Schinckel.net

I didn’t originally plan to write a review for this book, but after devouring it in one sitting (I should have gone to sleep…) it did have some points I thought were worth discussing. I do not have a wireless network (I’m still not entirely sure why WiFi - what’s Fidelity got to do with a digital data system?) but I do know a fair bit about TCP/IP networking, and ethernet. My home network is all 100baseT, and all of the cabling & setup was done by me. Chapter 1 was pretty informative - I for one didn’t really know about the incompatibilities between 802.11a & 802.11b, for instance. Chapter 2 was more ‘general networking’ - I for one could have skipped it. I guess if you didn’t know the difference between a router and a hub, or between DHCP & FTP then it would be more useful to you. Chapters 3-6 would realistically be about enough to enable someone to begin hacking a WLAN. Chapter 3 was a bit light on real info - it is more an overview of crackz/warez culture, but the others were chock-full of tips on how to break into a WiFi network. I for one never really thought that connecting to an access point could in itself be somewhat fraught with danger. The remainder of the book deals with virii, WLAN security & troubleshooting. Obviously the point of the book is how to protect a network, and I think there is a lot of stuff that everyone setting up a WLAN should know. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of mis-information, possibly with the exception of changing MAC addresses - I thought this was relatively easy to do! I’m sure even an Xbox can change it’s MAC. It strikes me that some sort of SSL-like system, with keys instead of passwords, would be better. I for one dislike passwords, even though I have a pretty good memory for obscure numbers & combinations of letters. This too could prevent spoofing, by encrypting all data. An attacker would be unable to correctly generate valid packets. I for one would like to see better adoption of encryption & verification across the wired world. In the spirit of this, here is my public PGP key! —–BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—– Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (Darwin) mQGiBEFs64ERBACBdiB0d9kE3xhRG1PqOIpx1BQeRRv8LxNq30Gme6Q2sr4pp7SV ZnAJCXnbM9yphXojycWhEwHHpBxuMrXP5YkWNxK0Vu8/rKZ5eHThCf5My4yRdo41 ATE+oDNVdeAi/AqIR0DGgdhUbJ+wa7az79xMexWInqHXy7aCVKUTTqKLYwCgoTct RmPw67RR4GX33bjSchIVcKUD/jUFvMg52zX70pWq/t1HvrTFIwWXQ0MrTn7GLzyC oyM8miZjpBgWma+Q1Fxk6RAnjfcB+1G7M8FVYmpyjLiEApuAQZPnKm+ljMWu+49s 1BQ6RcHnFH4xke0bR7Uow+HNgiujcQyR21aPBQfBBX4pIz//6zqO9swx9qm25lcr qsKiA/9O+E3HluLRw9IXFUyL4Tt1CJcokxmlE+enN1ItYpxcLTbM/0jvID4A04+m gUr/gG64hbOagAwHK5zgX+S1La4fDMvE5u/+9JcjPB7Wu9bSMNoFnHcYNg36E3m4 5N5onAm9Ug2VY6inGujl9Bb9wX9wF2D+PfwLdbySqGnwXnfTrLQmTWF0dGhldyBT Y2hpbmNrZWwgPG1hdHRAc2NoaW5ja2VsLm5ldD6IYQQTEQIAIQIbAwYLCQgHAwID FQIDAxYCAQIeAQIXgAUCQWz+vgIZAQAKCRBA0AanULPEZ3ZrAKCep0wuxnFe4Y3s Ss4WEAgGvE5/MQCgk/iraP0KLn8UnRKIhqB3WXvEG2aIXgQTEQIAHgUCQWzrgQIb AwYLCQgHAwIDFQIDAxYCAQIeAQIXgAAKCRBA0AanULPEZwjRAKCeGWU+ndSPi8p8 1tPUAUFjhvAolwCdHSikf9vlSpPOqksDgZGe5V0fkT60LE1hdHRoZXcgU2NoaW5j a2VsIDxtYXR0LnNjaGluY2tlbEBnbWFpbC5jb20+iF4EExECAB4FAkFs/tsCGwMG CwkIBwMCAxUCAwMWAgECHgECF4AACgkQQNAGp1CzxGeXDQCgjyXXRbrB9iqB5IAR gaR2As1eYAYAoI/4d2XgY65w60b76txicn/o2oA7tDJNYXR0aGV3IFNjaGluY2tl bCA8bWF0dC5zY2hpbmNrZWxAb3B0dXNuZXQuY29tLmF1PoheBBMRAgAeBQJBbP7x AhsDBgsJCAcDAgMVAgMDFgIBAh4BAheAAAoJEEDQBqdQs8Rn0ZMAn18z/JhbkmTu GD86rY73ynchTUrbAJsEyqnFTe+n7iJg2G3kJQTSmud3RbkBDQRBbOuEEAQAngC+ 5hO8JVx1OogzSR7jeRZ/3vXbvTlUwxpE0q8/oiEtKfCrPbkSvQRGIRRqZVJx6cQ4 318dt4SJmMRRpDK8wuCJzhstW2B+AB/nseZZbozGZ86PT33JB1T3PJ9oN5Lw8eT6 0j5vQX/yExi63sh+pnFfietKSsztbTXHKjFmF1MAAwUD/2ClCxy6IE/G4EgXx2IJ Hah3FFH7kMiR3heFKrx0okS1shJC4WZMIbPatwzTDXH0E9XYOLZG5Jb2cqEZwlL1 o+9aQU1cbtGqTQFAZSbeev0WshZkFePJfC9xIJc96vKAnQWJjRnJH5ZRlpsuCp7A TQnBUQf76uxA3iWGZ5+uTaYliEkEGBECAAkFAkFs64QCGwwACgkQQNAGp1CzxGfb mQCdHEaG/eu1D3ohpAzwKDPUuHe9l0EAn3aG5WGTw311tsrilcoVndsMSJdG =CA7T —–END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—–In closing - this book is almost a must-read for anyone using or developing a wireless network.