Wi-Fi about to get a whole lot easier

Bokeh

Wi-Fi Is About to Get a Whole Lot Easier - BusinessWeek

dynamik

That usually correlates with a whole lot less secure. Awesome

veritas_libertas

dynamik wrote: »

That usually correlates with a whole lot less secure. Awesome

Nice

GAngel

"The new technology, called Wi-Fi Direct, will be built directly into consumer electronics and automatically scan the vicinity for existing hotspots and the gamut of Wi-Fi equipped devices, including phones, computers, TVs, and gaming consoles"

Thanks but no thanks!

Xenz

So many big names on such a horrible nightmare. I like the part where the whole idea is the lazy don't have to setup 1 (ONE) device, through a GUI, that offers much more control than this idea.

Bokeh

This is going to be a security nightmare in the making.

HeroPsycho

Bokeh wrote: »

This is going to be a security nightmare in the making.

Probably, but not necessarily. Consumer routers are a microcosm of this. The firewall policy on a consumer grade router is honestly very good by default. About as good as you could hope for anyway, with the exception of UPnP turned on by default. So it proves it's possible to have these devices be reasonably secure out of the box.

On the flip side, the default wifi configuration is awful. (Enabled, without even so much as MAC address filtering enabled for security.)

But yeah, I'm betting against security on this one. UPnP is a POS, but it's increasingly enabled by default so stuff like XBox 360's can work easily...

GAngel

HeroPsycho wrote: »

Probably, but not necessarily. Consumer routers are a microcosm of this. The firewall policy on a consumer grade router is honestly very good by default. About as good as you could hope for anyway, with the exception of UPnP turned on by default. So it proves it's possible to have these devices be reasonably secure out of the box.

On the flip side, the default wifi configuration is awful. (Enabled, without even so much as MAC address filtering enabled for security.)

But yeah, I'm betting against security on this one. UPnP is a POS, but it's increasingly enabled by default so stuff like XBox 360's can work easily...

The problem woun't be the routers it will be all the other patchwork garbage first gen devices with little or no security that will have your information out there. I may as well just hand my info over to organized crime myself.

JDMurray

GAngel wrote: »

I may as well just hand my info over to organized crime myself.

And to advertisers. This scheme may very well come with a plan to inject advertisements into all HTTP sessions over Wi-Fi Direct. Intel, Cisco, and Apple are interested in selling everybody everything they've got; controlling your wireless connection is one way to get directly at the consumers, and to earn revenue by selling virtual ad space to businesses.

Hyper-Me

Apple being involved basically guarantees it will be a joke, security wise.

Apples zero config things in the past such as Rendezvous, AppleTalk, etc are miserably terrible protocols that destroy any network over 5 devices. Bleh!

tiersten

Uh. Isn't "technology that effectively turns gadgets into mini access points, able to create wireless connections with other Wi-Fi-enabled gadgets or broadband modems within a radius of about 300 feet" also known as ye olde ad hoc mode...

This is stupid though. If it auto connects to anything nearby then you're going to have issues with people spoofing.