Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wi-Fi - Tapping into Public Wireless Networks

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 11:39:29 -0500

Tapping Into
Public Wireless Networks
By JOHN R. QUAIN
New York Times

December 12, 2002

THE chances are good, and getting better every day, that you have
seen someone at a cafe or bookstore or in an airport lounge using
a laptop computer to surf the Web, check e-mail or chat by instant
messaging - all without plugging anything in. If you are ready to
pull your own computer out of your bag and join in, take heart. It
is easier than you might think.

The wireless hot spots, or nodes, that are proliferating rapidly
in public places all over the country are based on a networking
standard known as Wi-Fi, or 802.11b. Any computer with the right
hardware - basically a networking card with a radio transceiver -
can jump onto one of these networks. Several notebook computers,
like Toshiba's $1,299 Satellite 1200-S121, come with built-in
Wi-Fi network support. Toshiba even offers a hand-held organizer -
the $599 Pocket PC e740 - with built-in wireless. If it's not
built in, Wi-Fi hardware can be ordered as an option on a laptop,
usually costing $70 to $120, or you can add an adapter to your
current notebook using a U.S.B. port or PC Card slot.

Most PC Card Wi-Fi adapters have a flat antenna that sticks out
about an inch from the side of the computer. Netgear's MA401
802.11b Wireless PC Card is a typical example and costs about $60.
If you are worried that rough handling might damage the antenna,
3Com has a $119 Wireless LAN PC Card with a retractable
horseshoe-style antenna. You can even add Wi-Fi to a Pocket
PC-based hand-held by adding a $169 Compact Flash adapter from
Socket Communications called the Low Power WLAN Card.

These wireless adapters snap easily into place, and installing
their software is usually straightforward. Netgear's software, for
example, automatically finds a nearby wireless node and a green
icon will alert you when you have a good link. Although Wi-Fi
networks are able to achieve a top speed of 11 megabits per second
(Mbps), the speed of your connection will vary depending on the
speed of the hot spot's server, how many other people are using it
and how close you are to the access point. At hot spots in
Manhattan, I saw speeds ranging from 400 kilobits per second or so
to over 2 Mbps. Just remember that you can't surf from a park
bench forever. You will have to quit when your notebook's battery
does, and a wireless network adapter drains additional power.

Having the right hardware is only one part of the equation.
Finding a wireless network to use is the other. You can find a
list of wireless hot spots around the country at Web sites like
802.11 Hotspots (http://www.80211hotspots.com), PersonalTelco
(http://www.personaltelco.net) and the Community Wireless Node
Database Project (http://www.nodedb.com). But the proliferation of
open hot spots has been so rapid in places like Manhattan that
finding a node is often as simple as powering up your notebook. In
fact, immediately after installing the Netgear adapter on one
laptop, I found that I was already online when I opened my
browser, thanks to an open, unlisted wireless node near my office.

If a hot spot does not immediately present itself, you can use the
built-in software to search for a nearby node. Look for the
network settings icon under Control Panel, and set the adapter's
network name (a k a its ESSID) to "any." Making such adjustments
is usually all you need to do to gain access to an open or
unrestricted hot spot. When you open your browser you may
encounter an agreement page, but all you have to do is agree to
the operator's terms of service and you can start surfing.

If you find you are having trouble finding hot spots using your
Windows settings, there are free software programs called sniffers
that will do the hunting for you. The best one I found was a
program from the hot spot provider Boingo Wireless. The Boingo
software is a free Windows program that can be downloaded from the
company's Web site (www.boingo.com), and it works with a wide
variety of Wi-Fi adapters. Using the Boingo program, you can find
all nearby networks and then choose the one you want to connect
to.

When I used the Boingo software, I often found I was within range
of two or more hot spots, some restricted and some not. (The
software will not allow you to break into restricted wireless
networks.) Some offered free access to the Net, some charged a
fee.

