Wi-Fi Hack Aids Boarding Parties

Kage-Yojimbo writes with a link to the site Strategy Page. There, they're reporting on a military adaptation of civilian wi-fi equipment to use in boarding operations on the high seas. Modifications to normal off-the-shelf gear can result in a range of over 700 meters, allowing information to be passed through on-shore internet connections. "The main reason for all this was to speed up the transmission of passport photos and other personal data back to the ship, so that it could be run through databases to check for terrorists or criminals. This wi-fi hack cut several hours off the time required to check documents. The Expanded Maritime Interception Operations (EIMO) wireless system was developed last year, to provide several kilometers of range to the original wi-fi gear (which has been in use for over three years). Each pair of wi-fi units costs about $1400 to construct, using common parts to add more powerful antennae to standard 802.11g wi-fi equipment."

$1400?

[PHAEDRU5 (213667)]

Seems a lot for a Pringles can (http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/448)

Re:

[Robber Baron (112304)]

Seems a lot for a Pringles can

Remember we're talking about an institution that pays $5000 for a screw and $20000 for a toilet seat...$1400 for a pair of Pringles cans is cheap by comparison.

Re:

[rs79 (71822)]

"and $20000 for a toilet seat"

It was $10,000 not $20,000. It later came to light this was hoy money for covert operations was being found.

Re:$1400?

[xSauronx (608805)]

Or basic WISP equipment. Tranzeo has 4.9ghz systems that start at $433 per radio, and can do a good 5 miles or so. Each unit can act as a client, a bridge, or an AP (they sell directional units, and units with n-connectors so you can attach a direction or omni antenna) Ive installed their 2.4ghz radios as far as 5 miles from an AP. $1400 bucks for a pair of radios seems a bit much, IMO. Not that the article was heavy on details anyway.

Re:

[westlake (615356)]

Ive installed their 2.4ghz radios as far as 5 miles from an AP. $1400 bucks for a pair of radios seems a bit much, IMO

In the marine environment? Salt water? Rough seas? Coastal patrol or naval vessels?

Re:

[rickb928 (945187)]

As a former resident of Maine, I know the Bath Iron Works fairly well, and have family members that still work there. The Yard has a deserved reputation for delivering boats ahead of schedule and under budget, and better-built than either requested or expected. Even the Harley Burke class (Aegis) which they had to share some design work with Ingalls on, much to their detriment and consternation. It was a matter of pride at the Yard to survive the inevitable updates, changes, and interference by the Navy

For the uninitiated

[Icarus1919 (802533)]

this: http://www.netscum.com/~clapp/wireless.html [netscum.com] is being referenced.

Re:

[Divebus (860563)]

Bob Cringely did this years ago to get good Internet service to his house over a 10km Wi-Fi link:
First article [pbs.org] and followup [pbs.org].

Part of that is to pay for the fines...

[msauve (701917)]

from the FCC, since there is a legal limit on EIRP for 802.11. I strongly suspect that any means of increasing range to "several kilometers" would violate that limit.

Note that this is a mobile application which is limited by the FCC to 1W EIRP (fixed applications get 6db more).

Of course, this is all related to terrorists and homeland security, so laws don't apply.

TO ALL WHO RESPONDED

[PHAEDRU5 (213667)]

I was making a smartass remark. Really.

I'll bet there's a Mil Std somewhere that requires the equipment to be resistant to everything from sea-salt to EMP. This adds cost. Probably for no actual good. However, as one of my commanders once told me "regulations are writen in blood."

$1400 may sound expensive, but what price on a life?

The Canadian Military Uses This Too...

[VE3OGG (1034632)]

Except theirs is modified with a high-powered, ultra-top secret Pringles can...

Re:The Canadian Military Uses This Too...

[mobby_6kl (668092)]

Canadian navy has ships that can take the additional weight of a pringles can?

Re:The Canadian Military Uses This Too...

[Runefox (905204)]

We just a couple of years ago bought (lease-to-own) a few state of the art diesel submarines from Great Britain circa 1990, with very few leaks. Due to their leak-free nature, Pringles cans are allowed on board to replace the excess water normally stored in the crew cabins, and the high-powered, top-secret nature of the new cans allow for internet connectivity at depths as low as two inches, nearing the maximum dive depth.

Yarrr

[42Penguins (861511)]

Only pirates are allowed to take part in "boarding operations on the high seas".
The Military can, however, "liberate" vessels.

Now you've done it.

[shmlco (594907)]

Now you've gone and done it. By publicizing the fact that they're using commercial off-the-shelf equipment you've opened the door to someone higher up mandating a "military-grade" system costing 100x as much.

I don't understand...

