Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 July 31

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July 31

Default wireless network names (SSIDs)

If I leave the SSID name of Linksys, DLink, or whatever the manufacturer had set as the default, is that a security risk? I fail to understand why it would be less secure. OsmanRF34 (talk) 19:33, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

The only reason I can think of is that, if the name used represents the router on which it is used, you are identifying the type of router you're using. In theory this means you're providing information that might be of use to an attacker - for instance, if there is a known exploit with a certain type of router. Beyond that, for the user of a single router, from a security perspective, it seems neutral. --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:37, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

It's easy to figure out vendors by looking at the MAC prefix of the device. That information's freely available.

The problem is that most routers with default SSIDs are also using defaults for every other setting too, and usually security settings are not enabled. It also could be a problem on devices that connect to networks based on their SSID and not their MAC address (or something like a multi-AP setup). If you connect to every linksys device then you might be on the road and find yourself connecting to someone else's linksys device and that could be a security risk for your computer. I find it's best to pick something unique, but arbitrary (probably not good to use your address). Shadowjams (talk) 22:38, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

I don't understand the problem with using your address. If your SSID is being broadcast, there is no additional security in obfuscating the physical location of the device that I can tell. BigNate37_(T) 01:15, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Wi-Fi_Protected_Access#Security discusses the use of the SSID as a salt and states that "To further protect against intrusion, the network's SSID should not match any entry in the top 1000 SSIDs as downloadable rainbow tables have been pre-generated for them and a multitude of common passwords." -- ToE 00:56, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

That's a good point too. Shadowjams (talk) 22:21, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Official Syrian News Agency web site down ?

I can't load http://www.sana.sy. Is it down due to rebel activity ? StuRat (talk) 21:41, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

The site isn't completely down. I can still ping it and, for some reason, it lets me download the homepage using Telnet. Downforeveryoneorjustme.com also says sana.sy is up (but not www.sana.sy?) My syn packets are being completely ignored when sent from my browser, per Wireshark. It could be a denial-of-service attack (which are completely virtual, by the way), but it's hard to tell from here. The server is hosted in the U.S., so I doubt it's due to any real-life militant activity.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 00:18, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Interesting. I wonder if the rebels have launched a denial of service attack. StuRat (talk) 00:28, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

If you remove the www. part then it comes up for me just fine. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:10, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Yes, but the old address worked before yesterday. Perhaps they responded to the attack by dropping the "www" in their name. StuRat (talk) 02:13, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Series on Cisco Routers

Hi. I would like to write a series of articles on Cisco routers. Or routers in general. Do you think these pages would be encyclopedic worthy. ZSpeed (talk) 21:53, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:WHAAOE. We do have Cisco, with the section Cisco#Hardware which has links to many Cisco routers. We also have Router (computing). So the answer seems to be "yes". ;-) --Stephan Schulz (talk) 22:13, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

They certainly would be, if well written. However, Wikipedia already has an article named router (computing). In the case of the Cisco router, you'd need to avoid having it read like an ad for Cisco: "The reason the Cisco routers are a better buy than the competition is....". StuRat (talk) 22:10, 31 July 2012 (UTC)

Well, Cisco has slacked off a bit recently, but for many years they dominated the industry, so I could certainly see value in articles that cover the historical aspects. Looie496 (talk) 02:55, 1 August 2012 (UTC)

Passing a variable into a partial

I am refactoring the views (php/html) of a website and would like to create a partial which is looped over. How do I pass the variable to the partial? bamse (talk) 21:56, 31 July 2012 (UTC)