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Wireless Networking Communications Hardware

Semper WiFi 176

Posted by michael from the better-than-MARS dept.
Roblimo writes "Armed Forces personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan increasingly use the Internet to communicate with their familes back home, but there are not nearly enough computers and connections for them. Lt. Phillip Geiger, Medical Officer with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, suggested using a privately-funded, long-range WiFi network to help troops stay in touch. The idea has grown from there, all funded privately with cash and equipment donations. Joe Barr has the details on NewsForge (which, like Slashdot, is part of OSTG)."
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Semper WiFi More

Semper WiFi

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  • Troops (Score:5, Informative)

    by Klar ( 522420 ) * <curchin@g m a i l .com> on Thursday August 19, 2004 @08:55AM (#10011868) Homepage Journal
    Things like this are great. Troops fighting for us deserve to be able to communicate with their friends and family to keep them sane. This really reminds me of the http://www.gmail4troops.com/ [gmail4troops.com] project. If you have an extra gmail invite around in you inbox, why not give it to someone who could use it to receive video and pictures from loved ones.
    • Gmail4Troops must be doing really well. I offered up 3 invites over a month ago (prob closer to 2 mo), and have yet to be contacted by them to take advantage of my offer. I waited long enough, so I ended up giving them away.

    • Re:Troops (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rackrent ( 160690 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:12AM (#10012054)
      Having received e-mails from a friend in Iraq....I think this a great idea. Their time is often limited when they can gain any kind of Internet access and the access points are few. I was happy just to hear a few words from him when he was able to have access.

      The logistics and security of a WiFI system obviously would take a lot of work; let's hope independent developers can work it out instead of our ummm "thrifty" federal government.
      • Having received e-mails from a friend in Iraq....I think this a great idea. Their time is often limited when they can gain any kind of Internet access and the access points are few.

        For usage limited to "morale" (to friends & family) traffic it's usage may be okay.

        The proposal seems to ignore filtering, not only to stay within DoD harassment policy, but filtering & confidentality (against network sniffing) is also important to ensure stragetic information is not leaked through benign comments fro

    • Re:Troops (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ut0piaseeker ( 806766 )
      Really enjoyed this young man's perspective on being overseas... www.ilovemyhazardpay.com
    • Last October, when I was stationed in Iraq, the Army rolled out satellite receiver based "Internet Cafes" . Each battalion sized element got one and each cafe was capable of supporting about 20 Internet connections and 4 VOIP phones. Each Cafe had about 12 laptops that were part of it and additional connections in the switches for 8 more personal laptops. These cafes worked great. There were some in what is now the Marine Corps sector. I don't understand why they aren't there.

  • Just what we need.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nos. ( 179609 ) <andrew@nOSPAm.thekerrs.ca> on Thursday August 19, 2004 @08:55AM (#10011869) Homepage
    ...front line forces surfing slashdot.
  • Because government fundded projects are known for taking secureity seriously in cases like this .... :-(

  • Is that... Wi-Fi? (Score:3, Funny)

    by BubbaThePirate ( 805480 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:00AM (#10011912)
    Eight Oh Two dot Eleven Be. Full Speed Packet.

  • Major security issues... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by L0neW0lf ( 594121 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:01AM (#10011932)
    I want very much for our troops to be able to communicate with their families back home. It's good for morale both in the service and for their families. But the lack of security in a WiFi network, IMO could easily put those military forces in jeopardy. All it would take would be the wrong information packet-sniffed by the wrong person to cause danger to the soldiers there. Is it truly possible to make a WiFi network secure enough to avoid this?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • The Harris company has produced a WiFi network that is capable of carrying Top Secret data.

        No offense intended, but why are you talking about top secret data when the article describes how to best communicate with families back home?

        Unless the spouse of the soldier has a military classification and a "need to know", Top Secret or other classified data should not be communicated to the soldier's home.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • The question in the grandparent post was "is there a secure WiFi network".

            Understood, but more than a few post have been generated that have made references to military secrets being compromised on WiFi networks. Undoubtedly, there are secure WiFi apppliances or the USDOD and the USDOE would not allow them on their networks.

            That said, your question is an interesting one, moreso than you know. Let's look at it from an axiomatic viewpoint - any network connection in harm's way is going to be considered se
        • No offense intended, but why are you talking about top secret data when the article describes how to best communicate with families back home?

          Obviously the post was talking about Harris's secure network just to show that security on a WiFi network is possible.

          The issue about family information on WiFi networks is this: The face of war and the enemy has changed. We no longer fight organized militias exclusively, but decentralized organizations that attack soft targets by preference. Terrorists could get

    • I too was wondering about the security issues as well... I know where I work, WiFi is strictly prohibited (sensitive data and whatnot) even though I have a secure wireless network in my house. Now, I couldn't see my hick neighbors trying to hack my network, but obiously the situation would be a little different in Iraq and Afganistan. I don't think it would be feasible to censor outgoing transmissions, so I think it would be up to the users not to broadcast any sensitive information.

