a picture is worth more than 1mil iPhones!
I hate you, AT&T! Apple basher!

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Cisco will kill the Linksys brand. Boo! No further comments.

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Somebody out there in the myst of the web googled “HOW DO I FIND THE wireless channel THAT IS BEING USED BY MY NEIGHBORS” and reached wirelessisfun.com

I know this query is really relevant so I decided to quickly post a few tips on how to avoid that upsetting interference.
Current WiFi regulations allow a limited number of channels as follows: 11 Channels (USA, Canada), 13 Channels (Europe), 14 Channels (Japan) for the 2.4Ghz band.

11 channels permits exactly like the number says: eleven concurrent networks broadcasting in the same area (typical up to 300 feet with no obstacles) without interference. When there’s one single router broadcasting on the same channel another router is already tuned to, interference occurs. WiFi clients can’t tell which signal is which and that makes the connection highly unstable, if not unusable. It’s like having two people talking at the same time in a small room! More so, running more routers than the number of channels available also spells trouble. In the urban realm this is sadly an occurrence that can not be avoided.

There’s little to be done when this happens but fortunately there are some tricks to make your WiFi work again.

TIP - Pick that channel that is used less and by the faintest signal
The first trick is to scan the radio spectrum with a widget or a special utility.
For Macs a great widget is AirTrafficControl and for Windows one can use an application called Netstumbler. Once you got acquainted with what channels each neighboring network occupies note which signals are lower and less stable. It’s likely those access points are at the limit of their reach, therefore generate lesser noise for your home networks. Now set your router to chose the channel the weakest signal uses, also keeping an eye to the availability of the channel among more stronger signals.

The more expensive alternative is to buy 802.11a compatible hardware (a router and a PC card). Most latest high-end laptops come with built in 802.11a/b/g/n compatible cards so there’s no need to upgrade. Please check with the manufacturer to see if your card is compatible with these standards. Though still a flavor of WiFi, 802.11a uses the less crowded 5Ghz band and because of the double frequency compared to regular 2.4Ghz WiFi, it allows just as many more simultaneous non-overlapping signals.

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Where I am sitting as I type, in the southeast corner of my urban house, my WiFi sniffer reports as many as nine separate wireless networks passing through my home. Most of these have some form of security, but a couple clearly have not been changed from the default settings, with SSID’s such as “SSID” or “Untitled”, and have no security, so I hop on for my web, keeping my mail.app firmly closed (as we all know, these mail programs have no security of their own and rely on the network’s security to keep your password private). However, more than half of the wireless networks on my corner still use the default broadcasting channel (6) so there is a tremendous amount of interference. As a result, even the one or two networks I can get connectivity through only work some of the time; I don’t need to tell you how frustrating an unreliable internet connection is.

So I find myself now paying for broadband and hooking up my own wireless access point, even as I’m bathing in the excessive microwave radiation of all of my neighbors’ networks. Of course I use encryption, and change the broadcast channel to one not being used in the vicinity, and of course, now my network works great. But I hardly feel triumphant; there are nine more wireless networks in my neighborhood than are really necessary - mine being one of them.

See, I believe that internet access ought to be completely free to all people, and WiFi begins to make this possible, but people are still thinking in terms of protecting their precious bandwidth, and their precious data. (In fact, hotspot hosts now need to be concerned about protecting their very precious freedom, as recent court cases have demonstrated that the owner of an open hotspot can be held criminally culpable for illegal activity across their network based on the fact that their IP is connected to their name and that’s proof enough for the American justice system. Owners of open hotspots, read up on this!)

So if I do want to take on the risks of acting on my ideology of Free Internet, I need to run two wireless access points off of my broadband connection - one encrypted for my own traffic, and one wide open free for all - just adding more noise to the ether.

We have the same problems everywhere: too much WiFi, all WEP’d, and all interfering. Some businesses I know have given up WiFi with robust encryption and returned to wired networks - yes, they have turned off the WiFi for the reliability of ethernet! Obviously THEY weren’t having fun, and I can’t blame them. Those businesses - cafes, restaurants, libraries - who promote their free WiFi are few and far between in my city.

