[wplug] downtown wireless?

[Richard Farina]

Patrick Wagstrom wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-09-05 at 21:29 -0400, Richard Farina wrote:
>   
>> Zach wrote:
>>     
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I heard we are getting free wi-fi downtown. I'd like to try it but
>>> I've never used wireless before.
>>>       
>> I've heard of it, but I have not seen it, and believe me, I would notice ;-)
>>     
>>> How do I set it up in Linux? I have a wireless card but don't know how
>>> to install it.
>>>       
>> you need wireless-tools installed, also the correct driver (not 
>> ndiswrapper). Then I suggest "man iwconfig".... of course, I'm a console 
>> jockey.
>>     
>
> Alternatively, the sane thing is to drop in a Ubuntu Dapper Drake CD and
> watch as it just magically works.  You may want to run "apt-get install
> network-manager-gnome" and then run "nm-applet".  This gives you a fancy
> little pull down menu that lets you select from the available wireless
> networks and handles all the stuff like WEP, WPA1/2 (PSK, Enterprise,
> etc) for networks that utilize encryption.  Unless you have good reason
> to, it's much simpler just to use network-manager.  You can just click
> on the icon and it will try to connect you to the network.  Protected
> networks will have a little shield or lock by them, and Network Manager
> will prompt you for the password before connecting.   It's quite slick.
>
> Suggesting that someone who has never used wireless in Linux immediately
> dive into wireless-tools (what ones?  linux-wlan?  the "standard"?  what
> if my card isn't supported by these?  what's this ndiswrapper and
> linuxant stuff?) is a little like teaching a kid to swim by throwing him
> into Lake Superior in May.  (For those of you not from the great frozen
> tundra, the average summer temperature of Lake Superior is 40 degrees.
> I've seen it as low as 37 in August.).
>
>   
FYI "wireless-tools" is the package REQUIRED for ANY wireless networking 
control at all, it is completely driver and distro independant.  Without 
wireless tools installed, no 802.11 for you.

-Rick
>> encrypt everything with strong encryption if you care to protect it.  No 
>> one can do much with your google search, but don't telnet home as root, 
>> or buy something on some unencrypted website.  Well, duh.  ;-)
>>     
>
> Apparently, you seem to missed something over the past few weeks.  The
> AOL data exposure showed how easy it was to re-identify people[1].
> Furthermore, there's been ongoing debate about Google releasing its
> search records to the Department of Justice[2] and the fallout of them
> complying by handing over data to the Brazilian government[3].  Given
> that many people use GMail for email, this means Google can tie your
> searches to your email.  Youch.  Do yourself a favor, install the
> blackboxsearch[4] script for greasemonkey[5] and start hiding your
> tracks.  Also, you might want to go get Lost In the Crowd[6].  Of
> course, sometimes looking at this search information is kinda funny[7].
>
> --Patrick
>
> [1] google for "nytimes aol search"
> [2] http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/006603.html
> [3] http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6112176.html
> [4] http://www.nemik.net/blackboxsearch.user.js
> [5] http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/
> [6] http://www.lostinthecrowd.org/
> [5] http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=4032
>
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