Wi-Fi

BY SANJAY PURI

What is Wi-Fi?
The standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs). It is a wireless technology that uses radio frequency to transmit data through the air. Its actually IEEE 802.11, a family of standards.
The IEEE (Eye-triple-E, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.) is a non-profit, technical professional association of more than 360,000 individual members in approximately 175 countries. The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance started the Wi-Fi--wireless fidelity--certification program to ensure that equipment claiming 802.11 compliance was genuinely interoperable.

Advantages
Freedom You can work from any location that you can get a signal. Setup Cost No cabling required. Flexibility Quick and easy to setup in temp or permanent space. Scaleable Can be expanded with growth. Mobile Access Can access the network on the move.

Disadvantages
Speed Slower than cable. Range Affected by various medium.
Travels best through open space. Reduced by walls, glass, water, etc

Security Greater exposure to risks.

Unauthorized access. Compromising data. Denial of service.

Wi-Fi Certification
The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo from the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Rigorous interoperability testing requirements. Certifies the interoperability of 802.11 products from the many different vendors

Brief History
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) established the 802.11 Group in 1990. Specifications for standard ratified in 1997. Initial speeds were 1 and 2 Mbps. IEEE modified the standard in 1999 to include:
802.11b 802.11a 802.11g was added in 2003. 802.11n

IEEE Created standard, but Wi-Fi Alliance certifies products

Wireless LAN Networks

.

WLAN ArchitectureAd Hoc Mode

Ad-Hoc mode: Peer-to-peer setup where clients can connect to each other directly. Generally not used for business networks.

WLAN Architecture--Mesh
Mesh: Every client in
the network also acts as an access or relay point, creating a selfhealing and (in theory) infinitely extensible network.
Not yet in widespread use, unlikely to be in homes.

WLAN ArchitectureInfrastructure Mode

.

To Wired Network

Comparison of Two Structures

Expansion Flexibility Control Routing Coverage Reliability
Infrastructure X Ad hoc X

X X X
X

Extended Service Area

.

Antennas
All WLAN equipment comes with a built-in omni-directional antenna, but some select products will let you attach secondary antennas that will significantly boost range.

Antennas, continued
Antennas come in all shapes and styles:
Omni-directional:
Vertical Whip Ceiling mount

Directional:
Yagi (Pringles can) Wall mounted panel Parabolic dish

Frequency Hopping in 802.11

The frequency can hop over 78 hopping channels each separated by 1 MHz. The first channel, Channel 0, starts at 2.402 GHz. Channel 1 is at 2.403 GHz, Channel 2, 2.404 GHz, and so on up to Channel 77 at 2.479 GHz (US, Canada, and Europe standards). These frequencies are divided into three patterns of 26 hops each corresponding channel numbers (0, 3, 6, 9, , 75), (1, 4, 7, 10, , 76), (2, 5, 8, 11, , 77) Three APs can coexist without any hop collision, that results in a threefold increase in the capacity of the cell. Hop rate = 2.5 hops per second.

Frequency-channel-map

New WIFI standerd 802.11n

Performance Overview

In basic terms, 802.11n is faster than 802.11g, which itself is faster than the earlier 802.11b.

802.11a & 802.11n Details

802.11a offers the same theoretical speed (54 Mbps) as 802.11g, but it operates in a different frequency (5 GHz) and is not backwards compatible with 802.11b

 The maximum net data rate from 54 Mbit/s to 600 Mbit/s With the use of four spatial streams at a channel width of 40 MHz.[1][2] 802.11n standardized support for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and frame aggregation, and security improvements, among other features.

Basic Security Strategies

Block your Service Set Identifier (SSID) from being broadcast.
Wireless beacon so PCs can easily find the access point.

Change the default network name in the access point. Change the default access point password. Center the access point in the middle of the building/house.

Media Access Control (MAC) Filtering

Every network device has a unique MAC address
Allocated by the manufacturer.

MAC Filtering only allows certain addresses access. Mostly for home use.
Tedious to implement on a large scale

EX = AIET

Wired Equivalency Protocol (WEP)

Basic encryption technology.
Uses an RC4 stream cipher.
Pseudo-random bytes.

Two versions: 64-bit and 128-bit versions.

Built into Wi-Fi certified equipment.

Implemented at the MAC level.

Protects radio signal between device and access point.

Does not protect data beyond the access point.

Uses static encryption keys.

Easy to crack.
Still better then nothing.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)

Designed to replace WEP.
Firmware update. 128-bit Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) encryption.
Uses a master key that is regularly changed.

User authentication. Data Integrity.

Protects radio signal between device and access point. Built into Wi-Fi certified equipment.
Implemented at the MAC level.

Available in two versions:

WPA2 Personal. WPA2 Enterprise.

Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2)

Designed to replace WEP.
128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

Based on the IEEE 802.11i standard. Provides government level security. Also available in two versions:
WPA2 Personal. WPA2 Enterprise.

WIFI HACKING
Now to hack a Wifi Password you must first know what type of encryption it uses for its passwords there are many different types such as: WEP (easiest to crack/hack, can be done in around 10minutes now a days), WPA and WPA2. Backtrack is a very easy way to do it

 WPA and WPA2 have been very good at keeping hackers out as IN THE PAST the only way was to have a text document with hundreds of thousands of words (called a dictionary attack as you have a text document with heaps of words) and the program inside BT5 called aircrack-ng would test every word against the network until one may or may not finally allow you in, at which time aircrack-ng would say success! and state the passcode.

TOOLS FOR THIS HACK

BACK TRACK R3 Gnome from their website Usb wifi adapter