The two WISPs I know if in the Santa Cruz mountains don't have 'much' security.
One, my old WISP, merely used 2.4Ghz 802.11b with MAC authentication until just about a month ago (they have since switched to 2.4GHz NV2). In a way, that's security because most of us don't buy Microtik equipment.
My new WISP doesn't use security either - but - you need to 'know' the IP address (which I had changed in all my examples in this thread so the one I gave won't work if you're my neighbor). So, again, that's (in a way) security.
It's my understanding that the WISP agreement allows the WISP to use your antenna as a repeater (even if you own it yourself). I don't know how they organize their antennas though.
Since these are mountains, it would be fairly easy to stand on top of one of them and swing the antenna in a circle to find all the WISP access points though.
My question though was what kind of antenna do they provide? That is, do they have an omni or do they point a directional at your house.
I think if you packet sniff with wireshark using kismet parked on one channel, the IP address will be sniffed. I haven't run Kismet in that manner in years, so I could be fuzzy on this.
I don't know but in my long conversations with the WISP, I think he said it was 'pointed' in my direction (since a neighbor also uses the same WISP).
Next time I'll ask him what HIS antenna is. If it's an omni, it must be pretty powerful for me to get such a great signal from so far away with just a 19dBi antenna.
I've tried to get Wireshark & WiFi radar working on Ubuntu and have failed miserably. Must be a trick to it ...
One problem is how to hook the antenna to the Ubuntu laptop since all the usb wifi extender adapters I tried didn't have drivers for Linux.
How does ANYONE get a strong enough antenna to use these things on Linux anyway?
First trick is to get a usb wifi dongle. You need an external antenna. Built in wifi is for the coffee shop.
Those alfa units based on the RL8187 are the way to go. Awus036h or
formatting link
You need to force kismet to park on one channel, not scan. Then you set wireshark up to monitor the traffic on the wireless lan. You will need to determine the name of the adapter. It could be wlan, wlan0, wlan1, etc. I don't run ubuntu, so I don't know how it works on that distro.
All the packet data goes flying by on wireshark. It you are not using encryption or SSL, all the text will be in the clear.
I've never run backtrack linux, but supposedly that is a distro designed for investigating open doors to your system. Actually any system, but the intent is you poke your system to check for vulnerabilities.
If you have a linux distro, it is far easier to go to the repository and get what you need. I found I had to install kismet from source, but that is all a function of how up to date your repo is at the time.
Note kismet can see the clients on your system. I'm not particularly happy about that since anyone driving by can sniff your level of geekness. I don't have a networked TV, but I'm sure if you have a flat screen with ethernet, they can detect that too. Sonos streamers, VOIP phones, whatever.
If you are not a regular on this list, I pointed out a while ago that kismet can sniff your wifi requests. Any wifi that you saved on your PC or phone is detectable. Starbucks, Peets, the rent-by-the-hour love shack you use for a nooner, etc. In a way, it is far worse of a privacy portal than your cellular connection since only the phone company or law enforcement can sniff your phone, but any fool can sniff your wifi. Just knowing the mac can help you determine if a person is in a certain location. Cheating spouses would be a prime target. I never read about this being done, but generally if it can be done, it is being done.
I was at a coffee shop a few days ago and found a HPSETUP ad hoc being broadcast. This is a real security problem. Google hpsetup to get more info.
A google search of kismet wireshark found
The blot out the IP addresses, but they are detected. I also see there is a youtube video on how to do this:
formatting link
I haven't watched the video so I can't vouch for it.
The name of the device is usually determined by the driver, not necessarily the distro, although I suppose a distro could have its own udev rules to rename a device as it sees fit. If you're using a USB device it'll be simple enough to determine the name; type 'ifconfig', look at the list of device names, plug the device it, re-run ifconfig.
You can see the MAC addresses of stuff on the wireless LAN, encrypted or not. And if your wireless is bridged with your wired network [pretty much the default scenario] then the MAC addresses of wired devices will eventually appear too. Knowing a MAC isn't the same as knowing precisely what a device is, but lets you make some good guesses as to the manufacturer.
Recently I wired a WISP antenna/radio to the key rooms of the house with a star network based mostly on your help.
Guess what I found out today when I went to plug in the kid's game room Nintendo Wii to the newly wired Ethernet jack?
The Wii doesn't have an Ethernet port! Sigh.