    • I don't think so... in fact... encryption would just shout "hey! we're doing something secret! come triangulate us!" Some terrorist fund raising is done on the internet, in plain Arabic text... why hide? You'll just get less money.
    • I've never met Major Issue, but I have heard a lot about General Protection Fault.
    • Two solutions, either use VPN or check all messages in and out to make sure that they don't have any data in them that shouldn't be transmitted. One or both of these methods will surely be utilized.

  • Wifi Rifles (Score:3, Funny)

    by kaleco ( 801384 ) <greig.marshall2@ ... GERcom minus cat> on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:02AM (#10011940)
    Makes you look at WiFi rifles in a whole new light (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/03/wi-fi_aer ial_gun/ [theregister.co.uk]).

  • "Better than MARS" FAQ (Score:5, Informative)

    by dogfart ( 601976 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:03AM (#10011949) Homepage Journal
    MARS stands for Military Auxiliary Amateur Radio System. It's a long standing ham radio network designed to assist military personnel with contacting the folks back home (among other things military-like).

    FAQ is at http://public.afca.af.mil/LIBRARY/MARS1.HTM [af.mil]. Another article explaining the Air Force MARS is http://www.asc.army.mil/mars/history.htm [army.mil]

    • Oops meant to say "Army" not "Air Force". Teaches me to post before my first morning coffee.
    • When I was stationed in South Korea back in 1987, MARS was a great way for me to get information back to by wife and parents. My dad still talks about how nice it was to get a phone call from someone in town letting him know that I was doing OK. It even gave him the incentive to go out and get his ham radio license.

    • Re:"Better than MARS" FAQ (Score:4, Informative)

      by Just Some Guy ( 3352 ) <kirk+slashdot@strauser.com> on Thursday August 19, 2004 @11:35AM (#10013915) Homepage Journal
      MARS was a godsend when I was on a "cruise" to Somalia in '94. For those too lazy to read up on it, it basically worked like this:
      1. You'd type out a phone number and a short message (limited to something like 64 words) to a loved one and save it to a floppy in a special format.
      2. Give said floppy to the guy onboard who was running our end of the MARS network - basically, one of your shipmates entertaining his off-duty hobby.
      3. He'd batch up all of the outbound messages and blast them out via packet modem.
      4. Your message would be routed through HAMs until it reached one in your local area code, who would call your recipient on the phone and read the message to them.
      5. If they wanted to reply, the HAM would transcribe their message, route it back to the stateside MARS station, and broadcast it back to the ship.
      6. The shipboard MARS guy would print out a few pages of messages, cut the page into strips (one per message), and send them out via the intra-ship mail envelopes.
      The total turnaround time from when you first typed your message to when you received the response was on the order of 48 hours. Compared with a roughly two-month turnaround on snail mail, it just practically like making the phone call yourself.

      Did I mention that this was completely free of charge for both of the end parties involved? I've never actually met a MARS operator, but if I do, first drink's on me.

      As a side note, MARS is directly responsible for me working with computers. I was a surgery tech on ship, but I knew enough programming to write a little BASIC app to run on our 8086 laptop to let anyone type their message, apply the appropriate constraints on it (checking for word length, number of words, etc.), and correctly save it to a floppy. People in the department would wander by, type their little message, and get a nice surprise two days later. My coworkers were happy enough to tell my boss, who was good enough to point out that while I didn't seem to like being a surgery tech, I definitely liked programming, and I should get out of the Navy and go to college to study CompSci. Ken Schnapp, in the unlikely chance that you read Slashdot: thanks, man!

  • Security Nightmare... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pedestrian crossing ( 802349 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:04AM (#10011958) Homepage Journal
    This sounds like an Operational Security nightmare. Unless it is well secured (and fully encrypted end-to-end), it could well be a valuable source of information for the Bad Guys.

    Remember, information wants to be free...
    • No less secure than the Bagdad Internet Cafe, or the guy next to you at the bar. (oops, I forgot, this is the middle east)

      The most important security is in the minds of the people connecting. Apply the same rules about what is on your computer to what you talk about to a civilian.

    • Unless it is well secured (and fully encrypted end-to-end), it could well be a valuable source of information for the Bad Guys.

      Unless the Bad Guys are looking for information on how often Billy has crapped his diapers and whether Daisy needs braces on her teeth, there shouldn't be much to glean from this information stream.

      The folks in the military are trained to keep operational details out of personal conversations with their family for several reasons, including national security, personal safety, and
  • that sometimes, just sometimes, entire news stories are written around a pun the author thought of for a title while sitting on the throne or diving home from work?

