Wireless

Now that you have installed Kismet (In a previous chapter of the book), you are ready to begin configuring and using it on your Linux distribution of choice. Unlike NetStumbler, which is basically ready to use once it is installed, Kismet requires some post-installation configuration in order to be functional. This chapter will detail that post-installation configuration.

First, we’ll take a look at installing and configuring the Global Positioning System Daemon (GPSD) for use with Kismet.

Using the Global Positioning System Daemon (GPSD) with Kismet

With three types of Wi-Fi "802.11" technology to choose from for wireless Internet access, and more on the way, which one is best for a new laptop?

First there was 802.11b, the clunky technical name for the wireless technology which made Wi-Fi a must-have for laptops.

Then came versions 802.11g and 802.11a. Letter "n" is coming. And back in the lab, the Wi-Fi wizards are working on "e," "r," "s" and "t."

There's now an alphabet soup of Wi-Fi choices for a new laptop, as well as competing brands and worries that future versions may render a young PC obsolete.

Setting up a wireless computer network at home has never been easier or cheaper. But the freedom to access the internet from anywhere in or around the house comes at a cost: Wi-Fi networks leave home computer users open to unprecedented levels of security breaches.

Security-minded US decorators' supply outfit Force Field Wireless claims to have developed a DIY solution to the international menace of marauding geek wardrivers - DefendAir paint "laced with copper and aluminum fibers that form an electromagnetic shield, blocking most radio waves and protecting wireless networks".

It's clear that 2005 will be the make or break year for WiMAX. Every wireless chip and equipment maker of note bar Qualcomm is now part of the WiMAX Forum; the planned harmonization of 802.16e with Korea’s Wi-Bro could create the first unified global standard for both fixed and mobile communications; WiMAX could quite realistically be the basis, in later iterations, of 4G.

The number of Koreans using wireless Internet services has surpassed 14 million, according to a survey conducted by the National Internet Development Agency of Korea (NIDA) that was published Thursday.

The results of the survey taken in September on 3,103 households across the nation revealed that among mobile phone subscribers over the age of 12, 14.5 million, or 40.2 percent, have used the wireless Internet at least once over the last six months.

NIDA explained that this represented a 4.1 percentage points increase, or 2.54 million people, from June 2003.

The wireless network as a computing paradigm has brought unprecedented access, flexibility and usability to the I.T. environment in a relatively short time. When one considers that the “conventional” computing environment of an enclosed mainframe system accessed exclusively by hard wired terminals, evolved over a period of 30+ years. Such slow growth of an I.T. system allowed for a maturing of the implementation plan and the time to develop adequate security measures.

On a trip on the Tokyo subway last year, almost everyone ignored the young man talking on one wireless phone, messaging with another and juggling a third.

Such cell phone overload would almost certainly get noticed in the United States, which lags the rest of the developed world in wireless use.

An estimated 57 percent of the U.S. population chats on wireless phones -- not much greater than the percentage of wireless phone users in much poorer Jamaica, where 54 percent of the people have mobile phones, according to the International Telecommunications Union.

This article is the first of a two-part series that looks at the new generation of WEP cracking tools for WiFi networks, which offer dramatically faster speeds for penetration testers over the previous generation of tools. In many cases, a WEP key can be determined in seconds or minutes. Part one, below, compares the latest KoreK based tools that perform passive statistical analysis and brute-force cracking on a sample of collected WEP traffic.

German company Siemens has shown what it claims to be the fastest-ever wireless network connection.

The demonstration at its Munich laboratories on Tuesday reached speeds of 1GB per second, 20 times faster than 802.11g, thanks to a combination of new OFDM techniques and multi-in, multi-out (MIMO) antenna technology.