6 Burning Questions About Wireless Networks 201
alphadogg writes "Answers to wireless network questions such as: What impact will 802.11n have? Which wireless security threats are scariest? What of wireless VoIP? Will your organization need to change to support enterprise mobility? How do you control costs in an expanding mobile and wireless environment? What can you do to stop wireless denial-of-service attacks?"
My question (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:My question (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Because the "WAP is open" defense works so well [arstechnica.com].
Re:My question (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it up to Microsoft to require people to use secure passwords? Is it up to Oracle to require people with sensitive data to use the data encryption features of Oracle? Is it up to the postfix authors to require people to not run open mail relays?
As always, security is left up to those running the system. Similarly, wireless network security is up to those running the network. You can't force people to be secure. All you can do is strongly encourage it.
Re:My question (Score:5, Insightful)
Moral of the story: Never underestimate an idiot... They will always do nothing more than you make them.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
So if you would RTFM and/or UTFCD the router came w
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, but by default the Adminstrator password is left blank, with the username "Administrator".
Re: (Score:2)
At least postfix by default doesn't have open relaying set up.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Right...
And you shall:
I would hope that all of these things the vast majority of people would not try. A few would be qualified to do some. For all of these things, we are directed by the *authorities* to have someone else do it, either because i
Re: (Score:2)
Almost. The policy of sane and secure defaults should be followed. Most distros try their hardest to do this, sometimes getting it wrong, but it is probably the biggest factor in the reduction of attacks against FOSS Unix machines.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I had the same experience when I got my Wii - it picked up probably 6 or 7 networks within my condo building, with probably 3 or 4 of those unsecured. Even my DS still manages to pick up 2 or 3 other networks from elsewhere in the building.
Re:My question (Score:5, Interesting)
I choose to share my wireless with anyone who might need to connect to check their mail etc. I VPN from my laptop to my OpenBSD gateway to keep my own work encrypted, and also allow access my wired home server.
I use the packet filter to ensure I get first dibs on traffic, but any spare bandwidth is open for others to use as the need.
Having it on by default is good. Having it required is not.
Re:My question (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
The only reason I have my network protected, is because I don't want to do all that security thing of encrypting, keeping logs. If I weren't lazy enough, I'd keep logs as future support and keep the network open.
Re:My question (Score:4, Interesting)
The neighborhood will never have anything to do with what kind of neighbors you have when they shut the front door. Sure, you can get a good idea by looking at the outside, and everything may look pleasant. "Never judge a book by its cover"
A friend of mine had a roommate for six months. Everyone agreed he was a pretty good guy. If not a bit obnoxious. A month after the guy moved out the police broke in with a warrant, took every computer and all his media. Movies, cassettes, CDs, DVDs, blanks, everything. They pull my friend into the station and put him behind a mirror and ask him tonnes of invasive questions about sexuality. After a couple weeks they call back. They talked to the old roommate, who confessed to trafficking child pornography. My friend got everything back, which I understand doesn't always happen.
I'd say it's a good idea to secure your network or at least keep some kind of log.
Re:My question (Score:5, Insightful)
Why risk it? Put up a 20 foot fence!
What will you do when you find out that a homicide was committed with your hotwired car? How about the death threats made on your phone line (you should have bought a T1 and used encryption back to the CO)? What about the death threats to the president spray painted on your garage? The weed grown by the alley at the back of your lot? etc...
Get real! This is life. The benefits of open WiFi far outweigh the risks. Hell, I've used lots of anonymous connections in a pinch (most recently to look up the default IP of my radio, to configure it).
You drive down the street with a complete strangers approaching with a closing speed of over 110 mph, but you wont leave your internet connection open?!
Joe
Re: (Score:2)
>110 mph, but you wont leave your internet connection open?!
The difference is, everyone drives, so chances are, the stranger approaching you on the street is likely just an average joe like you. They probably aren't up to anything nefarious.
I don't think I would put the percentage of likelyhood for being benign as high for people surfing on open WiFi connections.
People seeking out anonymity by piggybacking on
Please re-read my post... (Score:2)
>Our University also provides open wireless access to the local community.
You will note I said:
"People seeking out anonymity by piggybacking on
Emphasis on "my" added.
