A great idea I think for improving security

My neighbours next door have a dlink access point which is set to
factory defaults. they are not tech savvy and i could easily connect to
their network and use their internet connection at will - if i so
desired.

the only way they would know i was on the network was looking at the
DHCP table on the access point (impossible given their lack of
techspertise) or they could do a scan of the subnet by doing a
broadcast ping or using a subnet scanner.

again this is unlikey given their level of knowledge.

so how about an LCD display on the access point which tells them how
many clients are connected and updates with an audible and visual
signal when a new client connects ?

just a thought,

sam1967 wrote:
> My neighbours next door have a dlink access point which is set to
> factory defaults. they are not tech savvy and i could easily connect to
> their network and use their internet connection at will - if i so
> desired.
>
> the only way they would know i was on the network was looking at the
> DHCP table on the access point (impossible given their lack of
> techspertise) or they could do a scan of the subnet by doing a
> broadcast ping or using a subnet scanner.
>
> again this is unlikey given their level of knowledge.
>
> so how about an LCD display on the access point which tells them how
> many clients are connected and updates with an audible and visual
> signal when a new client connects ?
>
> just a thought,
>
Or... how about helping them to enable security on their access point???

Bob

every one ? all 100 million wireless users ?
do you think that is a job for one man ?

my neighbours are merely illustratory of the wider issue.

On 29 Jul 2005 10:06:03 -0700, "sam1967" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>My neighbours next door have a dlink access point which is set to
>factory defaults. they are not tech savvy and i could easily connect to
>their network and use their internet connection at will - if i so
>desired.
>
>the only way they would know i was on the network was looking at the
>DHCP table on the access point (impossible given their lack of
>techspertise) or they could do a scan of the subnet by doing a
>broadcast ping or using a subnet scanner.
>
>again this is unlikey given their level of knowledge.
>
>so how about an LCD display on the access point which tells them how
>many clients are connected and updates with an audible and visual
>signal when a new client connects ?
>
>just a thought,

Actually, not a bad idea. I was thinking of some kind of similar
display for coffee shop hot spots. I ranted on the subject a while
back but am too lazy to google for the posting. Detecting new
connections could be done by sniffing the ethernet traffic, but that's
too much hardware and software to do the job. There are also software
products that currently do just that.

What I was thinking is adding yet another feature to the common WRT54G
Linux based router which would generate some kind of indication. At
its crudest form, it would flash the lights on the front panel. At
best, there would be an external LCD display, connected to the JTAG
port, which would display number of connections, traffic rate, ping
times, internet weather, position of the moon, whatever. For example:
http://www.theforestnetworking.com/hardware.php
The new crop of serial LCD panels are easy to interface. The software
is not much more than grep of the netstat output piped to word count.
The only obvious problems I can see immediately are:
1. You have to destroy your access point to do this.
2. It would raise the cost of the AP substantially.
3. People still tend to ignore small status displays.
4. It's a great solution looking for a problem worth solving.

Argh... I'm late.
--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
AE6KS 831-336-2558

> so how about an LCD display on the access point which tells them how
> many clients are connected and updates with an audible and visual
> signal when a new client connects ?

As a concept fine but why bother? If security was such that you were
limiting it directly then there's no need for any sort of display.

This is the whole area where wireless is muddled, various forms of
encryption, various forms of authentication, not all are compatible such
that you end up at the weakest once again which is no security or WEP
which is also no security or WPA which could be weak security depending
on strength of key chosen but the weak point there is the human
interface which isn't compatible with strong keys.

David.