Is cryptography where security took the wrong branch?

[D. K. Smetters]

 > Eric Rescorla wrote:
>> Ian Grigg <iang at systemics.com> writes:
> 
>>I'm almost convinced that WEP is a failure, but
>>I think it retains some residual value.
> 
> I agree. After all, I occasionally come upon a network I'd
> like to use and WEP stops me cause I'm too lazy. On the other
> hand, MAC restrictions would have done just as well for that.
> 

I find WEP very useful for one thing -- given the habit of
many wireless clients to opportunistically jump onto any
network they happen to find, turning on WEP keeps users
from accidentally "falling" onto networks by mistake. This
saves a lot of confusion if you have the occaisional research
network with say, different firewalling properties than a user
might expect, or one that doesn't actually route to the outside
world. And it's easier to manage than MAC filtering.

--d




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