    I did check it out though, and the term 'Semper Wi-Fi' was used previous to mean wireless Internet for Marines... by the Marine Corps itself. http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/B2C90 2831D9E2D8A85256E7D004BA4A5?opendocument [usmc.mil]

    • In case anyone doesn't get it, "Semper Fi" is the Marine Corp motto. It's short for the latin phrase "Semper fidelis" which means "always faithful". It's used to show the dedication each marine has to the Corp and their fellow soldiers.

      Wikipedia has a small blurb [wikipedia.org] on the phrase.

      Hoorah!

      • Other Prominent Corps Mottos (Score:4, Funny)

        by MooseByte ( 751829 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:35AM (#10012274)

        "In case anyone doesn't get it, "Semper Fi" is the Marine Corp motto."

        Other prominent mottos we've use include:

        • "Semper Gumby": Always Flexible. Good for when your supply drop lands in the middle of the neighboring swamp.
        • "Semper Scrotum": Always On The Ball. Good for damn near any operational situation.
      • Helpful Hints:

        Marines have dedication to the Corps, their fellow Marines, and to soldiers.

        A Marine is only a Soldier if you're looking to get your butt kicked.

        Grandpa was a career Marine, Dad was Navy. You learn these things early around my parts. :D

  • It is more a case of terminals (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tod_miller ( 792541 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:04AM (#10011966) Journal
    There is nothing much new in the setup they are proposing, perhaps the biggest thing is that they are proposing it.

    I would suggest wireless dumb terminals with certificate based security, going through a WEP that is MAC configured and keeping a tabs on all terminals as much as possible.

    No, the thing that shocks me is the reference to ehowa...

    Governments spend unbelievable ammounts of money on military equiptment, can't some of it be appropriated to communications?

    I thought 'battlefield' communications would be very good - I am utterly mystified how a country can have so many troops in a place and not have a solid redundant communciation netwrok that could be accessible to the troops.

    Perhaps this could be an oppourtunity for some community aid? Let the students get involved in configuring the units (after all, we are talking email and video messaging, nothing secret?)

    This may be nice.
    • May Al-Qaeda beat you with a clue stick...

      Troups need to shut the mouth and open the ears when in combat. The CO is the only thing/person to listen too if you want to live. The person they love will be at home when they return. If they are not then they did not love them anyway.

      I wish them all a good safe deployment...

      PS> /. will be here when you get back.

    • after all, we are talking email and video messaging, nothing secret?

      The problem is that a lot of the information that is likely to be passed via email or video messaging may well be secret, or at least sensitive. Even if nothing secret is passed over one of these links, someone who is listening could easily pick up on clues to troop movements, upcoming operations, etc..

      It would not be very smart to put one of these up without taking extensive steps to secure it, lives could literally be at stake. Loos

    • Governments spend unbelievable ammounts of money on military equiptment, can't some of it be appropriated to communications?

      The military views this much like entertainment, it is not an operational priority, and for the DoD that is in a massively spending spreed yet knows it needs to limit it's spending, it cuts from the bottom of "non-operational" activities not the top like Space Weapons.

      I thought 'battlefield' communications would be very good - I am utterly mystified how a country can have so many t
  • But what the heck does "Semper WiFi" mean? Is this the name of the system? Is this an American idiom or phrase?

  • Old Computers (Score:3, Informative)

    by stateofmind ( 756903 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:05AM (#10011983)
    If you have older computers lying around, fix 'em up and donate them to local families who have family in the war.

    The military has special sites setup for where the families can get free webmail, inet access, etc..

    I took two old P3-450s and gave one to my wife's friend and another to the local Marine Reserve base, that they can pass out to other family members.

    Josh
  • All an opposing military need develop now is a missile that homes in on the frequency that 802.11b/g/a uses.

    How about a missile that homes in on a particular MAC address?
  • ...will not happen. 3 words: Abu Ghraib photos.

  • Modern-day censors? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by belgar ( 254293 )
    As a non-military-type (hell, I'm Canadian, we don't even know what a tank is) I'm curious how the US military is able to rein in information of a militarily-sensitive nature, as they did with letter censors in previous conflicts? Is this still something that is a concern for the US military? How do they restrict information in the digi age, when any lowly private can jump on gmail or hotmail and send off messages?

    And, in response to the article, does anyone see a security issue with a "privately-funded,
    • Two more words for you. Signal tracking.

      Give soldiers equipment which broadcasts on known frequencies and you hand anyone with an interest, a way to trace or triangulate their location.

      Whatever the rights or wrongs of the present situation, this can't be good.

