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My Son recently bought a laptop for his contracting work in London. It came
equipped with a wireless lan card which he thought might be useful in the future
when he and his mates get broadband installed at their apartment. The NIC is
used at work. He took it home after buying it and was bemused to discover an
available network when he fired it up. Sop someone else in the apartment must
have an open access point.

I would have thought that when buying wireless lan gear there would be at least
basic security on access points. Google reveals several security
implementations with the IEEE 802.11 standard. While I am not in the market
currently, are access points routinely sold such that anything in range can connect?

It seems to me that in apartment complexes anyone using wireless access point
would be very vulnerable in these circumstances with lots of other apartments in
close proximity.

Crash.

On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 20:53:10 +1300, Crash <> wrote:

>My Son recently bought a laptop for his contracting work in London. It came
>equipped with a wireless lan card which he thought might be useful in the future
>when he and his mates get broadband installed at their apartment. The NIC is
>used at work. He took it home after buying it and was bemused to discover an
>available network when he fired it up. Sop someone else in the apartment must
>have an open access point.
>
>I would have thought that when buying wireless lan gear there would be at least
>basic security on access points. Google reveals several security
>implementations with the IEEE 802.11 standard. While I am not in the market
>currently, are access points routinely sold such that anything in range can connect?
>
>It seems to me that in apartment complexes anyone using wireless access point
>would be very vulnerable in these circumstances with lots of other apartments in
>close proximity.
>
>Crash.



Its fully up to the user to set up the security, even a little Sony PSP has
that..

Crash wrote:
> My Son recently bought a laptop for his contracting work in London. It
> came equipped with a wireless lan card which he thought might be useful
> in the future when he and his mates get broadband installed at their
> apartment. The NIC is used at work. He took it home after buying it
> and was bemused to discover an available network when he fired it up.
> Sop someone else in the apartment must have an open access point.
>
> I would have thought that when buying wireless lan gear there would be
> at least basic security on access points. Google reveals several
> security implementations with the IEEE 802.11 standard. While I am not
> in the market currently, are access points routinely sold such that
> anything in range can connect?

Yes, many are open by default. You know the old problem -
functionality/features over security.

> It seems to me that in apartment complexes anyone using wireless access
> point would be very vulnerable in these circumstances with lots of other
> apartments in close proximity.

Vulnerable to what tho? Personally if it was me I would lock it down
and make it secure, but really what are you trying to protect against.
Here in NZ we would be worried because we of the $$$ implications
because we pay per/MB for bandwidth. When you have a flatrate upstream
I can see why "security" is less of an issue.

Some residents in apartment blocks I know of overseas leave their WLANs
open, to share the love around.

Cheers
Nathan

Crash wrote:
[snip]
> Sop someone else in the apartment must have an open access point.
[snip]

Should have read 'So someone else in the apartment block must have an open
access point'...

Crash

XP wrote:

> Its fully up to the user to set up the security, even a little Sony PSP has
> that..

How do you install the SSL certs into it to authenticate for 802.1x?

Nathan Mercer wrote:
> Crash wrote:
[snip]

>> It seems to me that in apartment complexes anyone using wireless
>> access point would be very vulnerable in these circumstances with lots
>> of other apartments in close proximity.
>
>
> Vulnerable to what tho? Personally if it was me I would lock it down
> and make it secure, but really what are you trying to protect against.
> Here in NZ we would be worried because we of the $$$ implications
> because we pay per/MB for bandwidth. When you have a flatrate upstream
> I can see why "security" is less of an issue.
>
> Some residents in apartment blocks I know of overseas leave their WLANs
> open, to share the love around.

I was thinking of the per MB usage because of data caps here - but also just the
simple degradation of performance. Even if the broadband connection speed was
'8 megs burstable' sharing it with unknown others would degrade performance both
down and up.

Crash.

