|
Article Examines 802.11g And AirPort Extreme
|
Login/Create an Account
| Top
| 35 comments
|
Search Discussion
|
|
|
|
The Fine Print:
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them.
We are not responsible for them in any way.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I just looked at the article. It's interesting and very informative and the blog site is very well done. What I didn't see, however, is what the "g" in 802.11g stands for. For me it stands for gee, as in gee I feel stupid for getting an Airport and Airport Card about two weeks before this came out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Monday January 20, @01:42AM (#7150)
|
|
|
|
|
|
This article like many others glosses over the LEAP feature. IMHO, LEAP is of the best features Apple included in their 802.11g base station, tackling the wireless security issue head-on.
As cheesy as WEP security is, Apple’s first Airport implementations made configuring WEP difficult. Now Apple literally LEAP-frogged other 802.11g vendors, with this new improved wireless security implementation. I’m surprised more people haven’t noticed this, considering how easy it is for the guy in the corner at your favorite coffee shop to sniff your packets.
Anyone know who is the real manufacturer behind the Extreme base station and cards?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Saturday January 18, @04:24AM (#24627)
|
|
|
|
|
|
MPEG3 was skipped because of the potential confusion with the MPEG2 Layer 3 audio files, aka MP3's.
The letters probably don't stand for anything... according to the article there was an 802.11a but it was too expensive. I imagine there might have been serious proposals for a 802.11c, d, e and f, but none of them have the desirable attributes like being cheap and backwards compatible so they never made it big.
I'll bet no one here's ever even *heard* of Windows 1 or 2, but they existed, and some people even tried to write software for them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Saturday January 18, @03:38AM (#24629)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Because if they'd done the Fibonacci series, they would have had two MPEG-1's, and that would have been hell.
-- Robout
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've heard reports about this as well, but it might just be a mistake over how b and g work together. If you have a single b device on a wireless network, it takes up really long "slots" for its slices of transmission compared with g. If you have some b devices that are running at 2 or 5.5 Mbps (farther away from an access point), they take up even longer slots. This reduces the amount of time on the network available for faster "g" communications.
It's very likely, from what I've read, that using mixed b+g will radically reduce overall g throughput from mid-20s Mbps down to 10-15 Mbps. But remember that 802.11b is really 4 to 7 Mbps after you subtract overhead.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
uhh... i though MAC adress was determined by the hardware. you can't just go around changing you MAC adress, can you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've read indications that if a single member of a 'g' network is using a 'b' only card, the entire network is forced into 10Mbps mode. Even between 2 nodes that are both 802g capable.
Anyone know if this is true? Or is 802b vs 802g negotiated on a node-by-node basis?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I don't think the engineers at the IEEE ever thought people would be reciting long strings of digits and letters, so no effort was made to hide the complexity of their committee numbering system.
802 is the committee for local and wide area networks, including metropolitan networks. Inside of 802, there are a number of working groups; 11 is the one focusing on wireless LANs. Inside of 11 are several lettered "task groups," each with a highly specific object at hand.
a = high-speed 5 GHz wireless, which was actually approved before
b = 2.4 GHz, 11 Mbps
c = abandoned
d = abandoned
e = Quality of Service, or scheduled service with prioritization, to assure that voice and streaming media don't get overwhelmed by other data
f = inter-access point communication (sending information between access points about user authentication, for instance)
g = high-rate 2.4 GHz, or 54 Mbps
h = a fix to "a" that lets it be used in Europe
i = security improvements
j = fix to "a" for Japan, I think
k = accurate signal/noise reporting from physical hardware to firmware
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Saturday January 18, @10:11AM (#24657)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Saturday January 18, @01:01PM (#24664)
|
|
|
|
|
You can do it - but it is ugly and involves patch the xnu kernel of OS X.
http://slagheap.net/etherspoof/
The ifconfig lladdr unfortunately fails silently.
It would be cool to have this in the system without the hack (as Linux and the other *BSDs do) - it is particularly useful when dealing with MAC restricted wireless networks.
It is also needed for ethernet bridging - if apple were to add that to the Software Base Station (ie transparent bridge en0 and en1) then the MAC address would need to be changable.
