[nycbug-talk] WiFi use liability. . .

[Isaac Levy]

Word,  Grr,

On Apr 21, 2005, at 5:29 PM, George R. wrote:

> On Apr 21, 2005, at 5:21 PM, Isaac Levy wrote:
>
>> On Apr 21, 2005, at 4:55 PM, George R. wrote:
>>
>>> MAC address ACL, WEP/WPA with decent keys, not broadcasting address. 
>>> . . It's not perfect, but it will generally work unless someone 
>>> really knows what they're doing.
>>
>> In all honesty, I've had fairly un-technical clients of mine show me 
>> how exited they were to discover KisMac, so while I agree that 
>> someone has to know what they're doing, and would add that masses of 
>> non-technical people *do* know what they're doing- making MacACL, 
>> WEP, and WPA absolutely worthless.
>>
>> My .02? strategy, open your AP- and use good secure software.
>>
>
> fully aware of the options, as you know. . .
>
> But again, in the majority of cases, using mac acl, wpa/wep and not 
> broadcasting address is adequate to keep a home network operational.
>
> uncrackable?  of course not. . . we've all done mac address sniffing. 
> . .

On Tech:
Oh Gman, I know you know ;)  *BUT*, I'm stating that I have seen that 
the common person who runs MS Word, and can make a Power-Point 
presentation without assistance on their laptop, can, and *DOES*, use 
these tools commonly- esp. in NYC- so I see it as a much greater issue 
than many of *us* realize.

On 'To Open or not to Open, that is the question':
--
With regard to liabilities of what someone does from your IP, I believe 
that the strategy of locking-down/closing an AP is practically bogus, 
for all intents and purposes-

If people don't choose to just openly share alike, we'll see more 
attempts at privatized and even govt. sponsored regulation of roaming 
wifi access, (orginizations like Sputnik, does anyone remember that 
group?!? [they were once upon a time nyc based])- and google says, they 
indeed still exist:
http://www.sputnik.com/

/me shakes my head at all this waste of time hype

--
Part of *why* I think this way is:

I think more important than everyone debating over use of the invisible 
wires, is for uses to emerge that *doe stuff* over the lines, and I see 
closing down the networks, the endless overlapping circles of 
micro-Machiavellian toll-bridge trolls, collecting pennies and fretting 
about wireless uses, inhibiting anyone actualy making this stuff do 
something useful for all of us in society.

As technical people with influence on many levels, let's not let wifi 
turn into a repeat of the last cycle of the telcos, (which to me is 
just another repeat of 14th century Japanese feudalism- violent, 
bloody, micro-warlords using shiny new samurai swords to hack each 
other to bits for a few centuries?)  *Yawn*.

We've hit a point with this technology where I believe it's close to 
the value and price of air- or water- and it's high time we start to do 
interesting and useful things with it all and just let it all rip...  
Mega-mesh topology, anyone? :)

Again, just my .02?

Rocket-
.ike