password protecting my wireless network
in [Mac Systems]
|
Prev: Terminal wedged: "Can't open display: :0.0"
Next: Confusion about MacSpeech Words-Per-Minute claims
From: Barry Margolin on 26 Jan 2010 12:27 In article <sdfisher-D4BDA7.21513025012010(a)mara100-84.onlink.net>, Steven Fisher <sdfisher(a)spamcop.net> wrote: > In article <260120100042317389%nospam(a)nospam.invalid>, > nospam <nospam(a)nospam.invalid> wrote: > > > i've found absolutely no problem connecting to any network at all, > > whether it's mine (invisible) or a public network (usually visible, but > > not always). passwords are saved, and it even auto-connects when in > > range, and that's with multiple wifi clients. > > I had no idea it worked that well. But I have other devices on the > network that probably wouldn't work so well with, so I'll keep my beacon > lit. Yeah, I learned that last week. I got a WiFi Internet radio, and you have to use telephone-style texting to enter the SSID and password on its remote control. My SSID is all lowercase, and so is most of my password, and it takes a half dozen presses of each key to go through the digit, uppercase letters and accented letters to get to the lowercase letters. If I had SSID broadcasting enabled, I would only have had to go through this pain for the password, not the SSID as well. -- Barry Margolin, barmar(a)alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
From: Steven Fisher on 26 Jan 2010 12:29 In article <barmar-0CF1C4.12274726012010(a)nothing.attdns.com>, Barry Margolin <barmar(a)alum.mit.edu> wrote: > Yeah, I learned that last week. I got a WiFi Internet radio, and you > have to use telephone-style texting to enter the SSID and password on > its remote control. My SSID is all lowercase, and so is most of my > password, and it takes a half dozen presses of each key to go through > the digit, uppercase letters and accented letters to get to the > lowercase letters. If I had SSID broadcasting enabled, I would only > have had to go through this pain for the password, not the SSID as well. I wonder if you could have turned it on, set up the Internet radio, then turned it back off? Is that how wifi works? Steve
From: Barry Margolin on 26 Jan 2010 12:36 In article <00dabb20$0$26774$c3e8da3(a)news.astraweb.com>, Warren Oates <warren.oates(a)gmail.com> wrote: > In article <260120100053176156%nospam(a)nospam.invalid>, > nospam <nospam(a)nospam.invalid> wrote: > > > it's not a problem for macs, iphones or ipod touches. you can always > > get to 'other' and give it an ssid, which it will then save so you need > > not do it again. there might be another device that acts the way you > > describe, but that sounds like it has a bug and enabling ssid is just a > > workaround for it. > > Yada. You're just one of those guys who's "smarter than everyone else." > > Any list of (home) wireless security best practices will tell you that > SSID suppression and MAC filtering provide no _true_ security and can > cause problems. I go with standards, not shamanism. There's no such thing as absolute security, it's all a matter of whether some practice or policy adds sufficient security. By themselves SSID suppression and MAC filtering would not be considered adequate security, but they can be useful layers on top of WPA encryption. It can't hurt to add additional hurdles for the cracker to have to jump over. Sure, MAC addresses are trivial to spoof, but you have to know what MAC address to spoof. Although if you managed to crack the encryption, you could just eavesdrop and see the MAC addresses of the authorized clients whizzing by. -- Barry Margolin, barmar(a)alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
From: Frank P. Eigler on 26 Jan 2010 11:42 Barry Margolin (barmar(a)alum.mit.edu) wrote: [snip] : Yeah, I learned that last week. I got a WiFi Internet radio, and you : have to use telephone-style texting to enter the SSID and password on : its remote control. My SSID is all lowercase, and so is most of my : password, and it takes a half dozen presses of each key to go through : the digit, uppercase letters and accented letters to get to the : lowercase letters. If I had SSID broadcasting enabled, I would only : have had to go through this pain for the password, not the SSID as well. I'd suggest turning on broadcasting for the short period of time you need to set up that device. -- Non Illegitimi Carborundum
From: Barry Margolin on 26 Jan 2010 12:47
In article <sdfisher-E19AE8.09295126012010(a)mara100-84.onlink.net>, Steven Fisher <sdfisher(a)spamcop.net> wrote: > In article <barmar-0CF1C4.12274726012010(a)nothing.attdns.com>, > Barry Margolin <barmar(a)alum.mit.edu> wrote: > > > Yeah, I learned that last week. I got a WiFi Internet radio, and you > > have to use telephone-style texting to enter the SSID and password on > > its remote control. My SSID is all lowercase, and so is most of my > > password, and it takes a half dozen presses of each key to go through > > the digit, uppercase letters and accented letters to get to the > > lowercase letters. If I had SSID broadcasting enabled, I would only > > have had to go through this pain for the password, not the SSID as well. > > I wonder if you could have turned it on, set up the Internet radio, then > turned it back off? Is that how wifi works? Yeah, that would work. The SSID broadcast is only needed when the client is searching for available networks, not once it's locked into the network. But at the time I didn't even think of turning on the broadcast. For some reason, it didn't come into my head, although I considered changing the SSID to all uppercase (but then I would have had to dig up the instructions for reconfiguring my Buffalo Wifi-to-Ethernet converter). -- Barry Margolin, barmar(a)alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group *** |