July 2003
Attack of the Wi-fi Girls - Part II
Your Editor (center) engages in group wi-fi on a snowy winter Boston evening with actor Karen Woodward Massey and Trent Arterberry (non-girl), visiting professional mime. (photo by Rob Massey)
THIS ISSUE:
- Wireless security
- A report from Paris
- Apple's iChat AV
Wireless security (or lack thereof) - the gleeful geeks of SeattleWireless.net sniff my password
Upon my return to the Northwest I drag my laptop computer around looking for free wireless Internet access, better known as wi-fi. The guys at Seattle Wireless network email me about the open wireless signals at the Seattle Mac Store, and the B&O Espresso on Capital Hill. First I have a really nice espresso at the B&O which is a little costly and the wi-fi signal is a little weak, like it's coming from someone's apartment window, but it's nice. Late at night on my way through the city heading north I stop in the Seattle Mac Store's parking lot and turn on my wireless card. There's the signal. I download my email using Eudora and suddenly there's a bit of a hiccup. I pull down the airport card menu and along with the name of the Mac Store's signal, there's one that says, USE WEP YOU FUCKHEAD. I have no idea what WEP is or why I may be a fuckhead, but someone's trying to tell me something. I also wonder, since setting up a home wireless network is so cheap and easy, why there are so very few of them in businesses. So the following Sunday I go to the monthly meeting of Seattle Wireless to ask.
I show up in the funky brick cold storage warehouse meeting space with bakery cookies and my iBook. Most of the guys in attendance have laptop computers open and are on line courtesy of the one base station connected to DSL. It is generally acknowleged that I'm probably not a fuckhead if I bring cookies, so there's one question answered. When I ask about WEP, I get not only a kindly explanation but a demonstration of the power of a sniffer.
I ask them what WEP, or Wired Equivalency Protection, might mean to me. Oh, well, go on line and do a Google search for something, I'm told. I look up goat husbandry and then download my email. "Goat husbandry? And is this your password?" I'm horrified. The network administrator programs are costly but they can intercept any information that flies though the air into or out of your computer's wireless card, much like tuning into your favorite radio station. If your computer sends your password to log into your email and it's not POP3 encrypted (no time to explain that one, but do ask your internet service provider if you have it) then anyone with a sniffer can see it. In my case, if I had gone to my web-based email reader, no one could have sniffed out my password and login. But I didn't.
So the fuckhead and WEP questions answered, I moved on to this one: If setting up a wireless network at home costs $200 plus $40/month for DSL, why don't more businesses offer it? I would go out of my way to patronize a place that does. Their answer: They don't know. It really isn't rocket science to them (but then, rocket science isn't rocket science to them) OR to me. It just hasn't caught on yet. Unless you're French....
A report from Paris
Maud Lynn sent this link about a pilot project providing free wi-fi in Paris (where they call it "wee-fee") and so I sent Ethan out to find out more since he lives there. The Parc de la Villette has a summer project going on through August 31, 2003, including wireless internet access and themed workshops, and loaner laptops. (Of the ten themed gardens you might want to avoid the "Garden of Mists" with your electronic gear.) Every city that considers itself "wired" or high tech should do this same thing.
iChatAV
AOL instant messenger and IRC users know about online chats. They're usually text-based and real time where you type back and forth to someone in another part of the world. The Macintosh iChat program will allow attaching pictures and files which makes collaborating on writing projects easy, and the transcripts can be saved. Apple has added an audio-visual component to iChat, which requires a high-speed connection for either, and a $150 camera for video. The tinny dreadful mic and speaker in most Macintosh computers will allow you to have a voice conversation to anyone else so equipped. It's not exactly flawless or co-axial but it beats the long distance phone bill when all you want to do is goof on a friend in Australia. Doing this using wi-fi is a great deal of fun, but don't do it at the library. It's annoying to others to hear you yammering away.
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