[ale] wireless sanity/security check

[thehead at patshead.com (Pat Regan)]

On 01/03/2010 11:10 PM, wolf at wolfhalton.info wrote:
> What is the solid range of 802.11a..g?  or even 802.11n??  50 ft radius?
> Way out to 100ft radius maybe.
> You would probably notice a new tent (probably with a generator beside
> it or an extension cord running into your garage) in your yard.

That might be the limit with your stock antenna and transmitter.  This 
'sniper rifle' wifi antenna claims to be able to connect at 10 miles:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/03/wi-fi_aerial_gun/

DIY pringles cantennas are cheap and get great range.

> If you route the cables discretely, your wives probably wouldn't
> complain too long.

I'm sure not going to haul a cable out every time I want to take the 
laptop out to the couch.  Wifi also comes in handy for our cell phones.

> Put your WAP on a VLAN that has no access to the wired core, and then
> your (legitimate) guests can surf the web
> without bringing weird stuff home to the core.

As far as I know, the only attacks on WPA2+AES are brute force 
dictionary attacks.  If you have a strong random password and disable 
TKIP you should be in very good shape.

Pat