Communal Broadband
Neighbors sharing high speed internet
Back to Digital Equity
Schools save money sharing broadband connection
SOUTH KOREA has broadband multiple times faster than the U.S. As does FRANCE! But, our government says leave it to the open market. So, there's no investment and focus is on making more money with what the providers have already got. Let me spell it out to you. This video revolution on the Web? Not gonna happen. It's already crippled. Because the pipe isn't FAT ENOUGH! And that's bad for the economy. Time Warner is limited in what it can make because not enough people can watch enough of their shows online. THAT'S why we need fatter pipe.
COMMUNAL BROADBRAND
Neighbors sharing high speed Internet access via wireless
networks is popular and controversial
Summary
Finding online groups such as the Bay Area Wireless User Group, Tim Pozar
is the co-founder to swap ideas on how to do it. He shares his wireless
network and DSL connection with his next- door neighbor and a friend two
blocks away, using a directional antenna atop his three-story Sunset District
home in San Francisco.
The technology that enables this sharing is 802.11, also known as Wi-Fi,
which can be found in such consumer products as Apple's AirPort, Lucent's
Orinoco and Intel's AnyPoint II Wireless Home Networking Kit. With a range
of little more than 100 feet, the gear is designed to help users wirelessly
connect their broadband-linked desktop computer to laptops, PDAs or other
peripherals such as printers and scanners. The current encryption standard
on Wi-Fi networks -- known as Wired Equivalent Privacy, or WEP -- has been broken, hacking into a wireless network is "really, really easy. An 802.11 industry group will announce a fix to the WEP security problems. Hackers can tap into the wireless network bandwidth, and can
look through files in your hard drive -- a dangerous proposition, especially
if the user keeps such information as bank account and credit card numbers
on the computer. There are ways to keep people out of the computer files
-- such as instructing your OS to not share files.
If
you attach an external antenna, the range can easily go beyond just a
couple of hundred feet.The cost of setting up such networks is about $300
to $400.The
network typically has one access point device tethered to a desktop computer
and uses radio signals to communicate with other computers or devices.
wifi security
WEP uses 40-bit keys because they were the largest available in exportable products until EFF's lawsuit cracked the unconstitutional export controls. Securing wireless networks has always been a second priority to making it trivial for the government to illegally wiretap them. This tension isn't going to go away.
wifi hotspots
wifi phones
802.11a:
First Glimpse
It's
finally in silicon. The long-awaited 54Mbps technology that's expected
to light up the 5GHz radio spectrum is available and being tested by at
least one chip supplier and its customers. Now, the lively - and hitherto
theoretical - debate on the relative
capabilities of 802.11a and 802.11b can be waged on the basis of real-world
observation. Bell
Labs Develops Global Roaming Software Researchers at Bell Labs announced a software breakthrough they say will
enable global roaming across all wireless network types, including 3G.
The software architecture, called Common Operations (COPS), will allow
subscribers to access voice and data services, information and messages
when they roam, even in regions where different networks predominate.
Mobile operators will be able to upgrade and manage their networks more
efficiently, to improve operational performance, and to reduce errors
and expenses. COPS reportedly provides a generic interface to key HLR
functions, translating user data and signaling technologies from cellular
protocols to IP and back automatically.
Cipher
attack delivers heavy blow to WLAN security
A new report dashes any remaining illusions that 802.11-based
(Wi-Fi) wireless local-area networks are in any way secure. The paper,
written by three of the world's foremost cryptographers, describes a devastating
attack on the RC4 cipher, on which the WLAN wired-equivalent privacy (WEP)
encryption scheme is based. The
passive network attack takes advantage of several weaknesses in the key-scheduling algorithm of RC4 and allows almost anyone with a WLAN-enabled
laptop and some readily available "promiscuous" network software
to retrieve a network's key - thereby gaining full user access - in less
than 15 minutes.
Flaw
in Popular Wireless Standard
New computer security flaws have been discovered in a popular wireless local area networking standard increasingly used by both corporations and consumers. The flaws could make it possible for an intruder who is physically close to a wireless computer network to masquerade as a legitimate user in a supposedly private network. The issue is a crucial one, computer security experts said, because wireless computing networks are rapidly being deployed in corporate offices, potentially giving access to corporate networks that have in the past been physically protected by lock and key. The new research comes on the heels of a report last year by an Intel Corporation researcher, followed by similar research done earlier this year by computer scientists at the University of California at Berkeley, both describing weaknesses in the data-scrambling technique used in the wireless standard known as 802.11B.
