The Idiocy of Wi-Fi Continues

23 January 2009

After listening to TWIT, Security Now and several other podcasts that are relevant to the tech industry, I have heard that more and more people and businesses are using WEP and WPA on their wireless networks.  While WEP is certainly NOT the best solution, it is something.  WPA is widely considered the minimum protection by many, if not most, of people who care about the use of wi-fi networks.  I certainly encourage my customers to use it when they purchase a wireless network setup.

Now for the “IDIOCY”!

A phone call came into the store shortly before we opened today.  The person on the phone states to me that he works for a local business and gets his wireless from a different local business.  He is having trouble connecting, because the router is over 40 feet away and goes through several walls.  Well that can be a problem.  He wants an antenna that will “improve” his connection.

The first thing I ask is if he actually has permission to use this connection.  He states that he in fact does have permission.  OK.  I tell him that we do carry some antennas that “could” help, with emphasis on the “COULD”.  We discuss the type of wi-fi adapter that he has to determine if one of the antennas we have will actually work for him.  He tells me that he has a desktop PC with a wi-fi adapter in the back.  I as if it is USB, and he tells me that it is not USB.  Well, it sounds like we can help.

When the guy shows up in the store, he has a different story about the wi-fi adapter.  He actually looked at it and turns out it is a USB adapter.  Since he is not giving me the “tech toy hacker” vibe, I don’t even suggest soldering on an antenna to the USB device.  He says that it might help if he was to get past one of the walls and wants to know if we have an extension cord for USB.  We can do that, so he purchases one.

During to course of our conversation, I was able to get more info on his “wireless setup”.  He business and “several” other businesses all use the high speed DSL connection that it paid for by one of the local businesses.  This is probably against the “terms of service”.  He did tell me he has to put in a “security code” to connect to the wireless.

Now for the scary part.  The business that they are all using for their wireless connection is an insurance company.  I know quite a bit about the network used in the insurance company, because I know who installed the network equipment.  He was told that the owner of the business wanted a wired/wireless network for “in office” use only.  There would be 2 wired users and 1 wireless user.  Only the office staff would have access to the network.  It was setup with a WPA key for the wireless user to prevent anyone from using the network that was not part of the office.  Windows file sharing is in use on this network and none of the shares have passwords as per the owners requirements.  This means that anyone connecting to the wireless network has access to the shares on the original network setup for the insurance company.  I repeat, anyone connecting to this network can now SEE the files that have been shared by the insurance company.

25 January 2009

I wrote the original post above two days ago.  I was amazed and a little upset at the time and thought that the person who came in the store may have had incorrect information or somehow figured out that WPA key from the insurance agent and was using the wireless network without permission.  I was, however, wrong in this assumption and the original information was correct.  The insurance agent is giving out the WPA key to his wireless network so that the other businesses around him can share the connection.  He pays for a business class internet connection from a local ISP, then splits it out with the neighbors.  He is using consumer grade equipment, a Linksys WRT54G, to create this wireless connection.  The Windows shares are still unsecured as the insurance agent is unaware of how to change it and seems unwilling to do so.  This is unfortunate as the shared data is there for to taking by anyone who is able to connect to this network.  I have to hope that the people who have access to this data are honest people.

The moral of my story is this, if you are going to go to the trouble to secure your wireless, please don’t just give the key out to whomever.  If you are going to be benevolent and share an internet connection that is connected to a network, by all means, protect sensitive data.  The sharing of your network should not give everyone the keys to the kingdom.

Asurion Insurance Experience

In all the years (14 plus) that I have owned a cell phone or cell phones, this is the first time that I have had to replace a phone through an insurance claim.  I only have insurance on two of the four phones that are on my account, but I selected these two due to high cost of replacing one and the high risk of damage to the other.  The phone with high risk of being damaged was indeed the phone that needed to be replaced.  It it the phone that is in the possession of my daughter and it was damaged fairly early into the contract.  Replacing the phone without insurance would have cost a bundle, but with the Asurion coverage it was only $50.

