Wifi Tip For The Day

I'm not sure if you guys/gals are already doing this or not. When you hook up your mini pci card... Slide it in and out of the slot a few times. Most of the cards you take out have been in there for years... And there is liable to be a little oxidation on the card slot contacts.

The same goes when you hook up your U.fl leads to the card. Make sure you snap them on straight. If they go on crooked they will still snap on but the center contacts in the U.fl lead may get pushed to one side. You still make contact but not as good as it could be. Once you get them aligned and pushed on straight, twist the U.fl lead back and forth to make sure that the contact is mated to the card.

I started doing this some time ago. It has made a very noticeable improvement in the reception of the card and antenna setup. Several dB worth of reception. Try it yourself and see!

 

Thanks Toughbook...perfect timing, my wireless card should be arriving in the mail any minute. I have experimented with the routing of the pig tails and taken pics along the way...if it works out I will post pics and findings.

 

I also just got in 50 LAN/Modem cards if anyone needs one cheap.

 

Although most semi-advanced wifi users will have some sort of encryption on their wifi network, it still might not be enough.
Most modern (whether it be wifi, or not) routers have a configuration option for MAC address filtering. I find it beneficial to add the MAC addresses of the equipment I use to the filtering list and only allow access to the internal network from those machines. I don't really care if somebody uses my wifi to hitch onto the internet, in the area where I live an internet connection is not hard to come by, but it is quite remote, and somewhat trucker unfriendly. I figure if a trucker is riding around my neighborhood, and needs to call home (e-mail) or hitch up to google maps he can have at it. On the other hand, if someone decides to sit up the street, or across the river and try to hack into my network they're S.O.L

Mac address filtering can be a hassle as well, for instance, if you try to connect to your network from an unknown machine you too are S.O.L, but a savvy administrator always leaves himself a backdoor.

BTW, Toughbook, you missed a couple days. Anyone else have something?

 

Problem with MAC filtering, is I can see what MACs are attached to a router, and I can fake it with my card.

It's just an extra deterrent, but it's not a great way to protect the network.

 

Neither is WEP, but it is more predominately used than WPA. That is a nice benefit, or AKA Backdoor. what's the chances of someone else knowing the MAC address of an allowed machine? And unless you know why the packets are being rejected how many are going to look there for a solution?
Anyway, I was just trying to keep the thread going. Actually hoping to hear more opinions on the subject.

 

Aircrack-ng will show you the MAC addresses of all connected devices.

I've done quite a bit of testing with routers, and I can bust into WEP with 64 (40) bit encryption in 10 minutes or less, and 128 bit in 20 or less. MAC filtering only delays me 20-30 seconds.

WPA can be cracked in a few hours or less if they use 8 character dictionary words. However if they use random character passwords, it would take months/years. I gave up after a week of processing to bypass my Buffalo router's password

It's fun stuff to learn, just to ensure that my network is safe.

 

Thanks Modly,
Good Stuff, this is the type of info I'd like to see more of. BTW, which machine are you using as the "De-Crypter"?, is that on the "Apple Dual-Dual mucho dinero Super Server" , or a regular 1-2 ghz lappy, or even slower a 800mhz Toughbook? I mean, as far as the casual passer-by is concerned, what do you , as someone who obviously has taken the time to do some experimenting, recommend as a formidable, security scheme for their wifi home, or business network?
Thanks for sharing, you've "learned" me something.
Duane

 

I use the 800MHz toughbook for most of it. I do have a linux booting P4 machine that I ran my file through the WPA brute force, but it's not anything special. Just a 1.8GHz P4. All wep processing was done on the toughbook though, and if I had a keyboard that didn't stick my A, S and Z keys, it'd probably take another minute off my times

Once I get the MacPro 8-core, I'll run linux in virtualisation, and see how it pans out.

As for my recommendations, use WPA2 if possible, WPA if not, and while the password can be easy to remember, make it have numbers, random caps, and use more than one word for your character limit.

Example "georG39W", which is my first name, and middle initial (Yes, it's really George W.), but I put the capitalisation on the second G rather than the first, switched an e to 3, and added a 9. I also made my W capital too.

The reason I add in random caps and numbers, is a WPA cracker uses a word list, and it's entry must be in place for it to be found. If you generate a wordlist with ever cap and number combination possible, you'll run into a file several Exabytes in size.

You can see how that would hinder somebody (for the time being) because you need such a huge file to start cracking with.

As it was, I just used a dictionary wordlist (A very good one, about 100MB), with my password added into it at the very end. It was still going to town a week later on the wordlist.

However, things are getting better with technology and algorithms. With some stuff coming out in the new Aircrack release, you will be able to do more words per second, and future revisions will be able to try first letter caps.

If you want the most secure password, have it generated. It'll be completely random numbers and letters (Both cap and not), and may contain other symbols. Add a Euro symbol to really throw people off.

