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Orinoco Gold Wifi on System 7

Brooklyn

Well-known member
It does work, I've done it on my 1400c. WEP encryption only. See the website system 7 today there's details on all of the 68k and PPC browsers

 

somorastik

Well-known member
Hey guys I finnaly managed to install Mac Os 8.6 (due to some incompatibilities with 7, and applications I wanted to use)

Anyway, I have my router set up WEP encryption, and I have the password set in my Win 7 machine, Powerbook G3 with 10.4.11, they all work great.

But on my Powerbook 5300 I just cant get to load a site in Internet Explorer, that came with the system.

I have my Orinoco 7.2 drivers installed, card inserted getting a signal level, I have the password/key entered.

I set it up according to this:

http://www.penmachine.com/techie/airport1400.html

I have the apple talk set to orinoco, TCP/IP set to automatic DHCP.

What could be wrong?

If I remember well I had this powerbook with this card running a year ago. But the disk died and I had to reinstall onto CF.

Thanks!

 

Brooklyn

Well-known member
Can you try without encryption? I remember having trouble figuring out how to enter the key, either it was a typo or I had to type 0x first or something.

 

somorastik

Well-known member
Thanks for replies!

I remember when I first tried, I used it without encryption. But since Im in a block of flats there are a lot of users and I dont want no one to connect for free, or even access my shared files on the net.

What does it mean 0x??? do I enter 0x"My Encryption Key"?

 

LCGuy

LC Doctor/Hot Rodder
Exactly. Lets say your encryption key is something along the lines of 1A2B3C4D5E6F7G, you'd enter it as 0x1A2B3C4D5E6F7G.

Just be warned that WEP is extremely easy for someone to crack, living in an apartment complex I'm wondering if perhaps picking up an ethernet card and just connecting the PowerBook via ethernet would be a better idea. That way you could go back to using WPA/WPA2 encryption for your WiFi.

 

somorastik

Well-known member
Thanks for reply! Will try that out today!

Anyway, what card/drivers for ethernet card would you recomend?

I have one, powerbook detects it, but it doesnt have the apropriate drivers, I guess its only supported in windows.

Thanks!

 

Dennis Nedry

Well-known member
Another thing that you can do is to set up a MAC address list on your router. Every wireless adapter comes with a unique MAC address, and listing them in the router allows only those specific devices to connect. That will make it more complicated to hack and thus slightly improve your security.

In general, I would strongly recommend against using WEP for any reason because somebody could connect through your internet connection and do illegal activities - and it would appear that YOU did it. Even somebody parked on the side of the road could do that.

 

somorastik

Well-known member
Oh yes! I completely forgot, the list of Mac adresses. Thats how I connected last time, I will do that, rather then WEP. So if I remember good I will turn WEP off, set the MAC list exceptions, and viola! I guess any other computer with Ethernet can connect through the wire without MAC exception, right?

 

Dennis Nedry

Well-known member
WEP gives you some protection, MAC address list gives you some more protection, but neither completely protects you. Using both of them is better than using only one.

The reason the MAC address list is not safe is because there is an app for AirPort Extreme that allows you to change your MAC address, so somebody could figure out the MAC address of your computer, change their MAC address to match it, and then they can connect. A program called kismet, or KisMac (Mac version) shows all of the wifi routers nearby and all of the MAC ADDRESSES of the devices connected to it. And if it's WEP, it will even crack the WEP password for you automatically. That's how easy it is to hack wifi. You can watch people do it on YouTube and you can try it yourself.

There is no crack for WPA out there. I would advise you not to use wifi for an internet connection unless you turn on WPA protection, even though that's not compatible with your PowerBook. It's cool but it just isn't worth it.

 

techknight

Well-known member
Well, for older WEP cards i use a completely separate router, so its actually a subnet behind a subnet so it cant see my previous network, I also kill SSID broadcast and use MAC filtering. Seems to work well, or use a router that has DDWRT or some variant that you can setup a login system so once your connected you cant even get net access until you login and establish a session.

 

Dennis Nedry

Well-known member
Very cool idea to use DD-WRT with a login for WEP, I hadn't thought of that and that sounds quite secure. You could, in theory, bridge this router wirelessly through WPA to your main router creating a secure wireless WEP to WPA bridge. Plug in power cord, stash it atop the fridge or wherever, done.

It is still possible with this setup for someone to "sniff" your WEP connection even though they can no longer gain actual access beyond observation. To prevent this, you could run a VPN client on your computer(s) and a VPN server in the DD-WRT router. This would encrypt all data being sent through the WEP connection. This also would allow your computers connected to your main router to connect into the LAN of your bridge router through VPN if you have restricted such access.

 

techknight

Well-known member
yea, there is many ways to secure the pipe. But at the same time you have to do it in such a mannor that is "time period compatible" to the machine your accessing from. Such as VPN software for example. if it cant run on OS7 or etc, then it wont work.

Same for the scripting on the login, if the browser cant render the scripts, then that wont work either. Nice thing about the VPN though is it brings all your network resources behind the router to the connected network your on now. I do it at work, its nice.

Anyway, i know the westell routers for DSL support guest mode, as ive seen open WiFi connections but when you hop on it wont work until you provide a login for the westell.

 
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