Sitting in a public corner outside of a Starbucks on a warm summer night, I opened the lid of my laptop to work on a personal coding project. As I connected to the store's Wi-Fi, I ran into a new issue I had never seen before:

At first glance, this indicates that Starbucks doesn't allow users to access their Wi-Fi network after-hours.

Naturally, I unlocked my iPhone and navigated to the Settings app to enable my Personal Hotspot. As I was going through the motions, I noticed something interesting. My phone was already connected to the Wi-Fi. And it was working. At a second glance, it appears the coffee chain doesn't allow new users to connect to their Wi-Fi after doors have closed.

This creates the opportunity for a simple (and arguably uninteresting) loophole: What if I tricked the Wi-Fi network into thinking I was connecting from my phone rather than my MacBook? I figured out this could be accomplished with a few quick steps.

1. Find (and note down) the MAC address of the device that has previously connected to the network.
2. Disconnect that device from the network.
3. Mask the MAC address of the desired device with the previously noted address.
4. Connect to the Wi-Fi network with the desired device.

I admit I needed to do a little bit of Googling for two of these steps, but I was able to connect without a hiccup.

Ever been on an airplane and been greeted with extreme Wi-Fi pricing on a laptop, while you can gain free access with a phone through your carrier? If you've been on an American Airlines flight as a T-Mobile customer, probably. You could use the previous trick as a workaround to switch access between devices as you please, but I have also solved this in a different way.

If you have access to a Chromium-based browser, there are a couple easy steps that can be followed to trigger the mobile phone Wi-Fi pricing tab.

1. Connect to the Wi-Fi network with your laptop. Allow the captive portal page to open.
2. Enter your web browser's developer tools menu, then toggle the device toolbar. From there, I like to select the sizing of an iPhone 12 Pro.
3. Within the console drawer, navigate to the "Network conditions" tab. From there, update the "User agent" variable to reference "Chrome - iPhone".
4. Refresh or navigate to the portion of the captive portal where internet connectivity can be purchased.
5. Go through the motions as you would when connecting with your phone.

I’m always ecstatic when I find a way to solve little tech issues, no matter how small. I’ve found myself going back to these steps many times, and I hope you don't have to. But if you do, now you know some ways to get around it.