WPA2 for PowerBooks/iBooks?

[Tom2112]

OK, I have a couple of old Mac that included AirPort cards. Of course, they won't connect to my "modern" 2GHz WiFi because it demands WPA2 and the AirPort card seems to only support WPA.

Is there a magic combination of OS / driver / card that will allow an old iBook or PowerBook to connect to WPA2 networks?

 

[gibbsjoh]

My workaround would be to find an old airport base station of the same vintage or an equivalent non Apple AP. Lock it down as much as you can, MAC address filtering etc, and ideally put it on it’s own subnet and firewall the hell out of it.

This is a bit overkill, you could also find a Mac compatible USB WiFi adapter (might not be so easy) - but the speed will be slow.

Alternative 2 is to find a newer Ethernet to WiFi bridge or build one using a Raspberry Pi.

 

[cheesestraws]

Yeah, WPA2 requires updates to both the OS and the firmware of the dongle. I don't think OS 9's WiFi stack ever supported WPA at all, just WEP (?).

equivalent non Apple AP

minor warning: a lot of end-user APs won't pass AppleTalk properly, for complicated reasons (mostly that they didn't think it worth putting in the effort to do so). If you only want IP that's fine, but AppleTalk is kind of cool.

 

[Franklinstein]

I think I ran across some info at one point that with some updates you can get original AirPort cards to work with WPA while running under OS X but they'll still be stuck at WEP under OS 9. I don't think I've ever really bothered to try the OS X thing though. 802.11b really should be run on its own network for maximum compatibility and isolation from critical data; if this is the case then WEP would be fine unless perhaps you're in an area with persistent script kiddies trying to break into wireless networks day and night. I remember years ago when I lived in an apartment, running WEP for older hardware support, and even with most security settings enabled it would eventually get hacked via WEP encryption attacks and MAC cloning, so I just gave up on legacy wifi (my room was tiny anyway so cables weren't a huge deal, but it was easier to get Mac-compatible wifi cards than Mac-compatible Ethernet).

 

[cheesestraws]

Yes; much as I hate to sound cynical, unless you're doing something special that other people especially want access to, the main knack of domestic IT security is not being in the cohort of easiest targets, and running WEP is a good way to be in that cohort.

 

[Gorgonops]

Yeah, WPA2 requires updates to both the OS and the firmware of the dongle

Unless your pre-WPA2 WiFi card is unusually gifted a firmware update won’t be able to upgrade it. WPA1 was specifically designed to be able to use the (flawed) CRC encryption hardware built for WEP using an algorithm called “TKIP” which secures the connection by constantly iterating the key set. Not all WEP hardware can even handle this, but thankfully for Apple the Lucent/Orinoco chip they picked for the original AirPort could.

WPA2 requires AES encryption. Maybe there were WEP cards that were implemented with powerful/flexible enough hardware to be upgraded but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

FWIW, some routers will still let you downgrade to TKIP, and if you do you’re *probably* okay in a residential setting unless someone is really out to get you, but it is definitely more fragile than AES.

(* But of course you still need OS X for WPA/TKIP… 10.3.something? Apple did indeed never release a stack to enable it under 9.x. Nor do I know of any third party solution that doesn’t involve a stand-alone Ethernet->WiFi bridge.)

 

[cheesestraws]

Unless your pre-WPA2 WiFi card is unusually gifted a firmware update won’t be able to upgrade it.

Yeah, that was a brain glitch: I was thinking about WPA 1. Thanks for the correction.

 

[Gorgonops]

Yeah, that was a brain glitch: I was thinking about WPA 1. Thanks for the correction.

I was unreasonably proud of myself years ago when I managed to get WPA1 working on an unmodified Orinoco Silver card pulled out of an original Apple AirPort plugged into an ISA->PCMCIA adapter slotted into a 200mhz Pentium I Dolch lunchbox running Debian. (There was some black magic you could set up to “soft-load” a TKIP-capable firmware instead of flashing the card.) There’s a certain perverse pride to be had in having about the worst possible system you could use (at the time) “directly” on a WiFi router with (then) current/acceptable security settings.

