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.
---------------------
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
---------------------
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.
--------------------
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.
--------------------
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/
--------------------
*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