[ubuntu-uk] wifi mini-survey

[Matthew Daubney]

Tom Bamford wrote:
> Mac wrote:
>   
>> Do you use Ubuntu on a laptop + wifi?
>>
>> And, if you do, do you use
>>
>> no encryption / WEP / WPA / WPA2
>>
>> with ESSID broadcast / hidden?
>>   
>>     
> Thinkpad with an Atheros 5212 a/b/g mini-PCI card running Madwifi-ng 
> drivers. I use WPA (TKIP) and WPA2 (AES) with a nice long passphrase. 
> SSID is set to broadcast because it's pointless trying to hide it. 
> Anyone with a bit of knowledge can see you lit up as soon as your AP or 
> your clients send a few packets.
>
> I see a couple of people use WEP or no encryption whatsoever. You must 
> be mad! No encryption is asking for it: not only can people access your 
> network, but you are essentially _giving_ away your personal information 
> by broadcasting it in every direction for several hundred metres.
>
> WEP is not much better. I've cracked all my neighbours networks (7 of 
> them) in less than a day using open software from the repos (purely a 
> field exercise of course). It's astonishingly easy to break a WEP 
> network and it can be done from a wide radius merely by having your 
> router switched on - you don't necessarily have to be sending/receiving 
> any data. You might think no-one will target you, but they will. Watch 
> your router activity LED very carefully...
>
> http://aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=tutorial
> http://www.cdc.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/aircrack-ptw/
> http://www.kismetwireless.net/documentation.shtml
>
> Tom
>
>
>   
There are 2 reasons I use WEP.
1. The Wii is a pig to set up with WPA
2. If someone really wants to break in, I doubt WPA would stop them.

It's really just something there to deter people when there are easier 
targets around really.

-Matt Daubney