I have to say that I was pleased with the experience.  I used Asurion’s online claim system to file my claim, which was approved quickly.  The phone was shipped by Asurion that day, although their choice of DHL should be reconsidered in my opinion (see earlier posts about DHL).

When the phone arrived, I simply followed the directions in the box for activating the phone and the phone was up and running.  The total amount of time that I invested into this phone replacement was about 20 minutes total.  I have no complaints about the service that I received from Asurion.

I will comment about insurance for cell phones.  Before you purchase this service you should investigate how much it is going to cost you to replace your cell phone.  On the Verizon system, the cost of the insurance is $5 per month or $60 per year.  Replacing the phone will cost you $50.  So if you break the phone on the 12th month of your contract, your total cost would be $110.  Generally, this is cheaper than replacing the phone by purchasing a new one.  Also keep in mind that once you reach the time at which you can do an upgrade, it is definitely not in your best interest to keep the insurance, because you can get a free or greatly reduced cost replacement directly from Verizon in this case.

Redneck wants Wi-Fi Booster

The morning, first customer of the day, a full blown redneck comes in the store.  He says that he is staying at a local campground and is having trouble connecting to the free wi-fi.  Well, I did a bid for the guy that owns the campground to upgrade the wireless network.  He plugged in a cheap consumer grade wireless router and called it “free wi-fi”.  Only problem is that it only covers an area with a 25 ft radius around the campground office.  Considering that the campground is over a 1/4 mile square, this is hardly usable by most campers.  He didn’t want to spend the money to put in a proper system, but I suppose that he does have wi-fi and its free.

I ask the redneck if he has a laptop of desktop in his camper.  Simple question.  His response, “What does it matter”?  Ahh, a hostile redneck.  So I spend the next 10 minutes explaining the differences in the equipment used for desktops and laptops.  This is clearly not going well, he keeps asking the same questions over and over.  So, he has a laptop.  I explain that the equipment that we have will not help him.  The laptop cards don’t have “more power” and they don’t have antenna ports.  He wants to know why he can’t just buy a wireless extender.  Well let’s see.  You don’t know the network configuration and you can’t just run around adding things to another person’s network.

Now he can’t believe that with today’s technology, he can’t just show up at a store and buy something that will just automatically boost the wi-fi signal.  Holy shit, we got ourselves a smart one.  He knows the word “technology”.  So I finally tell him that I would be glad to order him something that might help his situation, but I can’t  make any guarantees about the effectiveness in solving him problems.  So Bubba says, “You guarantee that it will work”.  WTF?  I just said I don’t know that it will solve the problem, to many “f-a-c-t-o-r-s”.  I will have to reevaluate his “learnin’”.    Oh well, I will just have to order a bad-ass USB based wi-fi card and antenna and if he returns them, I will buy them for myself.

Pleasant Network Setup

I recently setup a wireless network for a lady who lives out in the country.  She came into the store and inquired about having someone come to her house and setup her wireless router.  No problem.  She asked about the price, much lower than the geeks, and agreed to make an appointment.  This part was great.  A customer realizes they are unable to do something technical and recognizes that they are going to have to pay someone to do it for them.  No bitching about any of this.

On the day of the install, it was snowing like crazy on the way to her house.  When I arrived she met me at the door and greeted me like an old friend.  We discussed the particulars of what she wanted and placement of equipment.  She even showed me some e-mail pics of animals that someone had sent.  I finished up the install with all equipment was functioning.  I went to leave and she told me to drive safely as it was still snowing heavily.  What a nice lady.  I only wonder why all customers can’t be that pleasant.

New Store Notification

I came up with a sign the I would like to post in our store. Of course, it was vetoed for reasons which will become clear in a moment. Here it what it says:

For all those people that bring back the fully functional wireless routers and tell us that they don’t work. The reason is that 90% of the time you are a DUMB-ASS! There will also be a dumb-ass assessment fee the amount of which will be proportional to our evaluation of how much of a dumb-ass you are.  Thank you, the Management.

There, I feel better already.