[talk] USB wireless: a quick note

[Jim B.]

[snip]
> 
> Utterly foolish attempt at "security"... I mean, is this a measure
> against someone swapping your wireless card?  Was there some wave of
> this happening at some point?  Childish. . .
> 
> g


Interesting that you mention that.  That exact thing happened at
a project where I was the project lead.  A certain consultant had
performed an unauthorized command on a production router, screwing
up the network during the day (this was at Cablevision back about
2000). It was serious enough that the CV network staff traced
through logs to find out who had done this dastardly deed. 

The certain consultant became aware of what they were doing for
discovery and he then went and swapped out his wireless card
(PCMCIA in those days) with another consultant's card - but was
observed doing so and he mumbled that he needed to "test his
wireless for a couple of days".  

The network staff identified the card and PC now belonging to the
innocent consultant and accused him of disrupting the network.
A large argument started, and it then came out that the network
card had just been replaced by the guilty consultant.

Larger argument began including me with the guilty consultant.

It didn't end well. Guilty consultant was immediately removed
from the premesis and the project, but for reasons obscure to me
was not fired.

But that was a long time ago in a data center far, far away....


Jim B.