iPhone overload: Dutch T-Mobile issues refund after 3G issues

"Of the three mobile network operators in the Netherlands, only T-Mobile sells the iPhone. And only T-Mobile has a large part of its customer base irate from lack of 3G data access, dropped calls, and calls going directly to voicemail even with full 3G coverage.

So no, such problems aren't limited just to AT&T. And as with AT&T, the problems are worst in the largest and most tech-savvy cities. Those problems are now so bad that T-Mobile is offering a little cashback for affected users."

iPhone overload: Dutch T-Mobile issues refund after 3G issues

Is your neighbor stealing your wifi???

Securing your wireless in an alternative fashion

My neighbors are stealing my wireless internet access. I could encrypt it or alternately I could have fun.

I'm starting here by splitting the network into two parts, the trusted half and the untrusted half. The trusted half has one netblock, the untrusted a different netblock. We use the DHCP server to identify mac addresses to give out the relevant addresses.

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Meraki Releases World’s First Solar-Powered WiFi Device

day, wireless networking provider Meraki started shipping the world’s first solar-powered WiFi mesh device. Meraki’s groundbreaking energy-independent device is powered by a single solar panel and solar-charged battery. Since the unit requires no grid-derived energy, it can be set up in areas lacking power supplies, like parks, golf courses, rural areas, and resorts.

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Battered, but not broken: understanding the WPA crack

Glenn Fleishman writes that WiFi security takes a hit with the disclosure of an effective exploit for small packets encrypted with the TKIP flavor of WiFi Protected Access. The technique is fiendishly clever; the security solution, simple: switch to AES-only in WPA2.

Academic researchers have found an exploitable hole in a popular form of wireless networking encryption. The hole is in a part of 802.11i that forms the basis of WiFi Protected Access (WPA), so it could affect routers worldwide. German graduate student Erik Tews will present a paper at next week's PacSec in Tokyo coauthored with fellow student and aircrack-ng team member Martin Beck that reveals how remnants of WPA's predecessor allow them to slip a knife into a crack in the encryption scheme and send bogus data to an unsuspecting WiFi client.

In an interview from Germany, where he is a PhD candidate studying encryption at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Tews explained that an existing attack on Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) was modified to provide a slim vector for sending arbitrary data to networks that use the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). (Tews' collaborator Beck is a student at the Technical University of Dresden; Tews credits Beck with the discovery, after which they jointly developed the paper that Tews will present at PacSec.)

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Free AT&T Wi-Fi for iPhones users in the USA

Yup this Includes Starbucks stores too!

Accessing AT&T's Wi-Fi hotspots is easy. You can use any Wi-Fi enabled laptop or other device to connect quickly and seamlessly.

Get started with LaptopConnect

Log in to the AT&T hotspot web page with LaptopConnect
Activate the wireless networking functionality on your laptop or Wi-Fi-enabled device and look for the SSID "ATTWIFI"
Once connected to "ATTWIFI" you will be presented with options to order AT&T's Basic or Premier service

iPhone users, get started with Wi-Fi

Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone
Select "attwifi" from the list of available networks
Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy. Tap 'continue'
You will receive a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. You will not be charged for the text message.
The SMS link will only be valid for 24 hours at the location it was requested. Another request must be submitted when using another hotspot location.
Open the text message and tap on the link for 24-hour access to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot

Credit card processors finally get clue, will ban WEP

Companies that accept major credit cards will be barred from using WEP for their WiFi security, but not until mid-2010. The rule is part of new security standards defined and released this week by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, which is made up of companies like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. The sad thing is that WEP—which can be cracked in as little as two minutes—is still widely used in the old and decrepit point-of-sale systems used by many retailers; the new rules should help move along the long-overdue adoption of tighter security in credit card processing.

WEP's hackability has been widely known since 2001, and has been blamed for the largest incident of consumer data theft in history. TJX, parent company of discount retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, disclosed last year that hackers had stolen data covering over 45 million credit and debit cards over an 18-month period. In addition to pilfering over 45 million—and possibly as many as 200 million—credit card and debit card numbers, the hackers were also able to obtain other personal data from over 450,000 customers. This included driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers.

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