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It's hard to tell whether these things are a threat or an opportunity for ISPs. I'm talking about community wireless networks using inexpensive 802.11b radios and antennas operating in the 2.4 GHz spectrum band, and possibly other license-free bands. http://www.isp-planet.com/fixed_wireless/business/2001/wifi_freenets.html
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Wireless
Networks in Big Trouble By Michelle Delio
http://www.wired.com/News/wireless/0,1382,46187,00.html
2:20 p.m. Aug. 20, 2001 PDT
Wireless
networks are a little less secure today with the public release of "AirSnort,"
(http://airsnort.sourceforge.net/) a tool that can surreptitiously grab
and analyze data moving across just about every major wireless network.
When enough information has been captured, AirSnort can then piece together
the system's master password. In
other words, hackers and/or eavesdroppers using AirSnort can justgrab
what they want from a company's database wirelessly, out of thin air.
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Ford
Talks Up Bluetooth Car
Ford is working to equip its cars and trucks with Bluetooth technology to let passengers make phone calls, play video games and browse the Internet without using their hands, a company engineer said. It would take the next car manufacturing cycle -- "three to five years" -- before Ford implements Bluetooth in its cars and trucks. Bluetooth is a tiny radio that lets devices within 30 feet of each other communicate wirelessly. The radio is currently embedded in some high-end cell phones, laptop computers and access points. Next year a wireless company, MobileAria , will become the first to sell a Bluetooth car kit that enables drivers to make phone calls, check their schedules and listen to online news. However, MobileAria, like most companies in the industry, said Bluetooth will become an essential component of future cars.
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Public
Space Wi-Fi's Transforming Event 12/20/01
The face of public space wireless service changes Thursday as Sky Dayton, founder of the dial-up Internet service provider Earthlink, launches Boingo Wireless. Boingo will build no hot spots. Instead, they are aggregating the network infrastructure of other companies and wrapping it up through a single user account, a single bill, and a single set of pricing. Dayton summarized the new firm's thrust: "Boingo Wireless is a non-infrastructure wireless ISP." Their initial launch includes over 750 hot spots; Dayton estimates Boingo will encompass 5,000 by the end of 2002. The company did not announce partner networks, but Dayton said that their partners currently represent about 90 percent of hot spots outside of the MobileStar network. (MobileStar filed for bankruptcy in early December 2001; VoiceStream had a proposal to acquire its assets in early January 2002.) http://80211b.weblogger.com/
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*WEP
PATCH NOW AVAILABLE 12/20/01
By Shawna McAlearney
Users of the inherently insecure Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol
caught a break last Friday when a partnership between RSA Security and
Hifn produced a patch for the beleaguered protocol. Designed to encrypt
communications transferred over standard 802.11 wireless networks, WEP
uses encryption keys that are too similar to each other, making it relatively
easy for someone to compromise the codes.
"Fast
Packet Keying," a new technology based on the RC4 algorithm, is designed
to secure the WEP encryption standard by generating a unique key for each
data packet sent over the wireless LAN. It's designed to avoid the similarities
in the packet keys by providing a rapid way to derive unrelated RC4 keys
from a shared secret.
<http://www.rsasecurity.com/News/pr/011217-2.html>
<http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/index.html>
and...
"RSA Security Unveils WEP Security Breakthrough", "RSA
Beefs Up Wireless
Security" and "RSA Announces Fix for Wireless Hole"
The Wireless LAN encryption announcement made by RSAS on Monday:
http://www.rsasecurity.com/News/pr/011217-2.html .
This announcement was covered as breaking news on many wireless and internet technology websites World Wide.
US Coverage:
CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/Internet/12/17/rsa.security.reut/index.html
Government Computer News:
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/17644-1.html
eWeek:
http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D1884%2526a%253D20139,00.asp
InformationWeek: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20011217S0003
RCR Wireless News: http://www.rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=1528
InfoWorld:
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/12/17/011217hnwep.xml
80211 Planet:
http://www.80211-planet.com/News/article/0,4000,1481_941531,00.html
Developer News:
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article/0,,10_941531,00.html
CNet : http://news.cnet.com/News/0-1004-200-8206343.html?tag=ch_mh
Asia Pacific:
Asia.Internet.com:
http://asia.internet.com/briefs/article/0,3916,4141_941931,00.html
Japan:
ZDnet Japan: http://www.zdnet.co.jp/News/0112/19/b_1218_14.html
ComputerWorld Japan:
http://www.computerworld.jp/contents/free/200112/20011218ieee.html
EMEA:
The Register UK: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/23447.html
ROL in Russia: http://www.rol.ru/News/it/News/01/12/18_016.htm
Internet Planet Netherlands
http://www.planet.nl/multimedia2/0,1674,101_1499_255655,00.html
Delitos Informaticos.com
http://www.delitosinformaticos.com/noticias/100862760222347.shtml
Information Security:
http://www.informationsecurityworld.com/Tmpl/article.asp?CID=16&AID=10884&TC
ode=NW&T1=19/12/2001