> What will they think of next
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1860000/1860241.stm
Hello jinx,

I was reading about these last week, sounds like some of the "Pringles"
antennas outperformed "professional" antennas.  It also sounded like making
these is a hit-and-miss proposition, some work real well, some don't.  Not
hard to believe, given the variation in spacing, materials and other
factors.  But with say a "good" network analyzer, you might be able to tweak
one of these to perform exceedingly well.  Not that there having poor
performance now.  ;-)

Really though, this is a very serious security issue.  Wireless networks
everywhere are unprotected.

Sidebar on network security (wired or wireless)

I use a tool (in a good way) called NetBrute that scans subnets and exposes
basic security weaknesses.  It worries me that I could easily (if I so
desired) destroy the data on dozens of computers anywhere in the world
within an hours time.  I've often wondered if I should stick a note on their
desktop to warn them, but then that would make my activity cross the line of
legality.  It's legal to scan a network (especially with a customers
consent), but it's illegal to store or modify something on a computer (even
with good intentions).  Not surprisingly, many of these computers are
practically "eaten up" by various viruses.  I could easily drop a program
like VNC (or the SUB-7 trojan if you really want to have some fun) to be
installed on any one of these computers (upon the next reboot) and then take
it for a real test drive.  :-(

michael brown

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