RSS 2.0
Wireless Woes
RIT is instituting something new – secure wireless! Well.. that’s not new to the world; only to RIT. It’s only necessary for wireless, so I set about configuring a few laptops.
The Mac was insanely simple to set up. Click, click… type a couple of parameters.. click… done!
Windows XP was almost as easy.
Vista I had to pound into the ground with a club.
Linux… ah, Linux…
I like Linux. I happen to use Ubuntu, but that hardly matters in this case. I use it on my desktop and my favorite laptop. I like the speed, the power, the convenience, the free. But this wireless thing has me stumped.
It runs “regular,” open wireless like you’d find in a cafe with a free hotspot. It runs wireless that’s protected with a password and wireless that’s protected with a key, and all without any fuss or bother.
But this new protected wireless has a hidden ESSID. That’s a good thing. If you don’t even know what the name of the wireless is, or, indeed, that it’s even there, you have a slimmer chance of breaking in. But that hidden ESSID has me stumped.
According to the various forums (fori? fora?) on the InterTubes, this has been a problem for a long time. So I’m just going to let it sit for a while. The nice thing about being at RIT is that there are eager young minds straining at the bit to solve the latest, most difficult problem. All I have to do is wait for one of them to get that itch Meanwhile, I’ll be reading up on it myself, and maybe I’ll beat ‘em to the punch!
