around 25 5GHz ones. How are they going to identify which SSID corresponds with the router at Number 17? How are they going to identify "their" packets? How are they going to identify TV content being distributed around my house on Cat 6 cable?

The TV "detector vans" became entirely bogus when TV moved completely to UHF. The equipment installed in the vans only worked for the old channels 1 - 5 (the low VHF ones) that were occupied by to BBC. They worked by receiving the receiver's local oscillator. The hand-held detectors looked for multiples of the line timebase - the oscillators used in most TVs were pretty crude and had plenty of harmonics (you used to be able to hear whistles from TV receivers well up into the shortwave bands). Once they'd decided that a house had a TV on, they used the hand-held detectors to confirm their suspicions. Their much-vaunted claim that "they could even tell what channel you were watching" was simply because if the hand-held showed a TV in use, but the van gear didn't, they were watching Band III (ie: ITV).

Remember - these goons will lie to you and claim that they have "Right of Entry" to your home. They can apply for a Court Order for access, but this is seldom granted. One of their favourite tricks is to show you a Court Order, but to have it folded so that you can't see the address it's actually made out for. Insist on seeing the paperwork - they usually decline, with muttered stories about "bringing the wrong paperwork from the car".

Always make clear to them that you're going to sue for trespass into your garden (if you own the property), and that they are acting in a manner "likely to lead to an affray". Also threaten to call the Police to have them removed on grounds of harassment.... NEVER LET THEM SET FOOT IN THE PLACE unless they have the right Court Order and are accompanied by a Police Officer. They will ask why you want a Copper to attend and you just explain to the nice policeman that the last time one of these clowns entered your property, goods went missing.

If they do (finally) get access to your property, make sure any TV is switched off, and no aerial leads are plugged in. When they ask "what's this then?" tell them that it's a computer monitor and that you sometimes use it to watch rented DVDs from Netflix / Amazon or whatever. They cannot prove any different. Any TV aerial on the roof "was there when we moved in", and any satellite dish is used "for data reception from satellites - radio astronomy is one of my hobbies" - or it was installed by the previous owner and you don't ever use it.

The only way they have of tracing "unlicensed TV receivers" is by means of the form that the shop fills in when they sell it to you. Pay in cash and give a false name / address if you want. It might prove difficult claiming on a Guarantee, but make sure that the serial number is on the till receipt and the back of the till receipt is signed by the shop assistant, and you won't have any problem!

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 10:58 pm
by BobbyDub
I remember someone, not on here another forum they sent of a freedom of information to the goon's and they have never used these 'detective vans' in any case in court! They are fake... Last year a 'Detective van' came down my street so I went outside to record them, as soon as he seen me do this he fucked off! :D I have no contract with them... so no money from me

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 11:39 pm
by shuffy
First I saw of this, I thought, what a load of bollocks. However, as s2000 pointed out, it's do-able, from the point of view of packet structure (I would take issue with the point about frequency though!!) and MAC addresses being shopped by your ISP - but far from foolproof. Even the proprietary cable modem/wireless routers Virgin are using these days can be attached to another wireless router, and I can think of ways of reformatting/buffering data packets pretty easily with just a basic Linux distro and a wifi card. I'm no network engineer, so this ain't rocket science, ladies and gentlemen.

It would be far easier for the government to insist that anyone watching iplayer is shopped to the BBC by their ISP - they're most of the way there already with the Snoopers' Charter.

They wouldn't need to bother with any of it anyway if they moved iplayer to a subscription model, but something in the back of my mind is telling me that they won't do this.

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2016 2:18 am
by Albert H
The BBC used to be the world's premier broadcaster. They had quality programming, superb engineering, excellent technical operators (the name the BBC use for the guys driving the mixers in studios), and a budget that was sufficient to pay for all they did. They ran a training school over near Evesham which provided the very best broadcast engineering training in the world.....

In the early 90s, they sold off all their transmitting plant, made all their engineers redundant, and bought in technical services from Siemens. This was a disaster - as everyone predicted - but the silly buggers <i>still</i> use them....

They also fired most of the producers in the news departments, and replaced them with PPE "educated" Common Purpose drones. Their news coverage lurched to the political left, and that's where it stays stuck today. You simply won't hear any criticism of Worzel Corbyn on the BBC, even though he's just the £3 joke that keeps on giving....

Anything that the government does is wrong - it must be because the government isn't socialist. The BBC persistently attack the government and its members. They supported "Remain" in the recent Referendum because of the huge amount of money they get from Europe. They happily broadcast all the nonsense about the forthcoming disasters if we voted for "Out" :- now that it's been decided, they persist in reporting financial disaster and sociological meltdown - neither are actually happening, but the BBC never let the truth get in the way of broadcasting some lefty propaganda!

......and they want us to PAY for this rubbish? They can get stuffed!

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:11 am
by 87to108
radionortheast wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2016 6:33 pm i'm pretty sure tvs transmit carriers in the fm band particularly around 108, I get alot of silence when going throught build up areas, sometimes the carrier will go for 100 meters, so i've no doubt they be picked out by a detector van back in the old days.
TV settop boxes , DVD players, etc open them up you will usually find a Crystal for 27.000 MHz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_o ... requencies
27.000 = Master clock for PAL/NTSC DVD players, Digital TV receivers, some modems etc. (27 MHz is an exact multiple of the PAL and NTSC line frequencies)
Now four times 27MHz is 108.0MHz which is why (depending on how well they are screened) they may radiate a master clock harmonic on 108.0

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 1:21 am
by roberts
Hi All,
Long time since I been on here : )

There is NO technical way they are going to be able to do this and make it worth their time, if they sniff your wifi and you have a decent router with the normal encryption switched on they can’t get your public IP from any of the packets ( although even trying that I think is a breach of compliance with RIPA ). It is more likely they will get your IP from your ISP and have it matched to access logs from media stream server records and database.

Even with evidence of your IP receiving there media it will still be very difficult to take further so I think much of it is just scare tactics as it has been with there so called "enforcement officers" knocking on peoples doors.

Remember they operate there enforcement with a company that is not much different to the "private parking" outlaws.

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 1:51 am
by Albert H
Use a VPN, people! It saves a lot of hassle!

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Fri Oct 27, 2017 6:46 am
by radium98
Long time since I been on here : ) YESS that is true @roberts and i still waiting for the PM reply about the rdvv :)

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 3:51 pm
by Flexx-uk
Image

Sneeky!

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 6:47 pm
by thewisepranker
Why would you connect the camera to a spectrum analyser?

Re: BBC wifi detector vans

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 9:11 pm
by yellowbeard
thewisepranker wrote: Fri Dec 15, 2017 6:47 pm Why would you connect the camera to a spectrum analyser?
Evidence your honour! :smoke