Re: [PLUG] Verizon FIOS & open wireles

[zuzu <sean.zuzu@gmail.com>]

On 10/2/07, Marc Zucchelli <marcz908@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have never really worried about people abusing my internet connection.
> MOST people would be completely harmless, and the ones that are dangerous
> have to come within a close range to my house.  Is this really THAT serious
> of an issue?

I tend to lean conspiracy-theory on this, in that it seems to me that
an industry and mass-media counterculture has -- over approximately
the past 4 years -- tried to shout over the wireless community
grassroots efforts such as NoCat.net and FreeNetworks.org, with
repeatedly scaring people into "securing" their wireless access
points.  I suspect the hardware manufacturers and the
telecommunications companies fear a real software defined radio
wireless mesh network emerging from wireless community networks.

the "piggybacking problem" smells like FUD the same way that the "spam
problem" has always been FUD.  (it's called naive bayesian filtering;
install one and practically never see spam again.)

I leave all my wireless access points open, and I run an I2P strong
cryptography onion routing gateway.  there's probably tons of crazy
packets using my IP as an outpoint, but I also have tons of plausible
deniability.

p.s. I think "net neutrality" and "tiered internet" debates (both
sides) are FUD too.  routing all traffic through I2P makes deep packet
inspection impossible and would ensure that ISPs continue to simply
overprovision the networks as they should (especially since analysis
of total cost of operation shows that overprovisioning is cheaper than
packet shaping).

> jeff <jeffv@op.net> wrote:
>  gabriel rosenkoetter wrote:
> > I don't understand when it became a bad idea to share ones Internet
> > connection on purpose.
>
> My guess would be when it became popular to hijack/hack connections.
>
>
> > Being open (and neighborly) is not mutually exclusive with keeping
> > your own systems secure.
>
> if this were the 50's (yes, my wireless has tubes), I'd be right there
> with you. Unfortunately I'm kinda stuck with the belief that if you
> leave a door open, people will start coming through it (in a bad way).
>
> There might be an undocumented hole in my setup. I might have forgotten
> to patch something. Imo, there are too many negative types about even
> to allow cordoned off access. Mind you, if my neighbor needed it, I'd
> find a way.

can I assume for a moment that you use a laptop?  so you never use an
untrusted network with said laptop?

> P.S. with one of the aftermarket wireless OSes (dd-wrt, et al), you can
> allegedly jack up the output of your wireless.

for anyone with a modicum of computer savvy, DD-WRT Linux (or any
other OpenWRT like distribution) seems almost necessary at this point.
 to which, if you're worried about neighbors hosing your connection to
your detriment, I think DD-WRT makes it easy enough to throttle any
unrecognized MAC address (or at least packet shape against bittorrent
and ed2k).

or just setup a VPN to discriminate traffic.  (also a good idea for
the roaming laptop problem.)
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug