Re: Wireless home LAN - WiFi vs Bluetooth?
Hi.
On Mon, Jul 29, 2019 at 05:40:40AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> A concern is security issues. Bluetooth, being short range, may thus
> have an advantage. Speed is not an issue for my expected usage. (I was
> one of my ISP's last 6 dial-up clients ;)
Both have their disadvantages in this regard.
WPA2's (that's your conventional WiFi standard) secure configuration is
fiendishly difficult.
You have beacon frames that are broadcasted without any encryption.
You have authentication frames that can be intercepted (so WPA
passphrase can be bruteforced).
You have several encryption algorithms, but:
a) They are not equally good.
b) You may have a hardware that lack support for a good ones.
They do have WPA3 that promises to fix all this, but ... you and I do
not have the hardware for it yet.
Bluetooth, on the other hand, is a security nightmare.
First, they got reasonable encryption in 4.0 standard version, and it's
optional. You have certain "profiles" that willingly elect to forbid
encryption.
Second, authentication aka "pairing" (which is optional too). In its
most common form authentication key is a four-digit number, with most
devices preset to four zeroes.
In short, nothing beats Ethernet in your typical household for
conventional computing needs. Smartphones and tablets may convince you
to use WiFi, but these devices are insecure anyway, so there's no loss.
Reco
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