[ale] Putting wifi in the house

[James Sumners]

Version 2 of the PCI card is the only one supported in Linux; and yes,
I am using in an old P2 machine as a WAP. I am sure the card itself
can do WPA. The question is if the driver can do it. You will probably
have to use Xsupplicant (http://open1x.sourceforge.net/); the last
time I tried to use it, though, it was very rudimentary. But I was
also using the Orinoco drivers which have very, very, poor "extra
features" support. In fact, I had to hack in some stuff to the driver
on my own to get it working. Since I got my PowerBook I really haven't
done much with Linux and wireless. A lot of this could have changed
over the past year.

As for transferring sensitive files over the wireless. It just isn't a
good idea no matter what steps you take. None of the currenty
solutions are really secure enough to make it a good idea. You will be
better off transfering them over a hard wired local network.

On 1/30/06, Jeff Hubbs <hbbs at comcast.net> wrote:
> James -
>
> The SMC 2802W is exactly what I have, still in its shrinkwrap.
> According to the docs, it does support WPA.  Does that suggest that I
> could use this as the basis for a PC-based WAP?
>
> The SMC 7004VWBR WPA that I have appears to be WEP-only.  I suppose
> that, to be safe, I could use that in conjunction with SSH or IPSEC.
>
> The issue with the laptops in the house is that they will be pushing
> sensitive files to and from file servers that are also in the house and
> therefore that air can't be sniffable; if it's not WPA, it'll have to be
> IPSEC or only use SCP (which would kind of stink).
>
> One thing I could do is to make the laptops' internal WiFi be set up for
> the house and use WiFi PC Cards for Panera Bread, Krystal, Marriott etc.
>
> Or, if I really wanted to be sublime, I could fix it so that ALL WiFi,
> wherever it was, reached the Internet by VPN through the house - then,
> there would be no distinction.  However, would this be screwed up by
> WiFi that requires you to click through a Web page before letting you do
> anything else?
>
> Jeff
>
> James Sumners wrote:
>
> >As has been said, use WPA if you can. I doubt your stand alone AP is
> >going to support it unless there is a newer firmware available to add
> >the support. It is relatively new. WPA support with you PCI card might
> >be easier but that is going to depend on what card it is and what
> >drivers you can use for it. I have an SMC 2802W for my
> >router/wap/gateway and it works rather well, but I don't know if it
> >supports WPA. The driver I am using is the old driver from
> >prism54.org.
> >
> >But really, do you really need to "secure" the wireless signal? I
> >haven't seen any reason to attempt to do so. Anything sensitive I do
> >is already encrypted via ssh or ssl. I don't really care if people can
> >sniff my IM conversations and web surfing. If you are just worried
> >about the neighbors leeching bandwidth, why not let them? My AP is
> >wide open for anyone that wants to use it and I have never had a
> >problem. In fact, I don't think anyone other than me and my roommate
> >have ever connected to it. If someone else did start using it and
> >slowed down my network, then I would take steps to limit their access.
> >
> >On 1/30/06, Jeff Hubbs <hbbs at comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>The time has come for me to get WiFi instituted at home and I need to
> >>understand what *should* be done as opposed to *what people typically do*.
> >>
> >>I have a WiFi WAP that I bought on clearance about three years ago but
> >>have only fooled around with once, and I also have a PCI WiFi card that
> >>I bought around the same time that I haven't even used.  So, I could use
> >>either the WAP or I could theoretically make one out of any number of
> >>spare machines.
> >>
> >>What I would like to have happen is for our laptops to be able to "WiFi
> >>up" at home as easily as at Joe Blow's Hotspot and Cafe.  However, I
> >>also don't want to be trivially eavesdropped on or leeched off of (over
> >>the weekend, the newer laptop was finding two nearby WAPs from the
> >>living room and gave me the ESSID of one of them).  If those two
> >>concepts are not compatible, I need to know so that I can make the
> >>situation easily manageable.
> >>
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Ale mailing list
> >>Ale at ale.org
> >>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >James Sumners
> >http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/
> >
> >"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
> >pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
> >is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
> >drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
> >
> >Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
> >CH:D 59
> >_______________________________________________
> >Ale mailing list
> >Ale at ale.org
> >http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>


--
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59