Pinboard (guardiantech)

Here’s why public Wi-fi is a public health hazard >> Matter

guardiantech — 2014-10-16T22:33:37+00:00

Maurits Martijn:

In his backpack, Wouter Slotboom, 34, carries around a small black device, slightly larger than a pack of cigarettes, with an antenna on it. I meet Wouter by chance at a random cafe in the center of Amsterdam. It is a sunny day and almost all the tables are occupied. Some people talk, others are working on their laptops or playing with their smartphones. Wouter removes his laptop from his backpack, puts the black device on the table, and hides it under a menu. A waitress passes by and we ask for two coffees and the password for the WiFi network. Meanwhile, Wouter switches on his laptop and device, launches some programs, and soon the screen starts to fill with green text lines. It gradually becomes clear that Wouter’s device is connecting to the laptops, smartphones, and tablets of cafe visitors.

Free Wi-Fi on city buses and buildings as Oxford gets super connected >> Oxford City Council

guardiantech — 2014-10-14T12:14:02+00:00

The City Council has secured funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to deliver Wi-Fi on buses and free to enter buildings as part of the Super Connected Cities programme. The city's two main bus operators, Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach, will have installed Wi-Fi on virtually all buses within the Oxford Smart Zone by the end of November. In addition, Super Connected Oxford will also make available a Wireless concession in the streets of the city and Wi-Fi Hotspots in free to enter public buildings by April next year. Residents and visitors to the city can expect to enjoy free Wi-Fi in all City Council community centres, libraries and museums such as The Ashmolean and Museum of Natural History.

Is wireless safe enough? >> Telecom Trends

guardiantech — 2014-04-02T16:01:19+00:00

In 1998, Health Canada first commissioned the Royal Society to examine Safety Code 6 to assess consistency with the scientific literature in setting limits to protect the public from adverse health risks. This led to a Expert Panel report in March 1999. While there have been changes made to Safety Code 6 over the past 15 years, public concerns continue to be raised in respect of RF exposure that fall within the limits of the code. So, in 2013, Health Canada once again commissioned the Royal Society to strike an independent expert panel.
At nearly 120 pages plus appendices, it is a hefty read.
The bottom line? A single statement in the Public Summary says it best: “the Panel has concluded that the balance of evidence at this time does not indicate negative health effects from exposure to RF energy below the limits recommended in the Safety Code.”

Deploy tinfoil hats elsewhere.

Some Windows 8.1 PCs are still suffering from limited or no Wi-Fi connectivity >> Softpedia

guardiantech — 2013-12-31T12:26:33+00:00

Several users have reported limited or no Wi-Fi connectivity, a bug that previously affected Surface tablet, but now became a widespread issue also targeting PCs and other tablets.
Fast-forward two months after launch and users are getting the same errors, with many turning to the official Microsoft Community forums to express their frustration.

Seems to be Centrino-related - so principally affecting those using older machines.

Apple fends off $248m demand by Wi-Lan in patent suit >> San Jose Mercury News

guardiantech — 2013-10-23T23:06:14+00:00

Apple won a patent-infringement trial in which Wi-Lan was seeking $248m from the iPhone maker over an invention for wireless technology used in mobile devices.
Apple didn't infringe a patent for technology used in wireless networking, a federal jury in Marshall, Texas, said Wednesday. The jury, which deliberated for just over an hour, also said the two patent claims were invalid.
Wi-Lan said it was reviewing its options, and that it "does not believe previous license agreements signed related to the patents are negatively impacted by this decision."

Wouldn't be sure about that; earlier licencees include Samsung and Ericsson. Wi-Lan's only revenues are from its patents: $19.9m in the second quarter. Nice business if you can get it.

