The system uses the 802.11a and 802.11b protocols, commonly refered to as WiFi.
What about 802.11g? If they're supporting 802.11a, they might as well support 802.11g, too.
Maybe they figure that the 802.11b users will just slow down the network for everyone, so they won't even bother. Why not have 2 separate APs, then? One for 802.11b and one for 802.11g?
802.11g is backwards compatible so you would still be able to connect there just not at 52 Mbs. If all they are giving public is the ability to access the internet and not share files between computers then there is no hope of getting speeds faster then the 11Mbs that 802.11b will give you anyway. So as of now there isn't that much of a need for 802.11g.
Why not have 2 separate APs, then? One for 802.11b and one for 802.11g?
There's this thing called money that is used as a medium of exchange between people in the market place. It is valuable because it is rare and represents the value of work that is done. Incase you haven't heard, the economy is being a bit slow and the government doesn't have gobbs of it anymore (and neither do we). So to implement twice as many APs they would hate to tax me (one way or another) some more to pay for them. No thanks.
In fact, seeing the defecit we're running - why are they buying APs at all? Is this going to save me money? Is it going to increase my benefits? I'll wager no on both counts.
Spammers
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 4, Insightful
It seems pretty ironic that the FCC, while on the one hand leading a battle against spam, would choose to offer Wi-Fi, potentially catering to wannabe spammers. But of course this won't be a problem, since in true US gov't fashion they'll obviously protect the network against this type of misuse.
The spammers could run a sendmail process directly on their laptop that would route to the destination mail relay directly, but they could do this from any connection with any ISP.
But not anonymously from an IP within the fcc.gov domain.
Gotta love the FCC
by
commodoresloat
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· Score: 5, Insightful
At present, the FCC will not request personal identifying information prior to allowing access to the wireless network.An open network. At the FCC. They want as few people as possible on the public airwaves but they'll let anyone on their private network.
Re:Gotta love the FCC
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Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 2, Insightful
This is bull. Anyone can pass a simple 35 question test and get a Technician Class Amateur Radio license and get on the public airwaves.
Re:Gotta love the FCC
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commodoresloat
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Yeah. And nobody will listen to it except other amateur radio enthusiasts. Meanwhile, thanks to the FCC, anyone who owns a newspaper in one town can now own a television station as well. The FCC's current leadership is making decisions which will lead to further media consolidation and stifle competition. I'm glad they're giving out wifi access, but I don't think it's consistent with the current administration's direction, and I certainly don't expect it to last. (Especially after some hacker uses the anonymous wifi entrance to alter the fcc.gov webpage...)
Re:Gotta love the FCC
by
Alien+Being
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I doubt the public APs are inside the firewall.
Re:pdf press release
by
afidel
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Why do you care, the software is free, heck there are even Free alternatives. You can publish pdf's with Free and free software too since Adobe made the standard open. I don't know why anyone would have a problem with pdf. It's a perfect way to do device independant publishing.
-- There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Re:Nice....
by
Chanc_Gorkon
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Yep. And for once I am happy about it. WiFi is cheap in the grand scheme of things. What they bought like 3 AP's for the DC office? That's not alot of our Tax Dollars being wasted. And for once, the FCC may have a clue!
--
Gorkman
Re:Loss Leader
by
ubrgeek
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· Score: 4, Insightful
"Seriously, Mike Powell seems to be on the forward edge... It is good to have people... who can think independantly of lobbyists or position papers generated by their staff."
Are you kidding? This guy has nothing right since starting at the FCC. This is a press-release, grip-and-grin victory. This guy is in the lobbyists pockets with all of the media consolidation. Jesus, it took _CONGRESS_ to set him straight and overturn his decision.
Nothing but the fact that the transparant proxy uses the MAC from the DHCP pool. In fact it is only port 80 traffic which needs a code to work, my friend found this out when one day he decided to RDP into one of his servers, he got in then realized he had never authenticated the session that day!
-- There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Won't last long...
by
st0rmshad0w
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· Score: 2, Insightful
This will last about as long as it takes for someone to trace an attack back to their wifi access.
How anonymous are you really? Like, computers like to chatter, especially windows. Is your netbios name somehow descriptive of who you are? If there is an imaps connection into some other site so you can get your mail, you've created a trail that, with the other site's help, can identify who you are.
Or sites you browse. Like slashdot. "This page was generated by.*for (.*) \(" or something like that will lift your slashdot username. From there you can browse the person's comment history, learn little tidbits about them, all leading to possible identification.
It's difficult to stay really anonymous if someone wants to track you down bad enough...
The nice thing about wide open wifi points in neighborhoods and such is that if it's wide open, it's most likely due to user stupidity and hence nothing is going to be noticed or tracked by the user or the ISP.
I wouldn't be so quick to do anything clandestine on a federal agency wifi network, that's for sure.
Slashdot Mirror
The system uses the 802.11a and 802.11b protocols, commonly refered to as WiFi.
What about 802.11g? If they're supporting 802.11a, they might as well support 802.11g, too.
Maybe they figure that the 802.11b users will just slow down the network for everyone, so they won't even bother. Why not have 2 separate APs, then? One for 802.11b and one for 802.11g?
It seems pretty ironic that the FCC, while on the one hand leading a battle against spam, would choose to offer Wi-Fi, potentially catering to wannabe spammers. But of course this won't be a problem, since in true US gov't fashion they'll obviously protect the network against this type of misuse.
Not.
At present, the FCC will not request personal identifying information prior to allowing access to the wireless network.An open network. At the FCC. They want as few people as possible on the public airwaves but they'll let anyone on their private network.
Why do you care, the software is free, heck there are even Free alternatives. You can publish pdf's with Free and free software too since Adobe made the standard open. I don't know why anyone would have a problem with pdf. It's a perfect way to do device independant publishing.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
YOUR tax dollars at work....
"Seriously, Mike Powell seems to be on the forward edge ... It is good to have people ... who can think independantly of lobbyists or position papers generated by their staff."
Are you kidding? This guy has nothing right since starting at the FCC. This is a press-release, grip-and-grin victory. This guy is in the lobbyists pockets with all of the media consolidation. Jesus, it took _CONGRESS_ to set him straight and overturn his decision.
Bark less. Wag more.
Nothing but the fact that the transparant proxy uses the MAC from the DHCP pool. In fact it is only port 80 traffic which needs a code to work, my friend found this out when one day he decided to RDP into one of his servers, he got in then realized he had never authenticated the session that day!
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
This will last about as long as it takes for someone to trace an attack back to their wifi access.
Or sites you browse. Like slashdot. "This page was generated by.*for (.*) \(" or something like that will lift your slashdot username. From there you can browse the person's comment history, learn little tidbits about them, all leading to possible identification.
It's difficult to stay really anonymous if someone wants to track you down bad enough...
The nice thing about wide open wifi points in neighborhoods and such is that if it's wide open, it's most likely due to user stupidity and hence nothing is going to be noticed or tracked by the user or the ISP.
I wouldn't be so quick to do anything clandestine on a federal agency wifi network, that's for sure.