(Note: Apparently I 'could' add an Ethernet adapter to the Wii itself, but for now, I think I'll just start researching what new router to buy so that the old (Linksys WRT54G) router can become a WiFi extender plugged into the newly wired game room wall jack!)
I have yet to find a better home wireless router than the WRT54GL (that's the one that I have that you can flash with DD-WRT etc. You might be able to do the same with yours depending on production date/exact model.) I've tried various wireless-N/gigabit routers both Linksys/Cisco and Netgear and honestly, I can't tell the difference in speed and the old "blue box" just keeps on going whereas the other ones seem to brick themselves after a year or two. I say stick with what works, just get another one. If I ever set up a wired home network I will probably use a good Cisco rack-mount switch and keep the blue box for wireless. I hate having to replace stuff after only a short period of service.
About $10 anywhere. Many USB to ethernet adapters will work.
Plenty more available. Google for "Wii ethernet adapter".
Hint: Ask the kids next time. They usually know more about such things than the adults. If they don't, the exercise in finding the solution will be quite educational. If done diplomatically, they may even let you play with their games.
That's my favorite, too. I currently have 6 of them deployed around the house. One is my gateway router, two are access points, two are client bridges, and one is just acting as a switch. I install dd-wrt as soon as I take them out of the box. Newegg sometimes puts them on sale for $44.95, which isn't too bad for such a general purpose item.
wha!!!???? Y'mean I could buy another and put it downstairs so I don't have to go upstairs to reboot for my wife's recalcitrant Toshiba?
here's my setup- Cable comes in upstairs and is hooked to a TW modem and then to the WRT54GL.
We have a half dozen things that use it upstairs wirelessly. I have a Cat5 running downstairs for my desktop setup- and a work computer that can't go wireless.
No other computers seem to have problems getting a signal downstairs. but my wife's Toshiba always seems to need us to reboot the router to get a signal.
I never thought of adding another WRT54GL downstairs. Might that help her computer get a connection-- or at least eliminate my need to go upstairs to reboot the router? [I'm reading this on a-h-r, so if I go that way, I'll be coming over to a-i-w to figure out the
Hi Jeff, You have a gift for finding the lowest prices! I had found it on the Nintendo site for much much more. At that price, unless the wifi extender is valuable otherwise, it's worth it to just get the wii adapter!
I'm confused. It sounds like you propose to use the old Linksys wireless router in the game room as a solution to the Wii not having an ethernet port? But then how does the Wii connect to the Linksys router?
I don't know enough about your situation to offer concrete advice, but if it's purely a signal strength/integrity issue, then placing a second access point in a convenient location can help.
Since you have a wired connection available downstairs, I'd probably start by placing an access point there. If that's a worse location than what you have now, consider powerline networking to bring an Ethernet connection to where you really want it, then place an access point there.
Basically, any router can be used as an access point by disabling its DHCP server and plugging the Ethernet cable into a LAN port, leaving the WAN port unused. It's your choice whether to duplicate the SSID, encryption level, and password, of the wireless router upstairs. Personally, I prefer different SSID's so I know where I'm connecting. Using the same settings might allow seamless roaming, but in my experience seamless roaming doesn't work well and I don't move around the house that much anyway. Accordingly, I use a different SSID and a non-overlapping channel (1,6,or 11). Does that help?
My current problem is the signal strength at the Wii of the wireless signal from my Linksys WRT54G home broadband router in the office is weak at the game room.
I had hoped to simply wire the Wii (and I still may do that using Jeff's suggestion of the USB-to-Ethernet adapter for the Wii)...
But, another option is to get a second wireless router, and set it up in the game room (near the Wii) as a wireless repeater/access point (I'm not sure if it's a 'repeater' or an 'access point' because I'm not sure of the differences yet).
According to the information just posted by Char & Jeff, all I need to do to convert the new router to an (access point? repeater?) is:
Disable DHCP
Do not use the WAN port
Plug the incoming cat5e wire from the office router into one of the LAN ports of the game room router
Optionally set up the SSID, WPA2/PSK, & channel of the game room router to the same settings as the office home broadband wireless router
I think the signal speed is halved though ... but I have to do more research reading Jeff's links...
Also, in practice, I'll likely see if I can dig up that Verizon telco wireless router instead of buying a new one ... or ... if I can't find it and if I buy a new one, I'll probably switch the new with the old (just because).
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