I, and the GP are not talking about intentionally open WiFi hotspots like you are.
We are talking about people hooking into home WiFi networks.
The only people likely to be u
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, the problem is the current laws and administration. They don't understand that an IP address received from your ISP does not uniquely identify the end-user. Furthermore, the absurd invasion of my home and holding of my property in computer-based crimes is unreal. They'll take your computers, all your media (even obviously retail DVDs), your gaming systems, your TiVo, your VCR.... And that's without any pro
MOD parent up (Score:2)
Parent is on crack (Score:2, Funny)
But hey, it's all good. While bubba has you bent over the bed, you can feel awesome that you didn't let anyone legitimate use your connection in a pinch.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What a complete load of crap.
Is there some law that says access points have to be controlled like guns?
Did you need to get a license for your wireless router?
Was there a 3-day waiting period to get one when you went to Best Buy?
Have you told your local Starbucks/coffee-shop or University that they bet
Re: (Score:2)
Its just as ignorant to ignore the current political climate and go ahead with what you want to do because you think thats the way it should be. Its much more intelligent to work to change things before hanging it out there.
The open wireless connection is still an untested defense, and while it may potentially get you off in a
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So you have 2 choices-
1) Never do ANYTHING that those 'idiots in charge' might EVER mistake for illegal.
2) Get rid of the idiots and get SMART people in charge. (Or at least technology-wise people)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
1) Never do ANYTHING that those 'idiots in charge' might EVER mistake for illegal.
No, apparently you, like many people, don't understand that there are gray areas. It's not a binary choice. It's risk management, and I have decided that the risks aren't worth it. Besides, it's not mistaking things as being illegal, it's mistaking who is the person performing the illegal act. In the online world, where connections from one IP address can be made from many, many different people, it's pretty hard to tell who is doing something bad. It may be that the police shouldn't try, but they do,
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah. 'Gray' is where you get all your stuff back just a few years after it was confiscated. Some is missing, some broken, and the rest obsolete. This is not the worst case, it IS the middle ground. The extremes are:
White: Cops knock on your door, and say there was child porn coming from your IP. You point out you have an open AP, and turn over what logs you have. The cops leave, never to bother you again.
Black: You get arrested, your stuff taken, and charges filed. The prosecutor drags
Re: (Score:2)
Black: Do all sorts of crazy things, hoping that The Man won't come down on you.
White: Never do anything which might cause The Man to come down on you, specifically because someone else did something illegal, but made it look like you did.
Gray: Protect yourself from the consequences which you subjectively decide are not worth dealing with given the potential gains/losses and difficulty in i
Re: (Score:2)
I use a lot of bandwidth, so I'm a poor person to share with which is why I should share out.
Scaring People into Not Sharing Wireless (Score:2)
But basically it's rare, and the scare stories about Bad Things That Could Happen If You Share Wireless appear to mostly be propagated by the kinds of broadband companies that don't want increased traffic on their nets, and by the kinds of pundits who get their reputation points
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't mean to censure or discourage your practice of keeping an open AP, but it seems to me that they can do more than simply take your computers away.
They could file charges, take you in custody, leak your name to the press, harass you for the names or your "accomplices", etc. Dealing with law enforcement can be a real bother sometimes (I guess it depends on the juri
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Now, realize I'm a liberal and actually have some balls, unlike those pussy neo-cons who are willing to trade their freedom from security from 'the evil terrorists who are going to kill us all at any moment'. If the police har
Do you know how much time that takes (Score:2)
And then there's all the support calls from people who can't access their router because they couldn't find the password/lost the bit of paper with it written on etc...
In short, if routers can with encryption turned on by default they would have to have some kind of default password.
And if they have a default password everyone knows it so
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno, they already burn a unique mac address into each one, and often print it on a sticker on the case too. Doing the same for a default password doesn't seem beyond the realm of possibility.
I'd expect the extra support costs for doing the WPA setup would be the main problem.
Re: (Score:2)
And then there's all the support calls from people who can't access their router because they couldn't find the password/lost the bit of paper with it written on etc...
It can't be that hard, because at least one manufacturer has figured it out.
