UGN Security Forums UGN Security: Underground General 802.11a Question

I jus got a laptop and am reading up on wardriving. And im about to get into it. But i want to get a 802.11a card to do this. So im looking into this stuff and come across a tutorial kinda introduction to this stuff at wardriving.com and it says at the end "What can be done to stop it" and it talks about waiting for 802.11a.. but i want to use 802.11a because its alot faster 54mbps versus 11mbps.. Can i still use an 802.11a card? or is it somthing completly different?

.11e > *

.11g > * [censored]

802.11a and 802.11b ARE NOT compatible with each other. Most of the networks out there are using 802.11b, so if you want to have fun wardriving then that's what you need. I'm sure you'd be able to find some 802.11a networks out there, just not as many.

802.11g is backwards compatible with 802.11b, and will reach the same speeds as 802.11a. However, it is not a finished standrad yet, and it WILL NOT work with 802.11a.

So basically it's one or the other, unless you can find hardware that supports both.

Infinite

lolol haha

I got owned

::nod:: thats how it works...

MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE TRANSMIT POWER!

Look at the specs on it and see what the transmit power is. If it's around 10mW, take it back (or don't buy it). It should be 100mW. This will greatly effect your range.

um, is there a way you can make your wireless network safe from that wardriving thing?

802.11a has a range that is 7x less than 802.11b. (Computer Networks, A. Tanenbaum, p. 295).

If you're interested in short range, fast, wireless communications, look into bluetooth, the chips sell for <$5.

I've got a feeling, however, that you don't want to do that. 802.11a and b are not compatible, although some cards may be 'a' and 'b' compatible. The Cisco Aieronet card I believe is compatible with both since my friend and I always sit next to the wireless router at the university and get >11mbps rather than 11 (max spd. 'b').

Uh, Whats war driving? And what are these 802.11's?

war driving is where you get in a car and drive around with a laptop, and a wireless network card and search for wireless networks to connect to. look at peoples files, surf the net for free, whatever your motive is. as far as the 802's go, its something like this.... ieee is the institute of electrical and electronics engineering, they define standards. the committee responsible for general networking standards is the 802 committee. 802.3 is ethernet, and 802.11 is for wireless networking. the different letters have to do with different standards for wireless networking. for instance, i believe 802.11b uses the 2.4 ghz microwave band and tops out at something like 11 megabits per second. the other letters are different in different aspects such as speed, security, etc. thats how i understand it, if you want a better answer ask infinite or anyone of the others that know this stuff much better than me

thnx backslash

Simoneye, you can make it more secure by using WEP. You should be able to find this in your wireless base station's configuration utility, which you probably get to by directing your browser to the access point's IP address. It's a flawed protocol, so it's not entirely secure, but it's far more secure than not having any kind of encryption set up. I'm sure Infinite can give you specifics on it's flaws.