The other good reason for waiting for 802.11g is that the 802.11b standard has a very weak WEP implementation and I believe the g standard will correct that. What I know about the 802.11b standard is that there are two WEP encryption levels, 64 and 128 bit (actually less because there is a 24 bit table of seed values). Although you will hear people say that using WEP is useless, the truth is that not using WEP means you're running a wide open network. Anyone with a Pringles can antenna and a wireless card can participate in your wireless setup from as far as a couple of miles away. The Orinoco PCMCIA cards have antenna connectors built into them. The 64 bit WEP supposedly requires about 15 minutes worth of packet traffic for a cracker to exploit while the 128 bit flavor takes 15 hours of traffic. There are already proprietary solutions. I believe Cisco is using a dynamic keying mechanism to change keys every 5 minutes or so. That means that cracking their setup would be very difficult. The problem is that it's a proprietary solution and only works when you are using their hardware exclusively.
Of course if someone is really determined to crack your systems they can probably manage it but I don't think it's wise to leave the door completely open. -Alex ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Hall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Kenneth E. Lussier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 10:24 AM Subject: Re: Speaking of wireless > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: > > I was just looking at some SMC gear. They have a new 802.11b WAP/ > > Firewall called the "Barricade Turbo" that does 22MBit/sec (if you > > have cards that will do it), and it has 256-bit WEP encryption. > > I saw this and it looked hot. On the other hand I have the "Barricade", and > I am saving my pennies for the 802.11g product, which I am sure they will > upgrade whatever is in the "Barricade Turbo" to have the same features, but > just be faster and compatible. > > SMC updates their micro-code, and I have downloaded it and updated it no > problem. > > md > -- > ============================================================================ = > Jon "maddog" Hall > Executive Director Linux International(SM) > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. > Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. > WWW: http://www.li.org > > Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association > > (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. > (SM)Linux International is a service mark of Linux International, Inc. > > _______________________________________________ > gnhlug-discuss mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss > _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
