VPN client for OS X

[[AK]The Beast]

Does anyone know of one?

[The Wraith]

Email rance@dwx.com, he's my local OSX guru. Tell him I sent you with the question. I'm sure he can offer some info.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Hi Wraith,
since your around I thought I would throw this question by you....

I have a wireless Linksys router in my house. My computer hooks right up to it, and I have my wife's computer patch in via wireless connection. Everything was fine until the next door neighbor purchased a wireless system, and now when he is on my wife gets inteference from his. It asks her to choose between the two networks.

What can I do about this?
I never would have guess the routers had this much distance...

Thanks,
DD

[The Wraith]

Originally posted by [AK]Devil_Dog
Everything was fine until the next door neighbor purchased a wireless system, and now when he is on my wife gets inteference from his. It asks her to choose between the two networks.

What can I do about this?

Several things. Your access points operate on channels. I believe the default for a Linksys out of the box is 6. You want to stagger your channels in any distributed environment, which most residentials are quickly becomming. Check what channel your access point is configured to use. If it's on Channel 1, move it to 6. If it's on Channel 6, move it to 11. If it's on Channel 11, move it to 1.

If you have OTHER access points on those other frequencies within range, you could ask your neighbor to turn down the broadcasting power of his AP, as it's range is obviously extending beyond his house. If you want a cheap and easy way to find out what access points (and what channels) are in use within your radio range, go to http://netstumbler.com and download NetStumbler. It's a freeware application that will listen for SSID broadcasts. It will report all access points within range and their associated settings, vendor, channel, etc.

I'd recommend moving your channel around, first. The other thing you could do is uniquely configure your wife's computer so that it doesn't scan for "Any SSID", thus it won't ask her to choose. I'd venture to guess your SSID is "Linksys", as is your neighbors. Make your SSID something unique, hard code her NIC to only associate/authenticate to that SSID - and you'll never have a problem with her being prompted.

If you're still overlapping channels you'll suffer performance degredation, collisions, etc. But, on the plus side, you can fire up a wireless sniffer and monitor where your neighbor is surfing. You can watch him check his email. And, if he has poorly configured Windows machines, you can even map drives to his shares and browse all the naked pictures of his wife.

You could then post them on his front door with a little note that says, "KEEP YOUR WIRELESS SIGNALS OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

[[AK]Bribo]

This might be obvious, but don't forget to set up WEP encryption on your wireless access point or router. That will help keep the leachers off your wireless network and keep your data secure.

Ya, Ya... I know. WEP is crackable but you might as well at least TRY to make things more difficult for them.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Originally posted by The Wraith

If you're still overlapping channels you'll suffer performance degredation, collisions, etc. But, on the plus side, you can fire up a wireless sniffer and monitor where your neighbor is surfing. You can watch him check his email. And, if he has poorly configured Windows machines, you can even map drives to his shares and browse all the naked pictures of his wife.

You could then post them on his front door with a little note that says, "KEEP YOUR WIRELESS SIGNALS OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

- ROFL!!!

Thanks for the info Wraith! I will try that out.....

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Originally posted by [AK]Bribo
This might be obvious, but don't forget to set up WEP encryption on your wireless access point or router. That will help keep the leachers off your wireless network and keep your data secure.

Ya, Ya... I know. WEP is crackable but you might as well at least TRY to make things more difficult for them.

Thanks Bribo! Where do I go to get this?

[The Wraith]

Originally posted by [AK]Devil_Dog
Thanks Bribo! Where do I go to get this?

Of course, there are lots of resources and everyone has their favorites, but here is a link to a document entitled, "Wireless Networking Basic Security Checklist".

Enjoy.

http://www.michiganwireless.org/tool...AN_Sec_Biz.pdf

http://forums.netstumbler.com/showth...?threadid=6492

WiFi FAQ
http://forums.netstumbler.com/showth...?threadid=5325

Techtarget.com 802.11 Learning Guide
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.c...?offer=news4.8

Or, you could also buy some books:







Each of these books are very thin. 1/4 of an inch thick, at most.

[The Wraith]

Originally posted by The Wraith
Email rance@dwx.com, he's my local OSX guru. Tell him I sent you with the question. I'm sure he can offer some info.

I just realized, Beast and Faxman will probably remember Rance. Hell, he was in the DK many moons ago.

[[AK]Devil_Dog]

Thanks again Wraith!!!

[[AK]The Beast]

Sure I remember the one and only Rev. Rance..."he ain't the hammer!" Thanks for the tip, Wraith, I'll drop him a line and ask him.

[The Wraith]

THE HAMMER!

[the wolffman]

wraith, i have a question for you. i've read from various sources that wireless security is a joke. they claim a secured wireless network is still easy to penetrate compared to a wired network; just use wardriving tools to figure out the ssid channel, wep encryption, and the mac address filter.

i'd like to know your take on this.

[The Wraith]

My take is, they're absolutely correct. WEP is crackable, it's just a matter of how many packets you need to sniff and how much time that will take. Bottom line is, you shouldn't use wireless networking for any data that is confidential. It's one thing to use it at home, to use it at a Starbucks, but it is not a network that you want confidential customer data running over, etc.

MAC filters are probably the best defense, but they are also easily circumvented by anyone who knows how to read the decode of a sniff dump. Which, isn't rocket science.

WiFi = convenient networking. It's security is swiss cheese.

[[AK]Bribo]

Can you comment on 802.11B WEP versus 802.11G WEP. I've read the security is improved with "G".