[ltp] Please help me pick out my next thinkpad

James Knott linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:00:00 -0400


Christos Papadopoulos wrote:
> First, I want to thank everyone for their input to my original
> question, it's been very educational.
>
> On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 07:16:58AM -0400, James Knott wrote:
>   
>> Tim Prince wrote:
>>     
>>> Theodore Tso wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> I have an X61s with the 4965, and the iwl4965 works just fine for me.
>>>> I think some folks have reported problems with WPA support with the
>>>> iwl4965, but in general I rarely have needed WPA/WPA2 support, so I
>>>> can't speak to that.
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> I have used WPA from the beginning, not that anyone would mooch off a 
>>> typical American sub-megabit connection.
>>>       
>> I know of someone who "borrows" his neighbour's internet connection, via 
>> WiFi.  I also recall reading in the news a while ago, about someone 
>> who'd drive around looking for an open WiFi internet connection and use 
>> it to get kiddie porn.  If any illegal activity gets traced back to you, 
>> you could have significant problems.
>>     
>
> You might want to read this.
> http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wireles.html
>
> Bruce Schneier is a well-known security expert and he runs an open
> wireless at home. Most comments to his posting disagreed with him. I
> happen to agree. Interesting read.
>   

There is one other aspect. Some ISPs charge according to use. In my 
case, my plan includes a limit, which I only use a small fraction of. 
However, should I go over, I'll find an extra charge on my next bill. 
So, leaving my WiFi open could cost me money. As for security, as Bruce 
Schneier mentions, it's not perfect. For that reason, I use WPA and 
place the WiFi connection outside of my network. The only way to connect 
through the firewall is to use SSH or OpenVPN. Both require an 
appropriate key and I don't allow password access SSH on my firewall.



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