Saga Why doesnt R2 have Wifi?

Okay, I know the Real World answer to this question is that there was no way anyone could conceive of wireless networks on the wide scale like we have today back in the mid seventies. Plus the viewer needs a hook, some kind of action that R2 is accessing the computer - the same reason that a Dalek rocks back and forth while talking.

So - something occurred to me just the other day - why the hell is R2D2 still using a direct physical connection to whatever computer interface he's plugging into? With thousands of years of technological advances, with faster than light drives and ray guns and laser swords and artificial intelligence built into coffee makers and toasters, surely they have Wifi technology. Why aren't astromechs using wireless? Does the Empire have such a massively impenetrable firewall on their Death Star servers that you need to physically plug into them to access them? Is it because SO much data is flowing back and forth that you need a hard connection to speed things along?

 

The Empire has a impenetrable security wall that covers all their computers. They have to be accessed directly. I'm sure even the holonet has powerful encryption in Imperial times.

 

Pretty much what the last poster said. I work in a sensitive government job (I see people's SSNs and bank account numbers, no I do not work for the CIA or anything) and we're not allowed to have so much as a wireless mouse; the potential for it being exploited is apparently too high. Plus they do have apparently pretty extensive communications networks in TESB:

That's going to be a lot of communication going on even if he just means sector commands.

 

Ah good point - why have the unnecessary security risk? You wouldn't want a server controlling life support systems broadcasting what it's doing for any and all to receive - even if it is double-dog dare encrypted. Didnt think about that.

 

Exactly. I'm surprised at the lack of security in the Empire, actually-logging in to my government laptop (a pretty sundry device compared to the Death Star obviously ) requires a smart card and my personal identification number. You can log in with any other smart card and PIN, but I don't work in the most super-duper top-secret military base we have, and some random droid being able to plug in and manipulate things seems pretty lazy.

 

It all happened 'a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away'. Just because they have the technology to travel between star systems - something beyond our own technology - doesn't mean that they necessarily achieved every single technological development our own world has. I don't recall seeing any of the citizens of Mos Eisley, Cloud City, Coruscant or the rest wandering around gasbagging into mobile phones/communicators while landspeeders swerve & brake to avoid slamming into them, nor did we see Owen & Beru sitting at the dinner table, silent & dead still, while fiddling on their smartphones.

I'll take the dated 1970s vision of the day-to-day future over what we've got right now on this self-absorbed planet. Perhaps we'd be flying shuttles to Mars by now if it wasn't for timewasting innovations like mobile phones, Facebook and, dare I say it, Internet chatrooms & discussion boards.

 

R2 was the most awesome over-sized flashdrive ever.

[image=http://www.geekalerts.com/u/R2-D2-USB-Flash-Drive.jpg]

Now picture Dodonna having to lift R2 up and awkwardly plug him into the wall. With Leia's keys dangling off R2 and his weight poor Dodonna had a tough time.

 

Sort of like freshers just because we do not see it does not mean R2 doesn not have it. In the PT, AOTC, Obi Wan has his droid send a message to the Jedi Council across the galaxy.

Wireless to the holonet is probably there but as other point out it is very restrictive in the OT. Also, controlling access to your local network is a step to stop hacking saidnetwork which is why R2 cannot just sit anywhere on Cloud City and "plug in".

I read a series awhile back where many characters are wire dup in their bodies to perform wirless comms, mind to mind. The main character regular hacks the brains of enemies and shuts them down, killing them.

The GFFA keeps limits on technology, droids getting regular brain wipes for example.

 

Also, controlling access to your local network is a step to stop hacking saidnetwork which is why R2 cannot just sit anywhere on Cloud City and "plug in".

Except he does exactly that. "The city central computer told you? R2D2, you should know better than to trust a strange computer!"

...Although one has to wonder exactly why the city central computer is apparently privy to the core element of Vader's overarching trap for Calrissian, the Princess, and Skywalker. Talk about bad information security lol.

 

No no. I was talking about wireless, as we all are. It's why I put "plug in" in quotations. If you are wireless you can plug in anywhere. If it is a hardware plug in you can limit where you can be hacked from. In other words Cloud City does not have a wireless network even if R2 has the ability to tap a wireless network. So R2 has to physically plug in to effect the network.

 

Oh, ok. I mistook what you said.

 

I think Cloud City had wireless, but R2D2 couldn't fork out the $30 Wifi Hotspot fee.

 

Well, like others have suggested, I think that if the technology of AGFFA is really more sophisticated than our own, then the need for a very secure connection for sensitive info would be even greater, because the potential threats (a virus, etc.) when using any kind of "wireless" communication would also be that much higher.

Which might very well also explain why Princess Leia was personally carrying the SW equivalent of a flash drive with all the info on the Death Star at the start of Episode IV. The info would have been far too sensitive to send out via any "wireless" system or long-range transmission of any kind.

 

R2 does most of the hacking in Death Star, the Imperial stronghold - I doubt it even occurred to them that some Rebel droid might be running around free. Besides, we don't know what kind of root kits R2 is carrying around.