Drive-by Wi-Fi attacks against Android + the beginning of defense >> Kismet Wireless

guardiantech — 2013-09-27T05:49:26+00:00

There's a drive-by attack possible against the ad networks used in Android apps:

Mobile devices (not just Android) are especially vulnerable to Wi-Fi hijacking attacks because they will promiscuously roam to anything that looks like an access point they know, even when the user isn't paying attention.
On Android, official apps like Google Maps and Google Now even suggest you always leave Wi-Fi enabled, so that Wi-Fi based positioning will work more accurately. This means the device is constantly looking to join networks, and constantly at risk for random hijackers.
The one glimmer here is that most ad-driven applications are required to only show ads when the user is actually looking - they probably won't be loading new ads constantly while the screen is off, though who knows for sure. Unfortunately this won't prevent users who have their devices on - doing whatever users do, connecting to random Wi-Fi networks.

How do smartphones reveal shoppers’ movements? >> The Economist

guardiantech — 2013-07-22T21:12:56+00:00

For several months Nordstrom tested a system that tracked the movements of people carrying Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones and other devices as they wandered through 17 of its stores or merely walked by. The firm posted a public notice of the monitoring, prompting a report by a television station in Dallas in May, at which point the retailer pulled the plug. Then the New York Times picked up the story, igniting a privacy debate about passive monitoring via Wi-Fi and other technologies. The system used by Nordstrom and several other firms, provided by Euclid Analytics, can precisely track the movements of individual phones, even though they never actually connect to a Wi-Fi network. How does it work?

Gogo's problem: inflight Wi-Fi is expensive, and no one uses it >> Businessweek

guardiantech — 2013-06-25T06:03:00+00:00

The immediate problem for [inflight Wi-Fi provider] Gogo is that most travelers don’t pay for Wi-Fi access when they fly. Only about 6% of fliers on Gogo-enabled flights used the service in the first quarter, the company says. So it raised its prices, looking for profit from a smaller base of business travelers who can pass that cost along to their employers. Surfing the web at 38,000 feet is now a premium product.
Gogo charges $14 for a daily pass, $34 monthly for a specific airline, and $42 for a monthly pass on any airline with its equipment; service sold onboard is higher. Part of the pricing Gogo sets is also designed to help negotiate the tricky issue that current technologies don’t allow 200 people on a plane all to connect wirelessly, due to bandwidth constraints.

Not enough people used it, so they raised the price? Literally a captive market.

Free as in unlicensed: why the FCC isn’t giving away wireless service to anybody >> Project Disco

guardiantech — 2013-02-06T12:37:18+00:00

A front-page story in the Washington Post offered a simplified, optimistic read on part of this effort: a proposal to invite unlicensed use of some frequencies liberated by rearranging TV channels. Cecilia Kang's piece included caveats further down about the limits of any free service, but if you stopped at the headline and opening paragraphs that used "free" as a synonym for "unlicensed" - or read glib rewrites elsewhere - the story shouted "Free Public WiFi!"
The reality has no exclamation point and many question marks.

Sorry to reality check y'all.

Before you get excited about that "free super Wi-Fi" story… >> SplatF

guardiantech — 2013-02-04T22:20:05+00:00

Dan Frommer:

"Imagine a free WiFi network spanning the country. The feds want it to happen, wireless cos don't." That's NYT media reporter Brian Stelter's tweet this morning, linking to a Washington Post article by Cecilia Kang.
Sounds amazing! Probably too amazing.

A new Apple iOS Wi-Fi problem has popped up while others remain unfixed >> ZDNet

guardiantech — 2012-10-16T21:23:28+00:00

Some Apple iPhone and iPad users are facing a major new problem with Wi-Fi/cellular data use while others are still dealing with earlier, unresolved iOS 6 Wi-Fi problems.
The latest annoyance is a real pain-in-the-rump. It turns out that while some of you have been watching videos, playing a game, whatever, on what you thought was a Wi-Fi network, you were actually running up your giant 3G data bill. Apple hasn't commented on this, but on September 30th, Apple quietly released a bug fix for the problem for its Verizon customers.
In it, Apple states. "This carrier settings update resolves an issue in which, under certain circumstances, iPhone 5 may use Verizon cellular data while the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network." Users are loudly saying that is not just a problem with iPhone 5 or Verizon. Instead, they blame iOS 6.