Service Options

So which type of service should you use? I tried two of the
better-known subscription services, Boingo and T-Mobile.

Boingo offers a basic individual account for $24.95 a month. This
covers you for 10 "connect days" a month. A connect day
constitutes one 24-hour period, though you can sign on and off as
often as you like; if you exceed the 10-day limit, each additional
day costs $4.95. Business or other heavy users can get unlimited
access for $49.95 a month, while impoverished students can choose
to pay as they go for $7.95 a day. Boingo has more than 800 hot
spots around the country, covering some 300 cities in 43 states.
In New York City there are 11 Boingo nodes, which include such
ritzy spots as the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel.

The other service I tried was T-Mobile's HotSpot. The company has
more than 1,900 access points, the most prominent of which are in
hundreds of Starbucks. T-Mobile's unlimited nationwide service is
$49.99 a month. If you only want to log on at your neighborhood
Starbucks, unlimited local use is $29.99 a month. You can also
decide to pay as you go, but it is considerably more costly: $2.99
for the first 15 minutes of Web use and 25 cents a minute
thereafter.

While both services worked without a hitch, both also had their
quirks. In Boingo's case, if you move from one access point to
another within 24 hours, that counts as two connect days. Apple
owners will also be disappointed to learn that Boingo doesn't work
with Macs yet. In the case of T-Mobile, it turns out that
"unlimited usage" isn't quite. You get a total of only 500
megabytes of data transmissions for the monthly fee. Once you
exceed that amount, T-Mobile starts charging you 25 cents a
megabyte. Keeping track of data usage - as opposed to simply
tracking the number of minutes you are online - is extremely
difficult. And if you frequently visit Web sites laden with video
and audio clips or are in the habit of e-mailing photos to your 50
closest friends, the service could become infuriatingly expensive.

Compared with the fee-based services, the free hot spots are
Internet nirvana. I was able to easily - and often
unintentionally - tap into numerous free nodes, surfing the Web
and downloading e-mail from my existing accounts without a hiccup.

Security

So why not go gratis all the time? For one thing, you never know
where your next open hot spot might be. And there are concerns
about security. To make the networks easily accessible, the free
hot spot operators often forgo basic security measures. That means
that when you hop onto a free node, you do not know who is on the
other side of the wireless server. It is possible that an
unscrupulous operator could set up a hot spot simply to steal
unwary users' passwords and credit card numbers.

Subscription services, which require you to log on with a
password, at least afford some level of assurance that there is a
legitimate operator on the other side of the wireless connection.
But even the for-pay services are vulnerable to security breeches.
Hackers can position themselves near hot spots and try to break
into the systems of people connecting to them, stealing
information and - even though this is a threat that so far is more
often discussed than encountered - intercepting e-mail and instant
messages.

Whether you are using a free or a paid node, you can discourage
most hackers by simply turning off the file-sharing setting in
Windows in the network settings box (click on network settings in
the Control Panel, then find and uncheck file and print sharing).
You can also use firewall software, like Norton Internet Security
2003 ($100), that can be set to keep out wireless interlopers and
give you at least as much privacy as you have at home on a wired
broadband connection.

You can achieve the tightest security at a hot spot by using
virtual private networking, or VPN, software. Such programs
establish an encrypted link for you through the Internet, turning
your wireless communiqués into anonymous Web traffic, and thus
making them nearly impervious to hackers. Boingo currently offers
VPN services to its customers free of charge, and the company's
VPN software also works at free hot spots. But Boingo expects to
start charging for the VPN service next year. T-Mobile does not
offer VPN services.

Free nodes are multiplying so quickly across the landscape of New
York City that fee-based services might seem superfluous. But if
you travel frequently and want to send e-mail wirelessly from,
say, Terminal 7 at Los Angeles International, you will need to
ante up for a service like Boingo. And remember that behind every
free hot spot there is someone or something paying for the
Internet connection you are sharing. So enjoy the free ride while
you can.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/technology/circuits/12basi.html

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