Wi-Fi: It's Fast, It's Here -- and It Works

Businessweek ^ | 4/02

[Bush2000]

AFAIK the NetStumbler tool looks for the packets broadcast by the AP which include the SSID and other info. In order to hear the clients, you'd have to be really close.

My guess is that it wouldn't be that difficult to do that. ;-)

I'm sure the other tools can do it, since their objective is to collect as many packets as possible. I don't know if the MAC info is encrypted in the packet or not.

I haven't run a sniffer on the packets. Might be interesting to find out, even for my own edification. My guess is they are encrypted, though. It wouldn't make much sense otherwise, because you could easily emulate plaintext-advertised MAC addresses.

Seems that the most prudent thing to do is use the MAC filter and change your keys periodically (and I do).

I agree. Probably every six months is good enough.

[Bush2000]

Darn. When I took a friend's laptop outside of my apartment and attempted to access any of my PC's shared drives, I was prompted for a network credential & took it as (relative) security.

That's a false sense of security. Somebody could run a tool like BackOrifice and probably crack into your network without too much trouble. The key is to prevent them from even getting into your network.

I checked out my admin settings on the access point and saw the ability to turn on WEP and change SSID. Cool. I'll probably work on that this weekend. Unfortunately, that probably means dealing with SMC tech support. (Arrrgh!)

Check out SMC's web page before you contact tech support so you don't waste time talking to clueless technicians. You'd be amazed: most tech support folks don't seem to understand this stuff yet. It will take at least another year before it sinks into their collective consciousness.

Thanks for the info.

You're welcome. Best of luck to you. ;-)

[Bush2000]

BTW, I would like to state for the record that I did change my AP password the day I set it up...

Good for you. And if you have an external-facing firewall/router, make sure you use something other than the default password and turn OFF remote administration to prevent hackers from manipulating it.

[Oschisms]

Check out SMC's web page before you contact tech support so you don't waste time talking to clueless technicians.

I did- and began to long for the days when hardware came with manuals. Pdf's are harder on the eyes. :) But I got considerably more detail from them than I expected. The more I read, the more this is looking like a weeknight job and not a weekend job.

Thanks for the reminder about the router/firewall- in my particular case, it is the same device as the access point, but one never knows who else is reading.

[Poohbah]

Have you considered going to a psychiatrist? You seem to be morbidly depressed.

[Oschisms]

Something else I saw on smc's web page- Apparently I can configure my network to use static IP's rather than DHCP & it's kosher with the router- this would be somewhat more secure, wouldn't it?

[longshadow]

You are confusing some issues here. A home network is still usefull without an internet connection at all.

Sure, if you have some reason to do data tranfers between machines at home where 11mps is needed.... (bulk transfer of your porno mpeg collection from your desktop PC to your laptop every other day????)

But my point is that broadband web access is one of the few home utilizations which justify the capacity of WI-FI, but unless it is connected to a cable modem or other large capacity "pipe" to the 'net, it isn't doing you much good.

It's a bit like putting a turbo-charged Formula 1 racing motor on your lawn mower.

My concern with the article is that technically-challenged readers could come away from it with the erroneous idea that by buying just the WI-FI gear, they somehow will magically have broadband access to the web. They won't unless they also connect a broadband pipe to the 'net to it.

[PatrioticAmerican]

"4K-bits will keep the NSA out.< "

Are you aure about that?

[Poohbah]

No, but I've had a couple friends who were morbidly depressed. Everything was hopeless--as you seem to assert.

[Poohbah]

OK, the problem is that everything I've seen you post states that everything is hopeless for America. It ain't.

I can only go off of what you post; and no matter what the scenario, you somehow state that we're hosed.

Forgive me for jumping to conclusions.

[Poohbah]

Maybe you can make crop circles REALLY fast :o)

[Anoy11_]

I'm stocking up on tin foil.

[longshadow]

Maybe you can make crop circles REALLY fast :o)

Whatever you do, don't tell Art Bell! It would ruin his night.

[Poohbah]

IIRC, some of the crop circles were actually SIGNED by the guys who made them, and the "true believers" still insist that they're really from the aliens...