[lug] wireless points in Boulder

Ferdinand Schmid fschmid at archenergy.com
Thu Apr 11 11:12:02 MDT 2002


John Hernandez wrote:
> 
> I know this is an older thread -- I saved the original message a while
> back with the intention of replying sooner.  In case anyone is
> interested...
> 
> A while ago I stumbled across a way of deploying inherently insecure
> wireless networks with at least a bit of confidence.  Essentially, you
> can use a Linux box as an "authentication gateway/router" to
> compartmentalize potentially untrusted users at the network layer.
> 
> To WEP or not is essentially still the admins' and users' collective
> decision, and is not directly related to the authentication issue
> tackled here.  Personally, I tend to rely strictly on end-to-end (ssh,
> SSL) encryption for sensitive data, not trusting the intermediary
> networks to do this for me.
> 
This is how I have used 802.11b in the past.  Initially I had hoped to
use it for Windows users at our office but due to the security problems
this never happened.  Doing proper authentication and encryption that is
transparent to Windows (and its users) isn't trivial and totally cheap
;)  So my access point remains strictly an admin ssh tool.

Ferdinand
-- 
Ferdinand Schmid
Architectural Energy Corporation
Celebrating 20 Years of Improving Building Energy Performance
http://www.archenergy.com



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