Cheers
James
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
this article (commsdesign.com) goes into more detail than you might need - has some interesting coverage maps for a versus g too. Basically it says saying having legacy equipment in use will take the rate for all down to around 16Mbps max.
Have a look at figure 7 in particular - they can't negotiate with individual nodes for technical reasons explained in the article. In this case that's the price you pay for backwards compatability...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*Always* wait until after a Macworld Expo to purchase Apple hardware. Unless it's over a month. But I think many people have learned to wait a few weeks since there's always a possibility of upgrades, as you found out.Mr. Tangent
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Saturday January 18, @04:52AM (#24676)
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'd like to recomend AirPort Exteme base stations to PC people, but I need to know if they can use the UBS port for printing...
Anyone know what is used to share the printer? AppleTalk? CUPS?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Saturday January 18, @05:07PM (#24704)
|
|
|
|
|
|
I believe you mean MPEG-1 layer 3 audio files.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Monday January 20, @01:15PM (#24752)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nice article.
Hopefully they will eventually solidify the 802.11i and other standards(within our lifetime). The world waited forever for CAT 6 to be standardized.;)
However, if strong keys(!=weakkeys)are generated using WEP, and a method similar to LEAP rotates keys every x seconds (300 seconds is standard at this point), WEP should be good enough. I agree that if you are serious about security, you should be using some type of VPN as well. WEP is just a 'wireless equivelant protection'. I wouldnt send important data over the wire either.
...and remember -- there is no unbreakable encryption, just more difficult to break encryption.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I ordered the Airport Base station and airport card as soon as it was available (original one), and it's still going strong.
Just ordered a PowerBook G4, with the extreme card (no 54Mbit base station though...not worth the money at this point), hope it holds up as well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hey, I used Windows 2 for a week. You could almost copy and paste. Looked as butt-ugly as Windows 3, too.>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You might have an electrical problem somewhere.>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is a great point, but LEAP isn't a security solution at the level you are implying it is. LEAP is a corporate/institutional method of ensuring that you can restrict access to a network via a wireless gateway only to users with passwords, while also ensuring that the username and password are encrypted. It's a tricky problem.
There's no client standard for LEAP (or its relatives PEAP, EAP-TLS, and EAP-TTLS), so you can't be sure that any machine that walks into a hot spot will have appropriate support.
LEAP and WEP aren't interchangeable, and LEAP doesn't solve WEP's problems. In fact, it relies on it. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and 802.11i solve the WEP flaws, but Apple is playing a wait and see game (as we note in the article).
WEP and its replacements encrypt data in transit using static keys. LEAP and its brethen protect authentication processes -- the process of logging in -- and then use WEP and company to encrypt data. LEAP et al. also can rotate keys, so a static key can't be broken and used to decrypt subsequent traffic.
We'll get it into this in a big way when it becomes a reality. Right now, you have WPA in progress -- we'll start seeing some non-Apple companies ship WPA updates starting maybe as early as February -- and all the protected authentication standards fighting it out, with Cisco (which has abandoned future LEAP support) backing Microsoft's PEAP while others like EAP-TTLS.
I could go on and on, but it gets very tedious. Check out the article I wrote on this topic for InfoWorld which ran last week.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My AirPort card is still working after almost 4 years (I got it in mid-to late 1999). I've never heard of anyone's AirPort card breaking.--
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not really out to get you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Remember that WPA, when it arrives, brings TKIP, and 802.11i adds AES (really long strong keys). WEP will soon be a nightmare of the past if manufacturers honor their promises and release firmware upgrades for ALL equipment, not just recent equipment, to support WPA. They've said they would as a whole (Wi-Fi Alliance), but few individual promises yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Sunday January 19, @01:27PM (#25310)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fine, but Apple has replaced three ABS of mine in as many years. I'm on my fourth. If this one goes in the next 6 months, I get my money back :)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Sunday January 19, @01:26PM (#25315)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nope, I'm pretty sure the spec allows for MPEG-1 layer III, as well as MPEG-2 layer III.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by
Anonymous Coward
on Saturday January 18, @03:33PM (#25682)
|
|
|
|
|
My card has lasted two years now. I've not heard of anyone's card breaking (other than yours, of course!).
-B
|
|
|
|
|
