Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 18:20:23 -0700 From: Scott Weikart <scott@igc.org> To: richard childers / kg6hac <fscked@pacbell.net>, Wilko Bulte <wkb@freebie.xs4all.nl> Cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Hams Report 85-mile 802.11b File Transfers @ Oregon Message-ID: <04041418202302.02486@sandino.dnsalias.org> In-Reply-To: <407DE084.5000104@pacbell.net> References: <407D7323.50001@pacbell.net> <20040414202039.GA1217@freebie.xs4all.nl> <407DE084.5000104@pacbell.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wednesday 14 April 2004 6:08 pm, richard childers / kg6hac wrote: > Put another way, the area equals pi times the radius, squared ... so the > number of people who have the theoretical opportunity to passively crack > your wireless network increases, dramatically, with each increment of > distance from the center. True. > You can pack an awful lot of people into a circle with a radius of 85 miles > ... that's 170 miles, diametrically. Probably irrelevant. We're still presuming that 85 miles only worked because two directional antennas were aimed at each other. When you're trying to snoop a mostly-omnidirectional antenna, your relevant radius is much smaller. [NOTE: I still wouldn't advocate that anyone rely on WEP, and I'm not sure LEAP can be relied on either; and WPA needs good keys.] -scott > >On Wed, Apr 14, 2004 at 01:05:04PM -0700, Scott Weikart wrote: > > > >Well, I recently tried an old 25" satellite dish and a biquad feeder > >and we easily 'saw' APs at 3-4 miles away. Without trying anything fancy. > >You need line of sight to the AP in most cases. Hills help. > > > >>I would assume the hams used directional antennas on both ends, and > >>carefully pointed the antennas at each other. > >> > >>So, this may have little relevance to monitoring people's > >>mostly-omnidirectional wireless LANs. Well, maybe you could so some > >>math to make the ham's numbers scale, but I would guess there are > >>more direct methods to measure/compute risk. > >> > >>-scott
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?04041418202302.02486>