I have an ActionTec router, provided to me with my Verizon FIOS service. WiFi was pre-enab
Re: (Score:2)
I have a PSP, and I love using it as a web tablet. It supports WPA, but it doesn't support WPA2, WPA Enterprise, or WPA2 Enterprise. The Nintendo DS doesn't even support WPA, and I like my online Tetris. I have an old laptop I use for StarCraft LAN parties, it's USB WiFi device has trouble with WPA.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm fairly sure most HTCs do, including the Wizard (T-mobile MDA). My employer has wireless at work, WPA2 with mandatory client certs for authentication, etc, etc, and my MDA can connect to it happily enough.
Re:My question (Score:5, Interesting)
I want to share about 30-40Kpbs and have intelligent performance algorithms managing the rest, I want to have my transmissions encrypted while allowing others to SHARE my web-access. (I know that's a big word, like "communist").
When we move to 802.11n (Assuming the same number of wireless routers as currently exist there will be almost 80-90% coverage in urban areas, why would I need a cell phone if we all shared, how about intelligent sharing between networks as a mesh? Once we overflow the casual bandwidth limits we can stop dealing with this "expensive last mile" crap and start getting isolated fibre channels.
My computer is secure, my internet access is mostly encrypted or tunneled, but I don't have access everywhere for affordable prices, I don't think security and sharing have to be mutually exclusive.
Re: (Score:2)
I want to share about 30-40Kpbs and have intelligent performance algorithms managing the rest, I want to have my transmissions encrypted while allowing others to SHARE my web-access. (I know that's a big word, like "communist").
Me too. However, I think the main problem is with ISPs who don't want you to share your connection. Some operators do allow FON [wikipedia.org], apparently since it's a closed and logged system, but as another business it goes against the ideals of sharing, IMHO.
Re:My question (Score:4, Informative)
As mentioned FON is a cheap solution to do that, it puts out 2 SSIDs, a shared one and a private encrypted on, and you can use the web interface I believe to rate limit people on your open shared line.
Otherwise go buy a high quality business device with more than one available AP and set it up to do whatever you want. Cisco has tons of devices that can deliver you that kind of setup. So the answer is, its already there. Go nuts.
Re: (Score:2)
Here's my question. When are router manufacturers going to start requiring people to use WPA security?
Hopefully never. Who the hell are they (and you, for that matter) to tell me I can't run an open network? Making it impossible for me to do so is a good way to guarantee I'll be going with another vendor.
I find it amazing that people are leaving their connections open when setting up a secure connection is so easy.
I similarly find it amazing how fucking chickenshit some people are. Secure your hom
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's quite a broad brush you've got there. (Score:2)
I have a friend who runs his own business, as does his wife. So, both businesses are run out of their home using a business-class DSL connection. However, they live on a farm that is so far off any main road or highway that there is no way anyone would know they're there. To get to their farmhouse, which is in the middle of probably 16+ square acres, you have to drive about 1/2 mile on a dirt/stone road into a mountain valley. The nearest house is at
Re:My question (Score:5, Interesting)
Favorite question so far... (Score:5, Funny)
A: "Generally, no."
Sponsored by AT&T
Re: (Score:2)
VoIP over a corporate network is where it shines. But over the wild internet? No thanks.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Sponsored by AT&T
You mean "the new at&t" don't you? It's lowercase now so it's less threatening!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sponsored by AT&T
You mean "the new at&t" don't you? It's lowercase now so it's less threatening!
...to the NSA [eff.org]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Now none of the phone hacker people are willing to help me move the ghost account to a new phone, this old one gets terrible reception and has 3 hours standby.
But how much is this phone worth, how much is the freedom to never worry about a bill worth? Not to look at the clock not to wonder if you're going over? Well I offered my sister $1200 for the phone 3 years ago (She had
Pure FUD (Score:3, Insightful)
--
Wi-Fizzle Research [wi-fizzle.com]
tagged this article with 'FUDFUDFUD' (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
you mean duping the tags? c'mon, that is not a good way to protest the dupes here..
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I was poking at the slashdot dupes, but after this explanation, it falls flat
Which wireless security threats are scariest? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
2) Rig door switch so microwave will operate with door open.