    • Re:Modern-day censors? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by slutdot ( 207042 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @10:08AM (#10012730)
      I can't respond to this with today's Army but I can tell you that for the most part, you are trusted and reminded to do the right thing. I was a communications specialist with the Army during the first gulf war and when we finally got in contact with an AT&T operator to allow calls back home over the radios we had, I had to remind the soldiers that any sensitive information they passed out could result in their death and that of their buddies due to us not knowing who was listening. Everyone seemed to heed that warning. The Army doesn't have a bunch of AOLers in their ranks.
      • OpSec is easy or at least easier when you have text. There are a lot of digital photos knocking around the net now. The risks are significantly higher with photos because a photo may be of something innocuous but something else may be in the background. Soldiers may try to do the right thing, but many are just kids and don't really think.

  • Giving a whole new meaning (Score:5, Funny)

    by BubbaThePirate ( 805480 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:16AM (#10012097)
    to War Driving...

  • Armed Forces personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan increasingly use the Internet to communicate with their familes back home, but there are not nearly enough computers and connections for them.

    Doesn't Halliburton [halliburton.com] provide these services (among many others) to the troops? Why not start there and see if a couple of those billions of dollars of tax payer money can be spent meeting this need?

  • When the troops pull out..... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by amran ( 686191 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @09:40AM (#10012334) Homepage
    ...it would be nice if they left the network in place, if this were at all possible. I'm sure the Iraqis could make great use of it.
  • [Sorry in advance for the Cher lyric title]

    If the US, Europe, and all other developed states could rebuild the infrastructure from a clean slate, wouldn't they implement WiFi (and GPS & cellular/PCS) solutions instead of the mesh(mess) of wires that criss-cross our landscapes and obscure our views?

    If the above is true, then Wifi (and the aforementioned GPS & cellular/PCS) solutions are obvious in a place like Iraq that does not have the infrastructure that can support the needs of thousands of 21s
  • If a bunch of these people (Marines or whatever)
    are briefly gathered arbitrarily "close" to each other,
    can they communicate with each other over wifi,
    WITHOUT a hotspot or other infrastructure,
    i.e. using only their personal portable devices (e.g., PDAs or laptops)?

    Can such a wifi swarm form-up easily and on short notice,
    spanning any/all change in the set of initial participants?

    Is there particularly terminology associated with this kind of usage, so I can google it?

  • No Need For Alarm (Score:3, Informative)

    by geomon ( 78680 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @10:54AM (#10013377) Homepage Journal
    As this [slashdot.org] poster and this [slashdot.org] AC have pointed out, this is non-operational, family information trafficing between a small base (probably known to the enemy) and the US for the expressed purpose of letting loved ones know that they are alive and, for the time, okay.

    This is not a situation where military details will be disclosed or data stolen from the hard drives of military planners laptops (they have to go to Los Alamos for that - groan).

    This is an initiative to send equipment to troops who need to keep their families apprised of their condition.

  • Help Needed in Iraq with Internet Access (Score:5, Interesting)

    by aghy ( 136130 ) on Thursday August 19, 2004 @01:06PM (#10015065)
    Hello Fellow Slashdotters,

    My name is Michael and I'm a civilian contractor out here in Fallujah, Iraq working with the Marine Headqaurters in their Information Office. On my free time my roomate and I keep the current internet cafe running on base for a large number of Marines and service members.

    I can tell you want is needed. There are over 20 internet cafes, which consist of one 1mb/512 satellite and 20 computers and 8 IP's phones. Some cafes have multiple satellites with this configuration. We have 3, which is 60 computers with webcams and IP phones.

    The problem is that there was no support included with this package. Most cafe's are not working becasue there aren't any IT or computer geeks to keep them running. And if there are any Marines who could they are busy doing other things.

    A wide wireless LAN is risky. The reason is Operational Security. Information is easier to leak if not controlled. So when a Marine sits down in the internet cafe we have signs posted and of course their background reminds them about OPSEC.

    Also I have been looking for simple Internet Cafe software on Freshmeat and other places but have not found a good solution.

    Currently we are reworking the contract. We are going to use this Internet cafe as a template for all others. I would LOVE suggestions from the Slashdot community on what they think. Please drop me an email or IM on your thoughts.

  • Clue Bat (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    As a communications professional (worked with radio, satellite, data, voice, crypto) and military member who has spent 2 years in the Middle East, I want to respond to a few things.

    (1) Just as a note, pay for use phones are already at several Middle East locations courtesy of AT&T.

    (2) I would be concerned about soldiers discussing sensitive info with their family. This happens anyway but even telephone and unclass network signals are encrypted by the military before being blasted out over open airway

  • Deployed (Score:2, Informative)

    by NastyGnat ( 515785 )
    As a soldier here in Iraq I'll put in my 28 dinars ...

    First of all wireless is not all that uncommon here. Though I will admit of the two marine bases I've been on one of them didn't have squat. I didn't take my laptop to the other. As far as it being restricted, nobody is reading over our shoulders to see what we say. They must be using some kind of proxy as we know some soldiers got caught looking at porn. However, when I was in Kuwait the cybercafe there actually charged for the time but provided co

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