[ltp] Re: Managing network connections

[linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org]

On Wed, 17 Aug 2005, Daniel Pittman wrote:

> honey@gneek.com writes:
>> Unfortunately, I think most even casual hackers will be using Linux,
>> and the tool of choice for quick scanning will be kismet, which will
>> detect wireless nets with cloaked SSID immediately.  To quote the
>> article at:
>
> Nah:  the most casual of hackers are the people who turn on their
> system, pick the first available access point with a default
> configuration and no security, and then use it.

Well, that's not really someone I'd define as a hacker who might do
harm or know how to snoop on non-encrypted traffic, or even someone who
is intent on borrowing bandwidth - it's just someone who doesn't really
get it and clicks til it works.  In my neighbourhood there's usually
either 0 or 1 AP in range from a neighbour (we're a binary kind of
neighbourhood) so a teenager next door wouldn't be able to move on to
another AP. Instead they'd google and come up with the answer in 5
minutes.

True it might deter a Windows user driving by who only knows to use
Netstumbler, but I worry about the false sense of security any talk
of cloaked SSIDs and MAC filtering promotes.  I think cloaking your
SSIDs also causes problems for Windows zero-conf stuff if there's
a non-cloaked one in range (it's a linux list! I know it's a linux
list), or did until SP2?  And can slow down your network and prevent
transfer between APs, if you have more than one (I do).  But I'm sure
others here know more about it than me.