On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 20:59:36 +1300, Nathan Mercer wrote:

> Crash wrote:
>> My Son recently bought a laptop for his contracting work in London. It
>> came equipped with a wireless lan card which he thought might be useful
>> in the future when he and his mates get broadband installed at their
>> apartment. The NIC is used at work. He took it home after buying it
>> and was bemused to discover an available network when he fired it up.
>> Sop someone else in the apartment must have an open access point.
>>
>> I would have thought that when buying wireless lan gear there would be
>> at least basic security on access points. Google reveals several
>> security implementations with the IEEE 802.11 standard. While I am not
>> in the market currently, are access points routinely sold such that
>> anything in range can connect?
>
> Yes, many are open by default. You know the old problem -
> functionality/features over security.
>
>> It seems to me that in apartment complexes anyone using wireless access
>> point would be very vulnerable in these circumstances with lots of other
>> apartments in close proximity.
>
> Vulnerable to what tho? Personally if it was me I would lock it down and
> make it secure, but really what are you trying to protect against. Here in
> NZ we would be worried because we of the $$$ implications because we pay
> per/MB for bandwidth. When you have a flatrate upstream I can see why
> "security" is less of an issue.
>
> Some residents in apartment blocks I know of overseas leave their WLANs
> open, to share the love around.
>
> Cheers
> Nathan

My biggest worry is if the person who gains access to an unsecured WLAN
then goes on to use that internet connection to commit a crime, the first
port of call the police will make is to the owners of the WLAN. Although
this should be quickly cleared up, its more than a slight inconvenience.
That and youve aided (unwittingly) the criminal to hide his tracks

--
Hardware, n.: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked

The best way to get the right answer on usenet is to post the wrong one.

Shane wrote:
> My biggest worry is if the person who gains access to an unsecured WLAN
> then goes on to use that internet connection to commit a crime, the first
> port of call the police will make is to the owners of the WLAN. Although
> this should be quickly cleared up, its more than a slight inconvenience.
> That and youve aided (unwittingly) the criminal to hide his tracks

Vote with your wallet for hardware that is secure by default.

Shane wrote:
> On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 20:59:36 +1300, Nathan Mercer wrote:
>
>
>>Crash wrote:
>>
>>>My Son recently bought a laptop for his contracting work in London. It
>>>came equipped with a wireless lan card which he thought might be useful
>>>in the future when he and his mates get broadband installed at their
>>>apartment. The NIC is used at work. He took it home after buying it
>>>and was bemused to discover an available network when he fired it up.
>>>Sop someone else in the apartment must have an open access point.
>>>
>>>I would have thought that when buying wireless lan gear there would be
>>>at least basic security on access points. Google reveals several
>>>security implementations with the IEEE 802.11 standard. While I am not
>>>in the market currently, are access points routinely sold such that
>>>anything in range can connect?
>>
>>Yes, many are open by default. You know the old problem -
>>functionality/features over security.
>>
>>
>>>It seems to me that in apartment complexes anyone using wireless access
>>>point would be very vulnerable in these circumstances with lots of other
>>>apartments in close proximity.
>>
>>Vulnerable to what tho? Personally if it was me I would lock it down and
>>make it secure, but really what are you trying to protect against. Here in
>>NZ we would be worried because we of the $$$ implications because we pay
>>per/MB for bandwidth. When you have a flatrate upstream I can see why
>>"security" is less of an issue.
>>
>>Some residents in apartment blocks I know of overseas leave their WLANs
>>open, to share the love around.
>>
>>Cheers
>>Nathan
>
>
> My biggest worry is if the person who gains access to an unsecured WLAN
> then goes on to use that internet connection to commit a crime, the first
> port of call the police will make is to the owners of the WLAN. Although
> this should be quickly cleared up, its more than a slight inconvenience.
> That and youve aided (unwittingly) the criminal to hide his tracks
>

Hell no; you might even have helped by collecting evidence. APs often
log access and identify the MAC of the connected system. Could be useful.

-=rjh=- wrote:
>
> Hell no; you might even have helped by collecting evidence. APs often
> log access and identify the MAC of the connected system. Could be useful.

Its not like mac addresses cant be changed!