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Re: Comcast thinks it ok to install public wifi in your house


From: Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 12:54:09 -0500 (EST)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Helms" <khelms () zcorum com>

On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 9:24 AM, <Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu> wrote:

On Thu, 11 Dec 2014 00:11:07 -0500, Jay Ashworth said:
I will give them their props: I only had to sign in *once*, last
year;
their auth controller has recognized my MAC address at every spot
I've
used since.

Actually, that's sort of scary if you think about it too hard.
Shared-secret
authentication has its flaws, but it still beats shared-nonsecret
auth.

I really hope it's something on your laptop other than the mac
address....

It's very scary, and something I'm doing a paper on. It _is_ just MAC
recognition, at least until you try and use a MAC address that's
already active somewhere else.

MAC cloning isn't all *that* common, at least not for that usage.

The fact that it is *possible* provides some nice cover in certain
circumstances, I would guess.

As for "something else on my laptop", I'm not sure what else they could
see; I'd be surprised if they could get anything to run on SuSE 12.2. :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra () baylink com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates       http://www.bcp38.info          2000 Land Rover DII
St Petersburg FL USA      BCP38: Ask For It By Name!           +1 727 647 1274


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