Phila Is Going To Be One Big Hot Spot

What do you think of this? I know what it means to me Free internet access :D no more paying for cable

We are going to have what would be the nation's largest publicly available Wi-Fi hotspot, covering all of the city's 135 square miles. I can't wait to see this. :D

Philadelphia's service will offer upload and download speeds of 1 megabit per second, nearly 18 times faster than dial-up. In early March, the city will ask companies to submit proposals to build and run the wireless network, which is expected to cost $10.5 million to erect.



Here is the Link

How do you secure such a monstrosity? I'm no 802.11 expert, but I know that wireless is the easiest way to attack a network. I'd love to see an article on the technical specifications on what they are planning.

I'll bet they don't secure it... I'll bet they leave it wide open for "usability" reasons.... At best they will log the MAC address to the IP provided and the activity and that will be it..... :rolleyes:

This was in ZDNet this morning regarding wireless security concerns

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5540969.html

and I found a few points interesting.

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some industry experts point out that the day of sitting outside someone's house to steal their bandwidth is being outdated by signal boosting technology that lets individuals get onto a network that's miles away. "A signal enhancer available at your local RadioShack can give someone access from as far as 50 miles away,"

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That's comforting.

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Force Field Wireless has begun marketing latex house paint it claims will block wireless radio waves from escaping through the walls of a home. Known as DefendAir, the paint is laced with bits of copper and aluminum that help form an electromagnetic shield around your house, Force Field said. The paint, which sells for $69 a gallon, is certified nontoxic and lead free, and comes only in one color--gray.

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Scotty, shields up!!!!

Damn, I guess I have to move to Philly. My little town down here...pfff. :D

Personally, I think the idea is cool but I wouldn't drop your cable just yet! Tiger Shark and Soda_Popinsky have very good points.

Even if the people setting up this hotspot know what they are doing, I bet the 'higher' ups will not understand anything and will not want to spend the resources to make this an effective and secure hotspot.

kurt

I dont care how good a person is at securing a wireless network, with any wireless setup this big, and todays technology, it will be nearly impossible to do. Its still too easy to crack encrpion keys and with it covering an entire city the person can do it at there leasure from where every they want.MAC addresses are easy to spoof so thats wont help much. And implementing a username/password system will be damn hard with the number of people in that city. Im waiting to see the artical that says that philly has been turned ino one big DDoS launch point.

There is a much bigger issue at hand - a legal one. We had this same proposal stomped because when you fill up the finite frequency and you light up high end enterprise equipment, guess what happens to mom and pop wireless installs? They don't work. In affect, you have a giant DoS condition. We were threatened by chamber of commerce lawyers when the idea came along to light up the main business strip down here. My guess is that the can of worms is about to be opened. Let's sit back and enjoy the show.

As long as you operate within legal frequency limits imposed by the FCC I can't see a legal issue. No one owns the frequency band, it's public. What would the issue be fair trade? You can select your access point and if one is free and the other cost money too bad. It's not a commerce mechanism, it is a public utility with no license requirment. Like CB Radio. That would be like charging someone to use a coodless phone you buy at walmart. Just my take. Yes horse, the can is opening. ;) The cost of lighting up a city would be very insignificant. If enough people do the opposite and try and monolpoize a city and force everyone to pay them, then I could see the FCC stepping in.. otherwise it's an open and public medium. High end enterprise equipment would probably not operate in the standards set by the FCC in the United States. In some cases people even buy the stuff without a license where one is required.

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Originally posted here by thehorse13
My guess is that the can of worms is about to be opened. Let's sit back and enjoy the show.

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For some of us that are a bit closer... we can watch from our cars. :)
Time to mount an antenna to the top of the jeep and get to know the city a bit better. :)

Up until now... I really had no reason to go to philly.
With the exception of a club or concert here or there...

You know what might be more fun? Setting up a bunch of odd machines spread out in the busiest places with fakeap broadcasting 50,000+ APs per machine.....

http://www.blackalchemy.to/project/fakeap/

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In some cases people even buy the stuff without a license where one is required.

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I do that... why the hell am I going to pay for a license for some 2 way radios that I use when I go camping and skiing? Heck, they even want you to get a license for 802.11x devices... When I asked a best buy sales rep (some PFY) about it... they said that nobody ever asked about that warning and to just ignore it.

I wonder how long after it is opend to the pubic before someone takes it down.

Using the public band isn't the legal issue. It's stomping on small shops that use Wi-Fi gear in their offices. Our monster lightup gear would stomp their signal rendering their computer assets as paper weights. ;)

Ah, plus I think you have mentioned you work for the government horse. That always brings issues of frequency problems.

Thats a shitty speed anyway, id rather pay for a faster connection.

I noticed something over the last few days. Most of the cafe style restaurants and coffee shops have free wireless now. Even the one's who used to be "T Mobile Hotspots" Well at least here where I live. It is interesting because perhaps eventually every one will have one, just like they don't blink an eye at having credit card card reader, standard install of point of sale systems. The existing one's are off the POS network anyway. Heck I was in the pub the other night and could access a cafe gatway half a block away.

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Originally posted here by foxyloxley
Just out in the UK on the TV as well, so it MUST be true .................

EVIL TWINS.
A legitimate wireless network sets up.
Along comes a not so legit set up :eek: and they set up their network to match the first / legit one [pay attention at the back] Now customers of the legit can be 'fooled' into logging onto the EVIL TWIN ...............Phishing comes of age :(

PS: the telly called them 'Hackers' *groan* and their experts [ex = a has been. spurt = a drip under pressure.] showed just how easy it was to do ..........................
All I needed was the VCR running, and I would have had my very own "How to Hack" movie.

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Don't know an easier way of linking the threads. But felt it was relevant to this one too.

I always thought that Philly was a hot spot because cdkj lived there! Dang, guess that makes it a _real_ hot spot!?!?!

I don't think I want to be one of the contractors on this one. I'm running low on years and headache medicine over here. Lessee 135 square miles -- BTW cdkj, what's the population of Phila now? -- hmmm ...

<calculate - calculate>

Yeah, I don't think the estimated budget is gonna get it done, might have to throw a few more nickles in the bucket.