Granted, but if the firmware had a "factory default" mode that made it run a small config utility which generated a random character SSID and WEP key, this would cost the mfr very little, and look good on the marketing blurb "now with added automatic security - power it on, and get instant 128-bit secured web access and your very own private network ID!! ". Both SSID and key would have to be displayed in the admin gui but many APs do this already.
So? Use a directional antenna, or reflectors for devices without external antennas. The tech is decades old, and works extremely well.
You're dead wrong. If you've ever bought a preinstalled WinXP Home, you'll be aware that it does PRECISELY what I suggest when you boot up the first time - you can't use it till you enter some basic config info. Doesn't seem to have harmed MS that much.
I disagree strongly that its not working out of the box. Heck, even a new TV doesn't work without some small config first, even if its just pressing "autotune" on the remote. Rememer, I'm not talking about expecting users to enter netmasks, or remember MACs,. I'm talking about automatically generating a random SSID, enabling DHCP and autogenerating a WEP key.
Not IMHO, YMMV, maybe you live amongst stupider people, or maybe you're mistaken about the impact it would have. My own opinion is that anyone buying a wireless router or AP these days knows they ought to worry about security, why else would all the vendors be putting WPA in place if it wasn't a selling point?
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Is that why they have banned their use in my railway carriage - so that I can't hear the conversations of the person sitting next to me on his/her cellphone?
Barry OGrady is referring to listening on a radio receiver to the phone calls. As I understand the law (at least in the USA), while it is not illegal to listen to the calls, it is illegal to disclose what you have heard to any other person.
Having said that, it is best not to disclose any sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or trade secrets, on a cellular or cordless phone (the latter phones use a short-range transmitter to a base unit plugged into a landline).
It is not legal to listen to cordless and mobile phones.
Barry
No it is not! Their stupidity is not your gain!!! If someone loses $20.00 on the road, are you free to keep it? How about if an armored car wrecks and its money comes out all over the road, is it legal to keep the money? NO IT IS NOT! Their stupidity is NOT your gain!!!
I believe you're slightly incorrect. The wiretap laws make it illegal to even listen in electronically.
That is EXACTLY why the new scanners do not even have the phone channels in them. The old scanners do.
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