How To Bypass WiFi Bandwidth And Time Restrictions Under Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13

In some places (airports, network rail stations, etc.), you may have access to free WiFi so that you can connect to the internet via your laptop. However, most of these public facilities may not allow for an unlimited use of WiFi and they set time/bandwidth limits for each connected user.

In this tutorial, we will see a trick that will allow you to enjoy unlimited WiFi without any restrictions, but keep in mind that this may not work for all users because it depends on many factors.

Getting Started

When connected to the Internet, your laptop is identified by a MAC address which cannot be changed unless you use some third-party tools. Under Ubuntu/Linux Mint, we can use MACCHANGER to modify a machine's MAC address. You can install it under Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13 or older with this command:

sudo apt-get install macchanger -y

Let's now identify your wireless network interface (wlan0, wlan1, etc.) with this command:

ifconfig

For my system, it is identified as wlan0:

Let's now disable the WiFi connection with this command:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down

Change now your MAC address with this command:

sudo macchanger -r wlan0

You will get prompts about your current and new MAC addresses:

$ sudo macchanger -r wlan0 

Permanent MAC: 00:a1:b0:0b:7d:de (unknown) 

Current   MAC: 00:a1:b0:0b:7d:de (unknown) 

New       MAC: 1e:b6:72:ee:8d:42 (unknown)

Now relaunch your WiFi connection with this command:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up

Don't forget to delete all your browsing history and cookies. When WiFi time/bandwidth limits are reached, change again your MAC address.