3) Run microwave with door open.
4) ???
5) Profit!
Re: (Score:2)
It may have been one of those myths, but I heard somewhere about how if there was an invasion people could run out into the street with their microwaves and fry all the commies.
It sounds so highly implausible that I thought it could only have originated from the US government.
The real questions about WiFi: (Score:5, Insightful)
2. Why can't we get the information just how far away the "full bandwidth" works, instead of finding out without fail that most APs can hardly provide the promised bandwidth over distances more than 5 yards?
3. How long 'til we can't use WiFi anymore because all frequencies are already taken by your neighbors and the companies around you? Worse, can you soon be forced to discontinue your WiFi use because the company next door needs your frequency? (Because, yes, it's unusable past 20 yards but can easily interfere with networks a few miles away, it seems)
4. What's the legal implication when someone uses my WiFi AP without my consent by hacking into it and distributing illegal material through it? I'm waiting for the first verdict where you have a completely secure AP, someone still manages to break it and then...?
5. In turn, what about "free" APs, kept open deliberately. What about town wide WiFi networks, a few cities already started a project but they never went anywhere. Care to tell us why?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
WiFi is on an unlicensed frequency, which pretty much means that as long as the power is low nobody can complain. I suspect there will be a licensed version of WiFi at some point where you buy a license for a geographic area and a channel. This w
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
This is antecdotal at best and coming twice removed from the source, but I will offer it up anyway. A client of mine is in a business that involves running trucks from southern California up into the central valley as far north as Madera/Dinuba. They wanted constant radio communication with the trucks but realized that they couldn't do it with what was publicly available. What t
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I say, why WPA, why not WEP or 802.1x? Because everything is based on Drafts not standards so everyone does what they want.
2. Why can't we get the information just how far away the "full bandwidth" works, instead of finding out without fail that most APs can hardly provide the promised bandwidth over distances more than 5 yards?
That mainly depends on both your router and your network card, therefore it's quite compl
Re: (Score:2)
The same reason that everything is poorly implemented. Reality is complex, thus the requirements are complex. The requirements are complex, thus a complete implementation would be complex. A vast majority of customers can't handle a complex implementation, so a simple, but incomplete, implementation is built.
These questions are answered (Score:3, Informative)
2) you can find lots of information about bandwidth. The same site as the article cited has product reviews on ftp throughput; it's about a max of 3/5ths stated bandwidth or less.
3) this already happens. Use 802.11a instead. There are tons of non-interfering channels and you can get double-data-rate schemes with them.
4) someone using your wifi might be legal, but it dep
You ain't looking hard enough (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What I want to know is (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I can pick up over 65 networks from my apartment and had to go to 5.8GHz phones because 2.4GHz was completely unusable in the apartment. The interference was just ridiculous.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's not a problem. (Score:2)
How is that really a problem? Just set your preferred network to your own SSID and be done with it (well, that's assuming you didn't leave your SSID named "Linksys" or "Default"). I have about 20 wireless access points visible to me, some open, but most not, and they don't get in
When you get that much signal in the area (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How is that really a problem? Just set your preferred network to your own SSID and be done with it (well, that's assuming you didn't leave your SSID named "Linksys" or "Default"). I have about 20 wireless access points visible to me, some open, but most not, and they don't get in the way at all.
I wish it was that simple - I have 40 visibile, another 15 unpublished SSIDs (mine one of them) - all but 4 are secured. I have my own SSID, I have gone to the least populated range (x +/- 3) of channels and I have problems connecting and maintaining the network connection (from a couple meters away).
Missing the point completely (Score:2)
Because there are only 11 channels (in the USA). There's also a fair amount of splatter, so it's recommended that only channels 1, 6, and 11 be used. The WiFi band is getting pretty crowded.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I do use wired connections (Score:2)
printer friendly version (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, I know it looks like some dodgey mailer script, but it just uses Javascript form elements to fill in bits of their standard printer page, instead of making a proper URL. Of course GET vs. POST is not checked ;-)
My question: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Here's one killer for you (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Is 802.11n more reliable? (Score:5, Interesting)
The article seems to assume that 802.11n offers so much more bandwidth that no-one will bother with ethernet any more. Unless the new standard is less susceptible to neighbouring networks, that's just not the case
18 months ago I set up a MythTV setup based around an 802.11g wireless network and, at first, it worked flawlessly - two clients and the server could simultaneously stream TV to/from the router. Then my neighbours started using own networks in anger and the bandwidth available to me gradually dissolved.