Affecting anyone here?

Wicoms and Skype launch free Skype Wi-Fi across UK and Ireland >> Wicoms Wireless

guardiantech — 2012-10-03T20:54:24+00:00

From Tuesday:

Wicoms and Skype today announced the launch of a new WiFi network initiative called Free Skype WiFi. The new service is rolling out in the UK and the Republic of Ireland in participating high street venues and businesses to deliver simple, trustworthy and free public internet access. The Free Skype WiFi service is available for businesses to purchase at skypewifi.wicoms.com.

Skype users can log in with their Skype ID using the Skype Wi-Fi app. Or enter an email for access.

SWAT team throws flashbangs, raids wrong home due to open WiFi network >> Ars Technica

guardiantech — 2012-06-28T19:19:50+00:00

Officers break the screen door and a window, tossing a flashbang into the house—which you can see explode in the video. A second flashbang gets tossed in for good measure a moment later. SWAT enters the house.
On the news that night, the reporter ends his piece by talking about how this is "an investigation that hits home for many of these brave officers."
But the family in the home was released without any charges as police realized their mistake. Turns out the home had an open WiFi router, and the threats had been made by someone outside the house. Whoops.

Free Wi-Fi to be made available at London Overground stations >> Guardian Government Computing

guardiantech — 2012-03-27T05:24:36+00:00

Passengers travelling on London Overground are to get free internet access after the body that runs the train network, London Overground Rail Operations Limited, signed a deal with The Cloud to roll out Wi-Fi at its stations. The contract will give travellers one hour of free online access every day, at any station on the network. The Wi-Fi rollout, which will cover all 56 London overground train stations, will begin in the summer and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Nobody outside London wants Wi-Fi at stations, right? (And say hello to Guardian Government Computing, a great showcase for content aimed at professionals.)

New iPad Wi-Fi issues seem to be software related, should be easy to patch >> 9to5Mac

guardiantech — 2012-03-22T22:50:33+00:00

We mentioned earlier that some new iPad owners were reporting issues with Wi-Fi. The problem seems to affect all models of the new device with both users of the 4G LTE model and the Wi-Fi-only model experiencing poor Wi-Fi reception. Many forum posters compared Wi-Fi reception with their other iOS devices and MacBooks on the same network:

...unfavourably. We didn't notice any particular problems with the test version of the New iPad. (Thanks @rquick for the link.)

Greater choice for wireless access point owners >> Official Google Blog

guardiantech — 2011-11-18T22:50:57+00:00

"The wireless access point information we use in our location database, the Google Location Server, doesn’t identify people. But as first mentioned in September, we can do more to address privacy concerns. "We’re introducing a method that lets you opt out of having your wireless access point included in the Google Location Server. To opt out, visit your access point’s settings and change the wireless network name (or SSID) so that it ends with “_nomap.” For example, if your SSID is “Network,” you‘d need to change it to 'Network_nomap.'” Now it's *your* fault if Google maps your Wi-Fi. Or something.

DIY flying robo hacker threatens wireless networks >> CNET

guardiantech — 2011-09-14T05:25:50+00:00

"With a name like SkyNET, it's got to be scary. This flying robo-hacker deserves its 'Terminator'-inspired moniker: Although it stops short of actually hunting humans, it's a potential nightmare for anyone with a wireless home network. Worse, it's a DIYer's dream: cheap and easy to build and fun to operate.

"SkyNET combines a toy helicopter and a computer configured to attack Wi-Fi networks. The result is a drone the CIA would be proud of. The nasty little device can compromise computers on wireless networks and dragoon them into botnets. Botnets are widely used for hacking, denial-of-service attacks, and spamming."

Two thoughts: the batteries don't last that long; air rifles are legal in the UK, and those things would make interesting target practice.