[KLUG Members] multiple wireless networks

[Daniel Hedlund]

Eric,

Eric Beversluis wrote:
> My original concern was this: In my apartment Windows shows several
> other networks available. I wanted to be sure I was using my own
> (WEP-securied) network. Can I assume that if eth1 shows
> "ESSID:'default'" that that's what's happening? 

'default' is a common name used by most wireless access points.  If it 
was me, I'd set up my wireless router to use a unique SSID that I 
wouldn't expect anyone else in the area to use.  It could be a nickname, 
something that describes you or your network, etc.  I would then set the 
SSID of my wireless card to only connect to the SSID I decided upon, and 
not any SSID in range.  Some people hide their SSID from the world, 
meaning their router doesn't broadcast it, to prevent other people from 
casually stumbling upon it and trying to connect.  Products like 
netstumbler and kismit can usually detect networks with 
hidden/non-broadcast SSIDs anyway though, so you'd never really be safe 
from finding your network.  There are even spectrum analyzers that can 
be used independently or hooked up to a computer and can find out 
whether just about any wireless network exists.

One of the more important uses of 'iwlist scanning' is to determine if 
there are any other wireless networks using the same frequency range as 
your network.  If you're using a conflicting frequency range then it may 
result in lower performance for your network and others'.  You can 
probably check this stuff from within Windows though.

Cheers,

Daniel Hedlund
daniel at digitree.org