Re: How to find characteristics of wireless hub?

On 06/09/2005 9:10 PM, Dave Balderstone wrote:
> In article <mehaase-FA0929.20003906092005@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> Mark Haase <mehaase@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
>>In article <060920051300280427%dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
>> Dave Balderstone <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Try pointing your browser at <http://192.168.1.1/>
>>
>>And when you configure your own, consider enabling WEP.
>
>
> There's a neighbor across the street and three houses up that has a
> wide open wireless network. I actually took the laptop outside and
> triangulated on siignal strength, rang the bell and explained that I
> could see his router, his computer (Windows box), that he had no
> protection enabled... and then showed him how to log into his router
> and configure it.
>
> That was in June, it's still wide open.
>
> Peoples is so stoopid...
>
Well, the problem is that, from their point of view, there is no
concrete or clear result of this bad setup. The consequences of an open
net are not immediate evident to most people.

It depends on if you used language they could really get while
describing the problem. Many, if not most, people just don't care to
learn that much about network tech to learn the problems with an open net.

However, if you had stumbled on the right analogy or description they
could get a handle on, it might have allowed that connection. It's a
bit of a crap-shoot, I find.

The plain fact is that unless someone has had a nice introduction to
basic networking, and also happens to be somewhat engaged in the subject
(because it's for work, or they are curious) then they will opt for the
"don't ask, don't tell" option. When confronted with someone explaining
patiently about their open net, probably using a few acronyms and words
like "encryption", most folks might see you are trying to be helpful,
but don't really see the seriousness or consequences. I mean, most
people have no clear idea how radio or TV shows get into their house, or
can distinguish between the local network, the internet or their
computer. How can they expect to understand the stuff you are talking
about on *your* computer? I mean, it's not *their* computer, so why
should they care?

This newsgroup is self-selecting, so we would not expect to see many
examples of this. I guarantee you that this is the norm in the Real World.

Apple sort of gets this, as the default setup for an Airport is
backwards-compatible WPA (I seem to recall, anyway.)

BTW, I'm only replying because I recognize this problem from my few
years as a SOHO consultant. I'm merely suggesting that many of us
assume a minimal level of understanding or even curiousness that will
allow news like this to be understood. In my experience, this is not
the case. I'm not suggesting it should be any other way, because god
knows I'm wilfully blind of many, many things I feel ambivalent about.

For example, I am the world's worst investor. Anything to do with RSPs,
taxes and banking causes my brain to shut down. I just don't want to
care about it, and even the smallest effort to follow what many other
people consider the most trivial and basic knowledge on the subject
leaves me in a sea of acronyms and conflicting exceptions.

So, whenever I'm in the position to fix someone's network (like I was
last week which is why this is fresh in my mind) I tend to hand-wave and
say things like "I fixed the part that was broken and made it work" and
leave things in a default state where it will work with the least amount
of effort. Only if they express *any* interest in what I'm doing will I
try to come up with a non-technical analogy to explain any amount of detail.

Sorry for the long reply. As I said, this is something that is fresh in
my mind again.

Now, I did have a co-worker who said he knew a lot about networking who
had no idea what I meant when I asked him if he had a link when helping
him with a networking problem. Perhaps it was unfair of me, since I
could see that his network cable had been kicked out of the NIC (by
himself, naturally.) For a co-working in the tech industry, I'm only
going to explain this once. After explaining what I meant by "link" and
showing him the lack of cable and, therefore, lack of green link light,
I gave up. There, I will admit stupidity played a larger role.
.

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