I live in an urban area where I can walk to all of the services I really need within fifteen minutes, but there isn’t a cafe offering free WiFi for three kilometers from here. WiFi has become almost totally inconvenient. Everywhere I use it, wires work better (though that doesn’t mean that I actually run the cable!). Services like FON are getting a bad rap for everything from shoddy hardware to censoring the community they depend on, and anyway it sounds like the hotspots are few and far between, so there’s not much incentive to sign up.

Standards keep getting better when I look at the specs on paper - N is better than G is better than B - and now we’ve got WiFi TV, WiFi MP3, and WiFi phone - but the system, the platform, the real mobility, is getting worse. Wireless IS fun, when we learn enough about it to make it easy - especially for the non-geeks out there - and I’m excited to be working with people who are thinking up ways to make it more fun, and more easy.

What’s the next evolution of wireless going to look like?

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The Fon Spot for Mac and what’s inside it

There hasn’t been much Fon news or related lately but we couldn’t miss the fact that
- Time Warner opened their doors to broadband sharing in the US and
- The programmers in Spain finally came up with a beta version of the FON Spot Mac / Linux

What this software does is that it turns your Intel-based Mac into a FON hotspot. If you use a 3G or EvDo modem this software will turn your Airport into a Access Point-like WiFi adapter and start sharing your connection around.
It’s not a new concept for Mac users as by default Macs let you share your modem connection in three clicks anyway. But FON saw this was an opportunity that could not be missed to expand their service and brand where conventional hotspots do not protrude. Shrewd!

Screenshot of Mac’s WiFi sharing enabler

Let’s analyze if this would really work in real life past the obvious geeky sexieness.
Having a Fon hotspot ‘built in’ your Mac is neat if you’re a big fan of the service and really want to take it everywhere with you. Maybe you have a flat mobile broadband connection anyway and you don’t mind sharing but you’re missing the credentials for your signal. Or maybe you just don’t mind doing it. Any case you chose it’s fine!
But in all other cases you’d be simply sharing your connection as is or no sharing it at all. Eventually it all comes down to FON’s business model. Share WiFi and get WiFi for free elsewhere in FON hotspots, as a Linus. Or share your WiFi for some money. These cases are based on a permanent presence in a determined location. Usually one would use a fast connection they don’t really mind sharing.
What happens when you share your crawling 3G/EvDO? Those pipes are not that large, your connection is not in a specific connection and does not provide service 24/7. That does not make for a compatible service with FON’s, which anyway is catchy because it brings advantages both ways.
Based on how FON Spot for Mac works the only winner here is.. FON! You would likely not share that limited bandwidth (I’ve done it oh so many times with my EvDo) and not agree FON is using your expensive connection for self-promo and Alien (non-member user that pays premium for access) money milking.

Running c*free, a free hotspot operator, I’ve often used Mac’s WiFi sharing to promote the brand at different events or ingenuous places. Hell, I’ve shared that signal a couple of years ago when I was still using Windows through an Ad-Hoc profile and later using a USB kit called c*free mini.
Yet, I still don’t know how this would go beyond such use!
Most folks who have/use a mobile broadband connection pay a shit load of money on it every month. They are usually business/entrepreneur/SOHO types that
- care for their data and its security
- pay for the 3G / EvDo for a precise purpose
- are time critical
- don’t have time or interest in playing with gizmos and hacks such as FON Spot
- are energy-conscious, meaning they would power their WiFi only when in the range of a signal they would use.

It’s unclear to me how this hack will make it in the real world. It might! But as it stands, incentives - even ones like the principle of sharing in exchange for free connectivity (wait!! Free WiFi? Why, when you already have the darn 3G?) - are low or inexistent!

For the techie ones I opened the installer and below is a screenshot of the package contents. I did not install the hack on my Macbook for it’s still beta and I rely on being able to use my Airport card. Those of you who have the time and curiosity are welcome to post their experiences in the comments section.

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No intro, no closing bells, just a really illuminating talk I had with Mike Puchol (Whisher.com co-founder) and Chad (AustinTX of elfonblog.fondoo.net), a WiF pod regular. They were really nippy about recording but I was really lazy about editing and posting. Sorry guys!

