Re: Wireless home LAN - WiFi vs Bluetooth?
On 07/29/2019 05:57 AM, Reco wrote:
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.
Makes me glad I didn't even consider enabling WiFi on the Hotspot ;}
Why do I have a Hotspot then? I needed cell connectivity and it was all
I could find locally at the time (rural SW MO). I really wanted a USB
cell modem. We won't go into what the other cell providers wanted cram
down my craw.
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.
Is it *my* option? Or is it builtin and an option only in the sense that
a manufacturer can claim standard compliance with/without encryption.
You have certain "profiles" that willingly elect to forbid
encryption.
Similarly is the "profile" used my choice?
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.
As the only devices will be PCs, is that number my choice?
In short, nothing beats Ethernet in your typical household for
conventional computing needs.
Who said anything about *typical*? <grin> *ROFL*
I had considered Ethernet over a year ago. Went so far as to purchase an
8-port switch. Then realized there was not space on my work surface for
the cables.
Smartphones and tablets may convince you
to use WiFi, but these devices are insecure anyway, so there's no loss.
Snicker
I started out as a prospective E.E. almost 60 years ago. Until
retirement I was almost completely a consumer. That's why I'm looking
more for "What" and "Why" than "Howto".
This morning I did a search with slightly different terms. Down about
three layers in from a fresh hit I found a reasonable description of how
my goal system might work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_area_network says in part:
A Bluetooth WPAN is also called a piconet, and is composed of up
to 8 active devices in a master-slave relationship (a very large
number of additional devices can be connected in "parked" mode).
The first Bluetooth device in the piconet is the master, and all
other devices are slaves that communicate with the master.
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