[geeks] Air filter material?

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Thu, Jan 11, 2007 at 08:42:34AM -0600, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> If it ain't broke don't fix it? :^)

Depends upon your definition of broke. To me any wifi network without
encryption is broke. While 40 bit encryption probably can be cracked
in a few minutes, it's enough of a problem to convince people driving
around looking for networks (wardriving) to move on.


> Seriously, my WiFi signal doesn't make it off my property, and while a
> motivated individual could park outside my house, it would be very
> obvious and provoke a call by a neighbor in short order, as we all know
> each other and keep an eye out. Also, there is a bit of security by
> obscurity - my house is far off the beaten track, you have to drive a
> half mile through a corn field (preserved farm land), then choose my
> house from the other houses - and there are wireless networks at most of
> my neighbors houses, by my estimation...

Assuming its not someone with a Pringles can. BTW, that type of antenna
for transmission is illegal in most places, including, AFAIK the U.S.
The person who developed it was an FBI agent in the process of an
investigation so he was "legal".

On the other hand, a small dish antenna would be noticable, but over cornfields,
would probably go 1/2 mile. If someone were to park on the main road with
a camper type RV, move their antenna around (a yagi which looks like a TV
antenna, or a dish), they might be able to connect. 

Sheldon had some interesting posts a while back about a dish antenna and
a large expanse of water. 

> But, in th eend, these arguments all ring hollow when spoken out loud
> (or written down), so the proper answer is most likely sloth. When I
> first installed an access point at home (7 years ago?), I got burned by
> inter-vendor compatibility, and finally stripped all the bells and
> whistles off my connection to get everything to "just work" (my SSID was
> 101 for a long time, since it didn't have any pesky upper/lower case
> issues)...

Mine are much newer, WiFi wasn't legal at all here until November of 2003,
and limited to 5 channels until Dec 2005.

My biggest problem is that for a long time Apple did not give you the
choice between ASCII and Hex keys. ASCII keys are obvious, HEX keys start
with a dollarsign.


> I've done the same thing - even helped a guy out by changing his
> channel since two neighbors were both using CH 6 (Linksys default) they
> were clobbering each other, changed one to CH11 and performance was
> greatly improved... I figured if they saw the change, they'd realize
> someone got on to their network and consider security measures - if not,
> it would make everyone work just a bit better...

No, they probably just figured that what ever it was fixed itself. :-)

BTW, the friend I mentioned before who was looking for an open network
did it with a handheld computer. Not very noticable. 


> As it turns out, the hardware is suspect - the Apple Guru (a decent
> fellow, the Kharmic opposite of Mr. Bill's recent "Guru event"),

That's they way it was supposed to be. We used to have people like Mr Bill's
"friend" here as the norm, but when Job's took back Apple, he listened to
the complaints. They even lowered prices on computers to about $100 over
the U.S. price (plus VAT) instead of doubling them (which included VAT).

Unfortunately they have not done that with iPods, they are twice the U.S.
price.


> I'll be calling Apple later today to negotiate a return/advance swap
> if at all possible...

Good luck.

Does it have a CardBus slot? The Broadcom chipset cards are supported as
if they were built in airport extremes.

Geoff.
 

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