We discussed topics ranging from Apple to Fon and Gizmo Project. Then, in Part 2, Chad and Mike went on their own bragging their thorough knowledge of wireless tech. Worth listening to! Big time!
We had fun and I’m sure you will too. :)

Get the topics here: Podcast.txt

Download MP3: WiF podcast / 1 of 2 for April 9th ‘07
(running time 25:50)

Download MP3: WiF podcast / 2 of 2
(running time 49:35)

Update: Yeah, the audio feed doesn’t really work (hey Feedburner, thanx!) like snooz_bar pointed out in the comments. If you don’t mind doing this the old fashioned “Save as..” way until I get to the bottom of it we’d be really happy.

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You’d think this is a British joke. But it ain’t! Some dudes over at EM-SEC Technologies came up with this sick idea - WiFi screening paint! EM-SEC 2060 is a water-based polymer security system. When applied as a surface coating to individual rooms or entire facilities, it provides a shield and creates a secure Electromagnetic Fortress against eavesdropping and airborne electronic theft.
A WiFi exec should now rush to get a team of painters abreast of the networking crew. They should also strikethrough the current services price tags because WiFi has become the safest thing around. No more broken deals because their clients fear some bad bad hackers might pry in their shiny, brand new, wireless nets!

Hmmz, I think it’s a cool idea. But since cell phones, radios etc will all be dead in the wireless bunker, there’s few reasons to think it’ll make it on the ’sales’ shelf at your local supply store. Yet again, I hope it comes in Pink and Mad Lila. :) I feel like redecorating, not!

Or better yet, get a good admin (security guy). I happen to know a few in case you have no clue where to start.

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Apple and Cisco have agreed to both use the iPhone trademark in a confidential out-of-court agreement. One statement is that the two companies will “explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, consumer, and enterprise communications.”. Cisco, the world’s largest computer-networking equipment maker and Apple who expects to sell 10 million WiFi enabled iPhones in 2008, are probably looking for profit from interoperability between their devices and technology. Which may have been Cisco’s intention from start, after all, iPhone looked very promising if we analyze the media coverage after official announcement week at Macworld 2007. Why not ask for a piece of the pie in the future? :) And so they did!

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There’s been a flaming but rather silent war between Fon’s and Whisher’s hot shots since the former’s market debut. The two products should not really be competing but it came clear that Whisher was exactly what Fon missed - a real social component!
The hot shots fighting over WiFi sharing supremacy, it was just a matter of time until somebody won the first battle. We give the first token to Fon’s CEO, Martin Varsavsky by winning the media war. Alas for him we have to hand out the second token to Ferran Moreno of Whisher for striking hard and making the score even.

Freddy, a prominent part time hobbyist hacking into Fon’s Linux firmwares just released a patch that enables a third signal for the Spaniards’ proprietary router called La Fonera. By Freddy’s words:

“You might have heard about Whisher.com, the idea is similar to the one FON has.
But Whisher is hardware independent and the signal is encrypted.
That’s why I like it, but I would have to use the “MyPlace” signal of the Fonera.
That would allow everybody to access my private LAN and of course I don’t want that.
Due to this I added another signal to my Fonera.”

The patch will add a third WPA encrypted signal to La Fonera.
You’ll have “MyPlace”, “FON_AP” and the new one: “WHISHER_AP”
The new signal prevents access to your private LAN thus making it perfect for use with Whisher.

The score is even now: 1-1! We’ll keep an eye on this war! Great stuff for a wireless news blog, I tell you that much!

Let the hostilities begin! :)

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Thomas Ricker from engadget.com says that some hackers* found the “secret” processing keys for decrypting HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DRM for all movies released until now. It looks like a chap known as arnezami on the doom9 forums, managed to find those processing keys stored in the memory. What happens if you have the processing keys? well, you can unlock, decrypt, and backup every HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc film released so far. The story goes back to the 9th of January and since then, the members of the doom9 forums are still debating if arnezami was right in unveiling his method of finding out those processing keys, and giving the manufacturers a straight line to walk on while fixing this. And, as Thomas said, “kick back and watch the trickle of HD titles hitting the torrents quickly turn into a flood”

Acording to arnezami: “Nothing was hacked, cracked or even reverse engineered btw: I only had to watch the “show” in my own memory. No debugger was used, no binaries changed.”