Now my network can't come close to supporting one streaming device. Even surfing the net wirelessly is painful, with regular 2-3 second dropouts when the whole street hits the airwaves simultaneously. I've long since given up on wifi and switched to homeplug.
I'm not alone. Most people I know who live in densely populated areas have the same problem. Does 802.11n suffer from the same problems? I imagine that the increased range will just lead to increased contention when its popularity increases. I'm not about to buy it.
Re:Is 802.11n more reliable? (Score:5, Interesting)
Let me be more specific - 2.4 GHz N suffers from all of these problems. For now, I expect the 5 GHz N implementations to be in much better shape.
Tip of the hat to Apple for making all of their N gear 5 GHz capable.
Wag of the finger to just about everyone else for making their stuff 2.4 Ghz only, likely for backwards compatibility and cost savings.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, this can be mitigated by making your signals stronger (i.e. sitting the devices right beside each other) so that the other devices don't interfere with your signal.
I use wireless A at my place of employment, and I've run into another issue - if I have three people on wireless, and I start transferring a larg
VoWiFi FUD (Score:3, Informative)
I work for one leading VoWiFi company that currently installs a lot of systems at US hospitals. Do you think the hospital administrations should accept anything than perfect performance?
A MOS of 4.2 using ETSI's own measurements and seamless handover is what we are talking about. Not FUD about dropped calls etc. Our i75 passed Cisco's own certification program before their own product and has won a number of prices for best product.
Y.T.
My answers, now forward this to 20 friends... (Score:3, Interesting)
It will replace 802.11a/b/g, but beyond that, none. Speed really doesn't count as the biggest problem with wireless - I'd personally put "reliability" at #1 and "security" at #2.
Which wireless security threats are scariest?
The DOJ sniffing your traffic from outside rather than needing to at least enter the building (and thus possibly get caught on your security camera(s)).
What of wireless VoIP?
What of it? Whether you use a VOIP set that connects via 802.11, or a VOIP set that connects a base station via ethernet and has a cordless handset makes no difference. Except, perhaps, that while the 2.4GHz spectrum has gotten rather crowded lately, the 800MHz range used for cordless phones has become less congested in recent years.
Will your organization need to change to support enterprise mobility?
Probably, because most enterprise apps tweak if they lose their network connection even momentarily - See my first answer.
How do you control costs in an expanding mobile and wireless environment?
"The only winning move is not to play".
What can you do to stop wireless denial-of-service attacks?"
1) Use a wire.
2) Wait for the entropic death of the universe.
Seriously, no realistic solution exists between those two - A wireless DOS doesn't take anything high-tech... A spark-gap transmitter will do nicely. And don't forget "unintentional" DOSs... At my house, I suffer one every few second due to a nearby airport's radar (again, see my first answer), thus I almost exclusively use a wired connection except for totally noncritical and connection-state-less uses such as surfing the web from my couch.
Less congested? WTF? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
HTTP uses TCP which is a connection oriented protocol. It works for you because of retransmits and the fact that you can't tell if a web site is just being slow or if there is a network problem (lost packet), and the fact the the connections are "short" in duration (unlike a big file transfer or SSH session.) Keep in mind that unless you disable keepalives, you can see even more frequent problems with web sessions.
I use wired connections wherev
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Here is some more information from wikipedia: Power line communication for home networking [wikipedia.org]
I have a friend who did this at his house and it worked out nicely for him.
Good luck!
--
Wi-Fizzle Research [wi-fizzle.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Or you could just be a true geek and drape it over the ceiling fan and lights along the roof. Or just run it along the floor in plan site. Sure it looks shitty but who gives a fuck? Kind of sucks if you have a cat or a dog that likes the chew on cables though. But on the other hand that problem is fixed real quickly if you leave one of those high voltage power cords along the floor. It can be kind of messy though and there is the smell...