On my flight home yesterday a free, but limited, wifi option was available that allowed only for messaging (WhatsApp, Messenger, and I think the Google and Apple ones were specifically mentioned), but not web browsing. I checked and, sure enough, I couldn’t get web browsing to work, but WhatsApp and Messenger worked fine. I decided to try my XMPP client and I was pleasantly surprised to that that worked fine as well.

I know it’s a limited use case, where XMPP is one of the few unblocked protocols, but are there things I can do with it besides chatting? Could I use it to receive status updates from my server? Is there a way to use it for SSH somehow? I guess some sort of bot running on my server would be required. Seems like there are lots of possibilities, like bots that fetch websites or interact with ActivityPub. Has anyone found or tried anything like that?

cross-posted from: https://pixelfed.crimedad.work/p/crimedad/598286716239948208

Dog on a plane

My wonderful neighbor, Juicy, on our flight home.

#italiangreyhound #dog #gooddog

@[email protected]

  • @[email protected]English
    9•1 year ago

    Like the other guy said, they’re probably not doing DPI to actually check for XMPP, so if something like portquiz.net:5222 loads, then you could host a VPN on the same ports as XMPP and have unrestricted internet.

    • CrimeDadOPEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      If I were to do this would I have to change my actual XMPP port? Or, is it just a matter of adjusting my DNS records somehow? Or something else?

      • @[email protected]English
        3•1 year ago

        would I have to change my actual XMPP port? Yes.

        You could port scan portquiz.net to find other unblocked ports if you want to use the same IP, or get a VPS or something to do the VPNing (Oracle cloud have free ones, or a cheap one will do).