*) the word hacker is not used in any pejorative way in this article. See a definition for hacker on WikiPedia

Source: engadget

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Here’s a quick guide to help our shrewd readers prevent getting jagged when using an open public hotspot. This is what you need to do:

#1. Your computer comes with an efficient firewall. Use it!

#2. Download the latest wireless card driver from the manufacturer’s website. Your up to date system will have exploits and vulnerabilities patched.

#3. Don’t share your folders or files unless you explicitly need to do so. Anyone using that hotspot can access them. Password protected folders should be the best compromise.

#4. Do not use Outlook or Mail. They send your username and passwords in the clear. Use your webmail service instead. Webmail usually encrypts your sessions. If you must use your email managers, make sure your account supports and has SSL authentication set up.

#5. Do not make online payments unless your life depends on it. Really, don’t! Better wait a little to get home or at the office. You really don’t want to fund some alledged’s hacker girlfriend with Swarowsky Shop credit, do you? Chances to have your account information stolen are minimal, but real!

#6. Some IM programs do not encrypt conversations! A sniffer might return the actual dialogues in clear text. You don’t want that, do you? Sure, most of my IM is just random blurbs and bs so I use IM comfortably. It’s you to decide how sensitive your IM sessions are. Emoticons are not interceptable though. That’s reassuring, innit? :)

#7. Web pages you visit can be sniffed. Complete with images even. This is not a case worth alerting the media for, really! But you might want to be advised.

#8. You think it’s fun to tap on your neighbor’s open WiFi. Sometime it isn’t! You might be surprised to find out it’s a trap. Fake hotspots has been reported to be out there. They exist for the single purpose of sniffing out private data and mining sensitive information. This is called phishing.

#9. It’s easy to check in advance the network name of the public hotspot you plan to use. Most providers have that information on their websites. Why not do so to make sure you’re using a certified/friendly connection.

#10. Use VPN. If you can, know and like to use one, do it!

Read the rest of this entry »

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“Someone needs to reinvent mp3 sales or the industry will go bust, as people like to see value for their money.”

Here’s some thoughts on some recent buzz around DRM music. You probably already know Steve Jobs called on the industry to abolish DRM because of recent rise in tension around Apple’s closed DRM. Called FairPlay, iTunes purchased music system works only on iPods and on up to 5 iTunes-enabled computers. That has not been on the likes of democratic EU where seeds are planted to abolish closed ecosystems such as Apple’s. Facing marketshare loss and fines, Steve Jobs took a radical stand placing it all on the record labels industry. That said, should Apple open FairPlay to hardware manufacturers such as Creative they’d risk DRM reverse-engineering and consequently content withdrawal from the iTunes music store. The workaround, Jobs says, is for the industry to start providing DRM-free music and allow the market to self-define.

“Nobody ever legally sold DRM or DRM-free mp3 music in Romania”

Of course music big shots fear their biggest losses ever, but that’s complete nonsense. Here’s some of why DRM-free music works:
- more flexibility and all-round compatibility with any mp3 hardware ever manufactured
- higher margins (less hassle with DRM enforcing and updating)
- more positive market response
- allofmp3.com and the likes could go legal (on a global perception of legality) or could be effectively taken out of business
- Zunes owners would be able to actually exchange tunes
- those WiFi mp3 players would really start to appeal

The drawbacks, of course, are easy to guess. It’s likely less music would be aquired through stores like iTunes to the fact that more music sharing will be possible. But that’s argueably insane! Just take a look at allofmp3.com and how they sell DRM-free music at a growing factor of 10. And then DRM-free music ripped off CDs has been around like crazy. People have anyway exchanged albums regardless of DRM efforts. It’s called sharing and not really piracy!
Piracy, say, in Eastern Europe (now most of it part of the European Union) or Asia is also nonsense as nobody ever legally sold DRM or DRM-free mp3 music there. For example Romania has been known to join the EU years ago but no large company took the opportunity to provide services and products other than Microsoft.

