[oclug] The Feds can own your WLAN too

[BB]

I see WEP as wi-fi's equivalent of "The Club."  It's easily thwarted
by a willing car thief, but enough of a perceived nuisance to make joy
riders try another car.  I've enabled WEP on my wireless LAN 1)
because I live in the country and anyone sitting in a car surfing the
Web will be seen from miles away, and 2) if anyone is war driving, I
figure they have the pick of the unprotected 70% of wireless LANs.

BTW, I'm noticing that more places that used to charge for wi-fi
access are starting to offer it for free.  The Roasted Cherry Coffee
House is a notable example.  Good on them.

Cheers,
BB

On Apr 6, 2005 3:20 PM, Robert Brockway <rbrockway at opentrend.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Apr 2005, Adrian Irving-Beer wrote:
> 
> > The problem is, IMO, the Internet back then was inhabited by people
> > with a more benign attitude.  These days, many people see the Internet
> > as just a means to make easy money, or to perform illegal or morally
> > wrong acts -- often both at the same time.
> 
> Yes it is a shame.  I feel as if many people take the Internet for granted
> and don't stop to consider how truly amazing it is, and how much effort
> went into creating it.
> 
> RIP Jon Postal.
> 
> > I suspect the number of wardriving spammers is less, but I sure
> 
> But will probably become more common given that open access points are
> still very common.
> 
> > I appreciate that, and I do find myself sometimes yearning for certain
> > aspects of the older Internet.  But there are some things I recognise
> 
> To a certain extent Internet2 could be seen as an attempt to recapture a
> bit of the old days - and on very last links :)
> 
> > On the other hand, your words made me think.  If I ever find myself on
> > an ISP with unlimited bandwidth and no sharing issues (and can
> > overcome the routing and security issues), I may consider at least
> > account-based, audited, free shared wireless access.
> 
> Yes, I would also not have a problem doing this either.  Even without
> unlimited bandwidth you could rate-limit or even block your free users
> once they hit quota.  Linux has the capability to all of this easily of
> course.
> 
> Rob
> 
> --
> Robert Brockway B.Sc.
> Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
> Phone: +1-416-669-3073 Email: rbrockway at opentrend.net http://www.opentrend.net
> OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
> Contributing Member of Software in the Public Interest (http://www.spi-inc.org)
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