From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 23 19:58:07 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF9FD16A4CE; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 19:58:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from rwcrmhc11.comcast.net (rwcrmhc11.comcast.net [204.127.198.35]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C02D943D2D; Tue, 23 Mar 2004 19:58:07 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from garycor@comcast.net) Received: from comcast.net (pcp09118143pcs.union01.nj.comcast.net[69.142.234.88]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc11) with SMTP id <2004032403580401300e03vve> (Authid: garycor); Wed, 24 Mar 2004 03:58:07 +0000 Message-ID: <406108F7.3030704@comcast.net> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 23:05:11 -0500 From: Gary Corcoran User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Sam Leffler References: <20040321013533.GA37342@panzer.kdm.org> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org cc: "Kenneth D. Merry" cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: WEP problems with ndis and ath drivers X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 03:58:08 -0000 Sam Leffler wrote: > It appears your AP requires shared-key authentication to associate when > WEP is enabled. The current code in the tree does not support > shared-key authentication (it's actually a bad idea security-wise). I don't claim to be an "expert" on WiFi, but the project I'm on at work involves WiFi, so I've had to learn a few things. One thing I learned is that you have a choice of "open" or "shared-key" authentication, and I eventually found out what "open" means. It is supposedly better described as "no authentication", because your access point is "open", or usable without authentication. This is independent (on at least some access points) of whether you have WEP turned on. That is, with WEP on, you can have either open or shared-key authentication. On other acess points, however, it appears that if you have WEP turned on, then it implies shared-key, rather than the no-authentication "open" mode, which seems to make sense - if you want security, you don't want just anyone "authenticating". Hence I'm curious why, if "open" equates to "no" authentication, you suggest that shared-key authentication is a worse option? Perhaps it is - I'm just trying to learn a bit more... BTW, although I've only played with it a bit on FreeBSD and Linux, thanks for your work on the Atheros drivers, Sam. Gary