[evilviper (135110)]

The benefits of using standard 802.11 are things like wide compatibility, and the use of unlicensed frequencies... It sounds like neither is even a slight benefit in this case, as the units have to be modified (somehow) and the cost of licensed frequencies would probably be easily covered.

Of course, this story wasn't exactly heavy on the details.

This has been common for a long time

[zappepcs (820751)]

The military has much higher requirements for equipment. It wasn't until just recently that 'throw away' equipment became good enough for military use. By that I mean that the cost of replacement / repair became equivalent or parity. A cantenna and a $70 router can be replaced quickly without need for repairs... that is to say that the repair process is called replacement. This was never the case for military grade equipment in the past.

The advent of surface mount parts caused the cost of manufacture to drastically drop while the cost of repair soared. This doesn't work for armored vehicles, but for electronics it does.

You will notice other effects of 'modern warfare' also: the humble low-tech RPG has been a fiercely dangerous weapon. Very low-tech roadside bombs are rising in popularity too. While that has little to do with the cantenna and COTS 802.11g router, it does show that high dollar, high tech equipment is not always the best choice. If it works, well.. it works, and if people in the field find something that works, you will have trouble stopping them from using it.

I'm sure that the Pringles company are more than willing to keep shipping chips to the middle east.

Re:This has been common for a long time

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

This was never the case for military grade equipment in the past.

Not so. The military has long found that it is sometimes more efficient to simply discard malfunctioning equipment. Remember, cost is not so much an issue as availability. A radio that's out for repairs is unavailable, and the cost of that unavailability can be higher than the price tag of a brand new unit. Trained service technicians are not always on hand either, particularly under battlefield conditions.

My father was in the military a long time ago, and the techs he know would often just tag a piece of electronic equipment as "unrepairable" when the only thing wrong was something like a busted knob. That's because new equipment was readily available, tech time was expensive and limited and it just wasn't worth their time to try and fix it. They had more important things to do.

I RTFA

[Quixote (154172)]

I clicked on the "Strategy Page" link to RTFA (I know, what was I thinking? ). And here's the article in its entirety:

The U.S. Navy has adapted civilian wi-fi (wireless networks) for use at sea during boarding operations. By modifying off-the-shelf wi-fi gear, the navy increased the range to over 700 meters. The main reason for all this was to speed up the transmission of passport photos and other personal data back to the ship, so that it could be run through databases to check for terrorists or criminals. This wi-fi hack cut several hours off the time required to check documents. The Expanded Maritime Interception Operations (EIMO) wireless system was developed last year, to provide several kilometers of range to the original wi-fi gear (which has been in use for over three years). Each pair of wi-fi units costs about $1400 to construct, using common parts to add more powerful antennae to standard 802.11g wi-fi equipment.

Which is the same as the summary... what's the point?

Searching further, here's a link to GCN (Government Computer News) with a little bit more details: linky [gcn.com].

More like several miles

[rlp (11898)]

I watched a NASA film of an experiment they did on the Great Lakes in conjunction with the US Coast Guard. Over a distance of several miles (line of sight) they still managed to get over 1 Mb/sec with a WiFi connection. It was standard WiFi equipment, though I believe they were using non-standard antennas (NOT pringle cans).

antennae/antennas

[dsanfte (443781)]

Actually, antennas would have been the correct spelling even in Latin, since it is the object of the verb in the summary. So much for pedantry.

A hack?

[nurb432 (527695)]

For that sort of price you can go and get commercially rated devices ready made.

Re:

[DejaFu (1107779)]

Bingo. No prob @ 500mw 2-way with antennas. Prob is: how do they get an 802.11 sig *back* from std xmit pwr w/o antenna @ 700 meters? I smell fish (fish = selling to bureaucrats). Here, fishy, fishy, fishy...

Re:

[ralewi1 (919193)]

I believe you've missed the point on what EMIO (Expanded Maritime Interception Operations) involves and what this WI-FI communications system is used for - it's for boarding teams to relay information back to the mother ship, where specially trained sailors can use databases to help determine if there is a terrorist or smuggler on the boarded ship's crew. I understand that you're making an attempt at a cheap political joke, but this is serious, dangerous work, and it happens every day in the Gulf and other

Re:

[Runefox (905204)]

Cousin Timmy: OK, General, you're all set.

Gen: Thanks, son. Hey, why is it telling me that the connection strength is low?

Cousin Timmy: That's nothing to worry about. Also, you need to reconnect every ten minutes, because the router's a little weird, and I don't know how to flash the firmware. That's what the tech support forum said I should do.

Gen: ... What?

Cousin Timmy: Don't worry about that, there's nothing to the workaround. You just right-click on this icon here, click "repair" and you're done. Every