 

[Tom2112]

Thanks gentlemen. I kinda figured that was the situation. I'd rather not create a separate WEP/WPA1 network for these devices. The risk/reward quotient just isn't worth it. It'll just use a wired connection when I need to. It's not like it happens very often.

 

[Romko23]

I think I ran across some info at one point that with some updates you can get original AirPort cards to work with WPA while running under OS X but they'll still be stuck at WEP under OS 9. I don't think I've ever really bothered to try the OS X thing though. 802.11b really should be run on its own network for maximum compatibility and isolation from critical data; if this is the case then WEP would be fine unless perhaps you're in an area with persistent script kiddies trying to break into wireless networks day and night. I remember years ago when I lived in an apartment, running WEP for older hardware support, and even with most security settings enabled it would eventually get hacked via WEP encryption attacks and MAC cloning, so I just gave up on legacy wifi (my room was tiny anyway so cables weren't a huge deal, but it was easier to get Mac-compatible wifi cards than Mac-compatible Ethernet).

I know this may be a little off topic, but is it possible to reverse engineer using codewarrior and assembly to write code in OS 9 that can support WPA encryption ? What would be cool is if we can program new drivers for OS 9 to make it more useful for say, USB 2.0 and Airport Extreme or even N + WPA ?

 

[Corgi]

I've long-wondered if it would be possible to write drivers for more modern cards to allow the classic Mac OS to run WPA2. Theoretically anything is possible, but practically I'm not sure how feasible it would be.

 

[Byrd]

There is considerable system overhead processing WPA2 encryption on G3 equipped OS X capable Macs running cheap USB wifi dongles (Edimax mini wifi dongles work well using their utility); therefore a software solution on slower machines wouldn’t be the best option. A wifi bridge would be the best bet.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Where could I find a good ethernet wifi bridge? I bought one a while back but it only supported WPS to connect to the network, which my router doesn't support.

 

[Skate323k137]

For my Pismo, I use a USB C to Ethernet adapter and an android cell phone. I could be curious about a standalone bridge but it works for me and takes up less space than a laptop (for example on Ubuntu you connect to wifi and then share that connection over ethernet).

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

That sounds interesting, how does it work? I’ve got an old HTC 10 with USB C. Does it use an app?

 

[Skate323k137]

In my Samsung, USB Ethernet tethering is in the same menu as wifi Hotspot.

This is the adapter I use:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/belkin-usb-c-network-adapter-black/6409320.p?skuId=6409320

When plugged in the bottom option in the screenshot attached will be available.

It works great, in addition to my Pismo I use this for my G3 iMac in classic MacOS too.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Does it only work over cellular? My basement setup has no cell service, and my android phone doesn’t have data to begin with. I also don’t see an Ethernet tethering option in my iPhone’s hotspot settings either

 

[Skate323k137]

I'm 99.9% sure it uses the wifi connection of the phone, and passes that to ethernet. Could depend on the phone, and I have not tried it at all on an iPhone, no idea if iOS even supports it. https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/...rives-in-latest-android-11-developer-preview/

While most people think of tethering as creating a Wi-Fi network from your phone's cellular data connection, Android also supports sharing its internet connection over USB or Bluetooth. Those options can be helpful in edge situations (e.g. using your phone as a Wi-Fi adapter for a PC without wireless support), and now there's another choice with Android 11: Ethernet tethering.

To be clear, Android devices have supported connecting to wired networks over Ethernet for years, but now an Android device can serve as the host network as well. The option is greyed out until you plug in a USB Ethernet adapter.

 

[LaPorta]

Does this not also depend on where you live? I live on a couple of acres…someone would have to do drive-by hacking!

 

[cheesestraws]

Radio is a weird and wonderful thing and it does not always behave as the inverse-square law would have one believe.