 

I use mac address filtering, WPA2/AES (wish I could go RADIUS, but that's simply not cost effective in my case) ; but one other bit of security I always do is to TURN OFF SSID broadcast; it makes for one more thing the potential hacker has to guess at. Another thing to do is make your password as long as possible - going from an 11 letter word to a 28 letter word changes the time required to guess it from a matter of days or weeks to literally decades or centuries.

Another thing to try is to set a few basic security measures on your router; number one, USE A HARDWARE ROUTER in addition to your wireless router, & configure BOTH so that they can ONLY be managed by a SPECIFIC MAC address, & ONLY from a specific hardline ethernet port (preferably one you only ever plug into FOR THAT PURPOSE). This creates a DMZ between the two routers which makes it much harder to access what's on the inside of the network; BUT it also makes it harder to use your wireless as anything but a connection to the internet.

As with any form of network security, there is always a way around these safeguards... but these are relatively cheap methods of protecting what's yours. A lock only keeps an honest man honest; the trick is not to make your network impervious, but rather to make it more trouble to hack than it's worth.

My personal reaction to most of the "hackers" I've met (1 in 100 is a REAL hacker - into it for the knowledge of HOW IT WORKS - the rest are just self-glorified script-kiddies stealing other people's work so they can use it to steal from OTHER other people) is "You cheap lazy little snot - if you spent half as much effort WORKING to better yourself as you do stealing from those who already have, you could afford to buy 10X any of the stuff you steal."

mnem
"Don't bother hacking me; I'll GIVE you the 11c & a bubble-gum wrapper that's all I'm worth."

 

Hello,
I am new to trying to upgrade a toughbook. I just picked up a CF-28 and it has a Cisco 340 series built in. I cannot link into any of my networks so I wanted to upgrade the internal. I cannot access the BIOS but is this necessary for the change? Also where can I buy a good replacement? Thank you for any help.

 

You may need to access the BIOS to enable the card. (There is a switch in the BIOS.) You say you can't get into the BIOS or you don't know how to get into the BIOS? Is the BIOS on your laptop password protected?

The F A Q by Modly that is sticky'd at the top of the Panasonic forum has links in it, I believe, to tell you exactly what you need to know. Please check there and let us know if that helps.

 

Yes. It is password protected and I do not know the password.
Thank you for the help.

 

Ummm... I hate to be the @55hole here, but contravening password protection of any sort is verboten (prohibited) on this site. Further discussion of this subject will get this thread modded or deleted.

PLEASE don't anger the internet GODS!

Thanks;

mnem
Please don't eat the daisies.

 

My Cf-28 already has an internal wireless card but I want to upgrade it. Does anyone have an recommended card that swaps out with no other mods?
Thanks.
In reference to the bios problem listed earlier... please disregard. I own the computer but just don't have the password anymore. I understand the concern.

 

If your internal wireless (wi-fi) is located in the hidden pcmcia slot then you'll probably want to read up on the standard wireless mod that's been going on around here. It involves swapping the lan and modem mini-pci cards for a combo card and inserting a decent mini-pci wireless card in place of the modem, add a set of internal paddles (less performance) or an external antenna (discussed in the forum ) and there you go.
If tou are talking about the sprint/verizon/whateverelsetheymighthaveused (cellular) in the hidden pcmcia slot then search e-bay for sierra wireless. You'll be looking for any of the cards without the big black bulge at the end, usually shown with an orange tipped wire antenna. I think depending on your wireless coverage area that the sierra 580 is the most up to date card for cellular, but afaik it's only for sprint or unlocked for any gsm carrier.
If you're talking about the board under the battery (reffered to as the RIM wireless) and you fess up to it you'll get an e-mail from Toughbook


There's information in the manual (available through links here ) regarding..............ummm, I forget.

 

Anybody have the directions on how to do this? I want to change the old internal wireless with something that will work. I have searched the forum but nothing jumped out that I could find.
Thanks guys

 

Did you read through this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=210510

It has two great threads regarding installing the wifi and the external antenna mod. Check it out....

 

Are you trying to change the old Packet Data wireless for a current form of cellular wireless, or do you just want to get WiFi A/B/G functionality?

I have a quick outline of a mod in this thread for converting the packet radio antenna into a serviceable WiFi antenna:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=215522&page=2

Aside from that, most have been using PCMCIA wireless cards (pick your favorite carrier) & modding the case with a bulkhead connector for a screw-on antenna, as the all alloy case on the Toughbooks is very effective at keeping those radio waves from escaping into the free world.

mnem
Do you need electronic hands to radio wave?

 

Thanks everybody. I am new to all this and trying to figure out what is what. I just want to swap out the internal cisco systems 340 series PCMCIA wirelss LAN adapter to with something g capable. My CF-28 does not have ehternet capability only a phone modem "jack". After reading the links above I will need to buy a Atheros WiFi mini PCI card and some kind of antenna.