[vox-tech] [OT] Two questions regardless Wireless 802.11b

[ME]

Richard Crawford said:
> Clarification:
>
> I have a Linksys WAP11 plugged into my Linksys router.  Just in case
> that's relevant.  ;-)
>
>
>
> Richard Crawford said:
>> I'm trying to fix things up with my wireless setup at home.  I was using
>> WEP for awhile, but decided to stop because (a) our computers were
>> having a lot of frame errors and dropping the connection frequently; and
>> (b) I've heard that WEP is just not all that secure anyway.  So now I'm
>> setting it up to do MAC address filtering, and allowing only the MAC
>> addresses that I specify.  Seems to be working just fine so far.

It is better to use both as it adds a level of difficulty for casual users.

Also, cloning of a MAC is possible and it is easy to find the MAC
addresses of the client with sniffing.

>> Two questions, though.
>>
>> First, I have a Sony Clie TJ37, which has a wireless card built in.  I
>> was hoping I could use it to get into my network, but I can't seem to
>> figure out its MAC address.  Anyone have any idea how I could track that
>> down?  Am I barking up the wrong tree?

If the card is internal and you are running linux, ifconfig if your friend:
# ifconfig
(look for the HWaddr field)

If the "Sony Clie TJ37" is not running Linux (I doo not know wha this
device is) but has an IP address, then from a machine on the same wireless
network try to ping its IP address, and then:
# cat /proc/net/arp | grep IPADDRESS_OF_DEVICE
while the ping is running
You should find the MAC.
(This assumes you are on the same layer-2 network without a bridge, or
more importantlly a router.

Another method is to use Ethereal and start sniffing. You should see 3 MAC
in the header of the layer2 data on 802.11b:
The MAC SRC, MAC DST, and MAC Associated Access Point

>> Second, I would also like to disable SSID broadcast on my wireless
>> network, but when I do, our laptop computers can't log in to the network
>> when they're turned on.  Is there a way around this?

Sure, but it requires that you "hard code" (static config) the SSID in the
settings for the devices since they won't be able to learn it on their own
through a bcast.

Enjoy

-ME