OK, OK-we get the message.

Borders
1664 West Chipman Road, Lee's Summit

802.11g
SSID: BORDERS

Well, they could have been a bit more subtle about things instead of inexorably shoving laptoppers and other Wi-Fi using patrons towards the Seattle's Best Coffee cafe at the store's south end (despite its address, it actually fronts toward the west) with its dearth of power outlets (I only see two along the south wall, and one of those is next to a chair without a table in front of it, meaning you'll have to actually top your lap with your laptop to use it).



Anyway, it's not all that bad a place to take a respite from all the Black Friday weekend hustle and bustle, as you can see.

So, Starbucks starts giving away their Wi-Fi on July 1 and...

...well, I'll let the Associated Press tell you.

And any coffeehouse proprietors still running closed or play-for-pay networks have one simple question to answer.  Why?

Biennial Off-Topic Rant for 2010

So here we are again on the first Tuesday after a Monday in November, and here I am again at my local public library branch/polling place after having sat for heaven knows how long waiting to use the single touch-screen electronic voting machine here.  Well, at least the wait wasn't as long as it was a couple of years ago.

I suppose we're going to have to see another presidential election like 2000 before leaders in both parties get serious about nationwide electoral modernization.  If astronauts can vote from orbit, why is it absolutely necessary for anyone to have to come in to a specific location only between 6 a. m. and 7 p. m. and suffer the twin ordeals of standing in line to have your registration checked, then waiting for the machine to become available?  And if anyone has a good argument as to why Missouri can't set up early voting as has become commonplace across the line in Kansas, I'd like to hear it.

Here's an interim goal towards full online voting-you have to know that's where things are headed-we should perhaps work towards.  Let voters come in and cast their ballots from their laptops or other wireless devices.  No, I mean it-set up a hotspot at the polling place with a secure login page where the voter can self-verify his or her registration, then be presented with an online ballot similar to the one he or she gets on the current voting-machine touchscreen.  Since voters will still have to physically come to the polls the potential some may see for fraud is reduced, and the effect should be the same as unwiring a library-voters without netbooks or Wi-Fi equipped smartphones shouldn't have to wait as long for a machine because those with such wireless devices won't need one.

Sure, it'll take a bit of work, but when has that ever been an excuse for not doing something worthwhile?

Well, it's a little more spooky than that.

For your Halloween reading pleasure, here's a bit more elaboration on the actual vulnerability that Firesheep exploits. I'm afraid it's scarier than I intimated below, because it's not so much login pages that aren't encrypted (although they remain just as dangerous), but sites designed to use cookies for session authentication-something I wasn't aware Web designers were still doing-which then stupidly send those cookies back and forth in the clear-even after a secure login on a properly HTTPS-encrypted page.

It's these particular inadvertently unencrypted cookies Firesheep grabs, and as has been pointed out elsewhere, limiting your Wi-Fi use to locked-down routers will only reduce your risk, not eliminate it, since you're of course still vulnerable to such "sidejacking" beyond the router-or even still on the LAN side of it in some cases. The only true solution for sites that still insist on tossing cookies around like this would be to encrypt all their pages that do so-which is precisely what Firesheep's author wants. He merely latched onto open Wi-Fi because it's the easiest venue for demonstrating the vulnerability.

So...will these site owners invest in more SSL certificates and the infrastructure and bandwidth to support them, or better yet leave cookies and the 1990s mindset they represent behind, now that the "cookies are safe" myth has been totally busted?

Stay tuned. And in the meantime I'd limit my use of the affected sites until each of them decides on a course of action and takes it.

No, the sky is NOT falling-it's ALREADY down

How interesting it's been to sit back and watch all the hair-pulling and other nonsense that's gone on over the release of the Firesheep extension for Firefox that according to some is the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse riding in at full gallop. Relax, everyone-it's just a rather unorthodox way of reminding everyone of what ath64 and I have begged, cajoled and preached for everyone to do since day 1 1/2-don't enter or access ANY sensitive information on ANY web page you're connected to over an open Wi-Fi link (or for that matter, connected to in ANY OTHER manner) unless that page is protected by SSL encryption or you're connecting through a virtual private network.

That's the bottom line, folks. And it's gratifying to note that Firesheep's author makes it clear he created the extension not to scare people away from free and open Wi-Fi, but to persuade the owners of at-risk websites to man up (or woman up as necessary, I guess) and get their sites properly HTTPS secured-as they should have done long ago, of course.

Charge up and come early

YWCA Corner Coffee Cafe
1017 North 6th Street, KCK

802.11g
SSID:  YWCA Public

Well, what do you know?  No sooner do we discover that the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library has eased its death grip on its wireless network-now if they'll just lose a bit of their anal-retentiveness and loosen up on the filtering and port blocking-than we get a lead to another free and open hotspot in downtown KCK-and here it is.

Two big downsides-no power outlets and it closes at 4:30 p. m.  On balance, however, I'm going to declare that the upsides-it's free, open and in the area of the metro where the need for it is greatest-carry the day.  It's on the east side of Sixth just north of Minnesota Avenue, so those south and west facing windows you're looking at will only be a problem late in the afternoon, and only if you sit next to them.

Half the Internet-better than none?

Kansas City Kansas Public Library
625 Minnesota Avenue, KCK

802.11a or 802.11g
SSID: KCKPLMAIN

Okay, the anonymous tip we received was at least partly correct. You don't need a library card to get online at KCKPL anymore. (I'll let ath64 know so the guide gets updated.) That said, they do ask for an e-mail address, as if anyone out there was dumb enough to provide a real one. And in order to get outside their firewall you'll still have to do something you really shouldn't-accept a self-signed encryption certificate (all the more reason not to give them your actual e-mail address, which in many if not most cases is also your Internet account username).

And that's just the bad news-it goes downhill from here. Perhaps users will take to calling KCK "Johnson County North" given this network's heavy filtering and blocking of ports needed for Usenet and server-based e-mail. Methinks this outlet won't get much usage unless its operators loosen up a little bit. No one else here but your lonesome correspondent just after 4 p. m. on a Friday before what will be a three-day weekend for many government workers around town. Take a hint, KCKPL. Cruise over to the KCMO Plaza branch and see how much more usage a hotspot gets when it's actually useful for something.

Yes, I know I shouldn't complain, what with how long it took this place to unwire to start with and then decide to open up to everyone. Nonetheless, Wyandotte County-particularly its eastern part-is in such dire need of these services that any crippling or restriction of them strikes me as something a public provider of them ought not be doing without a strong rationale. And if KCKPL has one I can't imagine what it would be.

Speaking of rationale...why on earth is there an open 802.11a access point here? You do know that "a" is not part of the Wi-Fi standard, don't you?

Oops...in my excitement I almost forgot to tell everyone to be sure to bring a fully-charged battery or two if despite all the above they decide to come anyway. Very little laptop-friendly seating within reach of power outlets.