People pay for things that they think come with no ulterior commitments. It’s a fact. For example Americans are reluctant like nuts about signing a two-year contract with a service provider. The rest of the world (those aware) fear they might not like Apple anymore at some point or there’d be a way more cool mp3 player than the iPod and they’d have to drop all the music they ever purchased on iTunes Music Store.

I strongly support DRM-free music. For its intrinsec coolnes but also because of those widely expected WiFi’ed players. We’re in a wireless world and it feels like stagnant because of RIIA and the record companies.
Thing is there’s less appeal to mp3 than to convetional CDs in terms of a standalone product. They have no added value. They bring no cute album art and touch/feel experience (granted, there’s embeded album art). They are sold for the same price to a more gourmand audience, on a very simple three-click basis. But someone needs to reinvent mp3 sales or the industry will go bust, as people like to see value for their money.
iTunes and its competition have to find a way to keep their clients abreast and provide a little more than just the mp3 file.
I just called DRM dead. Will 2007 be that year?

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Myria from pagetable.com tells us that Skype Reads Your BIOS and Motherboard Serial Number

What happens, is that they use a protected executable file to dump the BIOS POST data, feed it to the client installed on your computer and then probably call back home with this info. What they use it for, and why they are doing that, is still unknown, and the blogosphere will buzz about this until an official press release from Skype will surface. Probably nobody would have figured this out if it wasn’t for Skype omitting to think about all the 64bit processors out there, not compatible with their code.

This seems to be another big screw up from the Skype team, and will surely make all reverse engineering fans try to take a look at *everything* Skype does while running on their computers.

Read more about it at: Skype Reads Your BIOS and Motherboard Serial Number

Follow up: As expected, Skype came up with a plausible explanation for reading your computer’s BIOS POST data with a protected executable. According to them, it’s a thingie that will help them lock their plugins to a computer by embedding the motherboard’s “public” serial number. I use quotes when I say public because they used a “public query to the BIOS” but if it’s that public, why is it hidden? and why don’t they do it when you’re installing your newly acquired plugin from Skype, instead of sending it back home? Apparently, the last build available for download from Skype does not include reading your BIOS POST data anymore. Well, let’s see what the users think about this.

But no matter how you put it, reading of such sensitive data broke Skype’s commitment “Skype is free of Adware, Spyware and Malware” and by their definition:

What is Spyware?
“Spyware relates to software that becomes installed on computer without the informed consent or knowledge of the computer’s owner and covertly transmits or receives data to or from a remote host. For example, spyware may monitor a user’s behaviour and pass on details of a user’s activity (for example their user names or passwords) to a third party.”
Skype’s announcement was made on their Security Blog.

Now we were curious who EasyBits are and followed a few Google leads. We ran over this page for a product called Skypito. I wanted to reproduce some stuff here about their service and privacy policy but it’s a big NO NO! :) Just go there and check it yourselves. The page is 70% “Privacy Policy” and “Legal Notice”. Since I can’t replicate any copyright protected information on that page I’ll have to let you read it. Nevertheless, I know we don’t like any application that phones, even in a way that’s not personally identifiable, critical system data to a given server.

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Last year in March (2006), the Wi-Fi Alliance imposed a special security requirements for all Wi-Fi devices. All the Wi-Fi
devices were supposed to include the WiFi Protected Access and WPA-2 (802.11i). This was an 8 step process which proved to be too complex for many home users and small business without a proper IT department.
Seeing that this did not kick off, the same Wi-Fi Alliance established Protected Setup, a program that standardized security setup into four steps — a process simple enough that home and small-business users will be able to enable the top levels of security available in current Wi-Fi devices.

You can find a list of the first products that support the Wi-Fi Protected Setup here.

“The first release of the program supports use of a push-button technique or entry of a PIN (personal identification number) to network Wi-Fi devices. Support for methods using Near-Field Communication, in which a user simply touches a token or card to a device, as well as USBA high-speed bidirectional serial connection between a PC and Flash drives, is planned for later in the first half of 2007.” says dailywireless.org

This is in my opinion a thing that will make Wi-Fi NOT fun…

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