Posts Tagged ‘wep’



Thursday, November 13th, 2008 in General, In the News, WiFi.com by Stuart

Recently two researchers found one of the wifi encrypion standards which was previously not cracked can be overcome when used in conjuction with a feature which improves VOIP using a wifi network. This is a simplified explanation, of course, and without going to extreme detail about the various encryption standards it can now be said a wifi connection may not be safe when using WEP and WPA/WPA2 (TKIP).

Unless you are using a software or hardware package which addresses your security issues, WiFi.com recommends setting up your network using the Advanced Ecryption Standard (AES). If someone really wants to get into your network, they will do it. However, considering the US government uses this standrad for their own networks and it is the b est one can get at this time, you should feel relatively secure using AES for your wifi network.


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Thursday, July 17th, 2008 in General, How-Tos, WiFi.com by admin

When it comes to the 802.11 standard (WiFi), there are two types of security, which can be deployed on the wireless network. The most common and least secure method is Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and the much more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). It is important to note: Independent research conducted by wifi.com staff indicates better than 50% of home-based wireless networks and 40% of wifi hotspot providers do not deploy security measures.

For home-based and most other consumer-grade wireless networks, security is controlled at the access point or router. The current security settings on wifi-capable access points are; none, WEP, WPA, and WPA2. The key difference between WPA and WPA2 is the latter applies an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which has been adopted by the U.S. government.

In general WEP security will keep the average person from using your network. However, in August of 2001 a published article explained how the WEP encryption can be attacked and the passkey recovered in about 10 minutes time. Thus, if someone really wants in, they can gain access to the network and ultimately, your computer.

When securing a home network, wifi.com recommends using the WPA2 (AES) option. With the adoption of the next 802.11 standard (802.11n) the creation of a secure environment using WPA2 (AES) will become easier for the end user.


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Skype Resells Boingo Access in New Mac Beta - Skype has released a beta test version of its Mac OS X that offers per-minute hotspot access: The 2.8 beta, released today, works with Boingo Wireless's worldwide aggregated hotspot footprint to allow metered access. While the example on Skype's blog shows a 19-cent-per-minute charge, it's likely that the metered rate would vary depending on venues. Copyright ©2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.


New York Parks Wi-Fi Shut Down - The company operating Wi-Fi in some New York parks is closing down: Eagle-eyed correspondent Klaus Ernst noted that the Wi-Fi in the parks project has shut down. Wi-Fi Salon, the concessionaire for most of the major parks, posted a message about the current economic conditions, but the note is undated. I was always dubious about Wi-Fi Salon due to the surreal technical explanations made by its founder, its small size and lack of real-world experience, and the extensive delays in every step of the project. Ultimately, something closer to kiosks than coverage were erected, and I've never seen any usage numbers. Community Wi-Fi organizers in New York City had a variety of other ideas about how to offer free Wi-Fi, but parks had its own agenda. Let's see if they approach this differently this time around. Update: Marshall Brown, Wi-Fi Salon's founder, takes issue with my characterization of his operations. No one--especially me--ever claimed that building outdoor networks was easy. From all that's happened in the last few years, it's clear that building large, sustainable, free (sponsored or otherwise) networks requires many stakeholders, a diverse revenue stream, and real purposes for a network beyond public access. Crain's reports on the issue: Possibly prompted by my post (or by Brown's outrage), Crain's New York Business writes about the shut down and Brown's new project, which has put Wi-Fi into Union Square. Brown's new venture, Wired Towns, is talking to business improvement districts about outdoor Wi-Fi across New York City. Copyright ©2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.


The Week Ahead - It's been a slow few weeks in Wi-Fi and wireless land; that should change this week: The holidays were quiet, but both the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Macworld Conference & Expo happen this week, and we'll see some action. I'll be at Macworld starting tomorrow evening; Apple might pull out a surprise. At CES, we're likely to see quite a lot of gadgets and home-networking servers. Copyright ©2009 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.