IT people - what the heck is this thing?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I saw this down the stairs at the beach the other day - newly installed. This morning while I was out for my run I noticed another similar one set up on another light post about 1/2 mile down. It's got a "Cisco" label on it so I'm wondering if it's some kind of wireless surveillance equipment or something. WiFi down the beach makes no sense (and I haven't picked up any new signals on my laptop wireless card, so I doubt that's it). So WTF is it and what's it for?

Sorry for the crappy cell-phone camera pics - it's all I had with me.

[930addict]

Looks like an Aironet wireless access point.

edit: Get your laptop out and try to surf the web.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I was thinking it was some kind of wireless thing but I can't hit it from my place (about 300 yards away, but up a bluff). I'll maybe try bringing it outside right under the thing and seeing if I can hit it.

[alf]

Clearwire node perhaps?

[Icemaster]

That's a WAP - Wireless Access Point.

It has to be turned on and configured to broadcast a SSID before you can pick it up on most wireless cards.

Go to http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/ and D/L the app and install it on your laptop. It will show anything that's broadcasting, including ones that dont' broadcast a SSID. If it's turned on and broadcasting, that'll pick it up.

[masraum]

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6548/index.html

Cisco Aironet 1500 Series lightweight outdoor mesh access point provides the security, manageability, reliability and ease of deployment to create high-performance WLANs for outdoor wireless networks.

The Cisco Aironet 1500 Series operates with Cisco wireless LAN controllers and Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) Software, centralizing key functions of wireless LANs to provide scalable management, security, and mobility that is seamless between indoor and outdoor deployments. Designed to support zero-configuration deployments, the Cisco Aironet 1500 Series easily and securely joins the mesh network, and is available to manage and monitor the network through the controller and WCS graphical or command-line interfaces (CLIs). Compliant with Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) and employing hardware-based Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption between wireless nodes, the Cisco Aironet 1500 Series provides end-to-end security.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Way cool.

So why the heck would it be down at a public beach?

[stomachmonkey]

A lot of communities are on a kick to WIFI public spots.

Or could be for local municipality use.

Scott

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Hmmm. . . . Maybe lifeguard communications or something? Still pretty neat. 'specially if I can hack into it and dump paying for my stupid overpriced DSL. . .

[Clay Perrine]

Originally posted by Porsche-O-Phile
Hmmm. . . . Maybe lifeguard communications or something? Still pretty neat. 'specially if I can hack into it and dump paying for my stupid overpriced DSL. . .

Good luck cracking a 128bit WEP key.... And then finding a way around the mac address filtering and the certificate.

[911skb]

Local agencies are deploying WiFi hotspots for their private use. Probably just deployed in concentrated spots, possibly where a lot of foot patrol or bicycle cops roam. Then they use a small handheld device to pull all their criminal data records, etc. The devices also utilize local cell tower service as well and can roam back and forth without their applications losing session persistance.

Ken

[masraum]

Originally posted by Clay Perrine
Good luck cracking a 128bit WEP key.... And then finding a way around the mac address filtering and the certificate.

Cracking WEP, any WEP, is simple and can be done in ~5 minutes. MAC's can be spoofed. What certificate? Radius/TACACS? Wouldn't have it with WEP.

cracking wep and wpa
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/24244/98/
http://www.shawnhogan.com/2006/08/how-to-crack-128-bit-wireless-networks.html

this page has a slew of articles relating to hacking and securing a wireless lan
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/Ou/?m=200503

New generation of hacking tools puts many more Wireless LANs at risk
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/Ou/?p=20

[beepbeep]

Originally posted by Clay Perrine
Good luck cracking a 128bit WEP key.... And then finding a way around the mac address filtering and the certificate.

Very easily done. It will not quite take 5 minutes, but you'll need at least 200000 IV's. You can either listen to traffic and log it, or "provocate" the AP to spew out the packets that you log.

After that it takes around 10-30 minutes of number crunching to sort out the key.

With other words, it's very very doable. WEP is more or less worthless, it reuses the keys and isn't really 128bit at all.

WPA-PSK is much harder to crack though.

[john70t]

Does it also pick up the bluetooth RFID chip in your Levi's or car key?
Better hope wifey doesn't have a subscription to "hubbytrackersateliteonline.com"

[id10t]

WEP cracking is easy, if you can sniff enough traffic. The MAC address part may be easy too....

Originally posted by Clay Perrine
Good luck cracking a 128bit WEP key.... And then finding a way around the mac address filtering and the certificate.