Wireless guest networks

Ever since the Google “Wi-Fi Scandal” the “outrage” of certain individuals has struck me. Or more correctly the fact that privacy advocates are screaming bloody murder; while it seems nobody noticed that anyone with half a brain and a laptop could do the exact same thing. As long as you use an unencrypted network, everyone can just sniff out all of your communication right over the air in clear text. If you use unencrypted Wi-Fi at home you are asking to get hacked, plain and simple.

Ten I got hit by a bomb of a revelation hit me, guest and public access networks. I’ve thought about the solution for a very long time. This is going to be the first post in a series of articles discussing the various solutions to the problem and their strengths/weaknesses. This first article is going to present a few use cases, the following articles are going to present the solution to each of the scenarios presented.

Scenario 1

A small coffee shop wants to offer free Wi-Fi to attract customers. They do not have a significant revenue so they can’t afford an expensive solution.

Scenario 2

A public access network provider. They need to connect users securely, no need for user identification.

Scenario 3

Wi-Fi hotspot provider. Needs per-user authentication but also authentication-free access for user registration.

I’ll do my best to type up these articles before I start posting, and post them about a week apart.