Today's 802.11b Networking News is sponsored by FatPort's access point for the rest of us -- FatPoint
The above is a paid, sponsored link. Contact us for more information.
Hats off, gentleman: a work of genius - the NIST draft on wireless network security: a truly remarkable piece of literature from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the draft publication on wireless network security pulls together dozens of threads into a single seamless knit. The document is available in PDF form (download document 800-48 from the drafts page or download it directly as a PDF or zipped PDF). The well-illustrated draft walks through sets of security risks and problems, and includes well-written overviews of 802.11b, Bluetooth, and 2G-3G cellular technologies. Everyone should read this draft immediately and fill holes in their knowledge; comments are being accepted until Sept. 1.
ARCChart analyses Wi-Fi aggregator relationships: ARCChart offers a visual set of connections between the various firms funding and operating wireless aggregation services. A picture is worth a million bytes. Their accompanying analysis has an excellent summary: Hotspots are expensive and complicated to operate if access is paid for - authentication and billing require back-end infrastructure - but if the service is provided for free, it is very cheap, requiring a basic broadband connection and a $100 access point. Add onto that the zero-dollar cost of a NoCat authentication system or a Sputnik node to ensure that users conform to good net usage.
EFF posts friendly sharing ISP list: the Electronic Frontier Foundation made public their page that lists ISPs which either do not prohibit or explicitly allow shared use of bandwidth of a single account in a way that community and free wireless networks require.
BBC talks the chalk: RealMedia format streaming BBC video on warchalking in London. A little sensationalist: one security expert quoted on how people can get into company databases without mentioning that many firms have a variety of security measures that have nothing to do with wireless that would prevent this. Still, maybe that's accurate enough.
