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With a handful of plastic boxes and over-the-counter sensors, including Wi-Fi adapters and a USB hub, Brendan O’Connor, a security researcher, was able to monitor all the wireless traffic emitted by nearby wireless devices.Brendan O’Connor With a handful of plastic boxes and over-the-counter sensors, including Wi-Fi adapters and a USB hub, Brendan O’Connor, a security researcher, was able to monitor all the wireless traffic emitted by nearby wireless devices. Brendan O’Connor is a security researcher. How easy would it be, he recently wondered, to monitor the movement of everyone on the street – not by a government intelligence agency, but...

The number of digitally-connected schools has increased 83 percent during the past 15 years, thanks in part to E-Rate, a $2.3 billion federal program centered on providing schools and libraries with high-speed broadband and wireless Internet. The program has helped to revolutionize learning by facilitating schools’ access to modern telecommunications services and equipment. Today, 97 percent of American classrooms are connected to the Internet. But the needs of schools and libraries have shifted with the ever-evolving technological landscape since Congress established the program in 1996. Bipartisan reports dating back to 2005 called the E-Rate program “a well-intentioned program that nonetheless...

Wi-Fi signals enable gesture recognition throughout entire home By Michelle Ma News and Information Posted under: Engineering, News Releases, Research, Technology Forget to turn off the lights before leaving the apartment? No problem. Just raise your hand, finger-swipe the air, and your lights will power down. Want to change the song playing on your music system in the other room? Move your hand to the right and flip through the songs. A hand gesture changes the TV channel. U of Washington A hand gesture changes the TV channel using WiSee technology. University of Washington computer scientists have developed gesture-recognition technology...

About a year ago, Miller was convinced that the Internet was making him unproductive, and even corrupting his soul. So at 11:59 p.m. on April 30, 2012, Miller unplugged his Ethernet cable, turned off his Wi-Fi, and replaced his smartphone with a "dumb phone."

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Authorities have taken four computers from a Catholic parish office in Independence after determining child pornography had been downloaded on the parish's unsecured Wi-Fi address. A spokeswoman with the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph said an investigation began when authorities discovered two child pornography downloads from peer-to-peer websites on Feb. 5 with an IP address from the church’s rectory. Carrie Cooper, the Director of the Office of Child Protection with the Diocese, said all the computers and electronic storage devices have been taken from the building. Independence police referred questions about the investigation to...

HANOVER, VA –The FBI raided a Hanover County home in search of child porn, only to discover they'd raided the wrong house. Federal investigators targeted the Mechanicsville home after discovering child porn was being downloaded to computers using the homeowner's internet service, according to federal court documents. But after raiding the home in November and subsequently launching a full investigation, court documents show agents discovered the computers with the downloaded child porn didn't belong to the couple, but a neighbor. David Edward Sleezer, of J David Lane, was arrested and charged with five counts of receiving and distributing child porn....

Metro-North commuters may be able to browse the Internet from their laptops, tablets and other devices using wi-fi as they travel to and from their destinations if state Rep. Gail Lavielle gets her way. Lavielle, R-143rd District—which includes parts of Westport, Wilton and Norwalk—proposed a bill that would require Metro-North to provide wi-fi access to passengers. The proposed legislation would also allow a private contractor to provide the service. “Our hardworking commuters travel for hours every day on Metro-North, and they want to spend their time productively,” Lavielle said in a statement. “Commuters have seen a steep spike in their...

Stepping aboard a school bus will soon be the same as taking a seat in class for some students in the North Kansas City schools. In January, the district will begin wiring four school buses that are used for longer trips with Wi-Fi access. It’s believed to be the first such effort locally. The innovative move is just one more example of how local districts are adapting to keep up with technology and use it for the benefit of students. “We are living in a digital age,” said Eric Sipes, information technology executive director for the district. “We are at...

I have been using a Motorola 3360 ADSL modem for over a year. Well, not the same one. Last Thursday, the third one in the last year crapped out on me. (I needed one right away because my wife is job hunting and we can't wait for delivery. ) I decided not to go with another Motorola. I went to Staples and found that they have two available in the store. One is a Netgear 600N single channel and the other, which I purchased, is a Netgear Model: DGND3700-100NAS, which is a dual channel modem. It has both the 2.4GHz...

SNIPPET: "New York City is the center of a public uproar as Internet blogger Pamela Gellar rises with an “anti-jihad” ad campaign." SNIPPET: "Gellar and her group are protesting the Jihad, which in definition is the religious duty of Muslims. According to the Dictionary of Islam, jihad is defined as “A religious war with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad . . . enjoined especially for the purpose of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims.” The literal meaning of jihad, according to the British Broadcasting Network, “is struggle or effort, and it means much more than...

Clark Kent  may have to find another place to change into his Superman getup because phone booths are about to get used again. Payphones in major cities like New York have become less and less a public resource as mobile communications continue to grow. This New Yorker can’t remember the last time she used a payphone terminal, other than to duck out of the rain. Looking to once again make these kiosks valuable, the Big Apple’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) this week made available the city’s first payphones-turned-Wi-Fi hotspots. The pilot program began on Wednesday and...

Well, I'm clearly approaching desperation, or I wouldn't be posting something like this. OTOH, if help doesn't appear on FR, it might not be had anywhere. So here's the situation: I installed a brandy-new Cisco router (E1200) for a client who uses an ancient Macbook. Many pages load fine but Google -- the one that matters for her because she uses Gmail -- times out or takes many minutes to load. It's not unheard of -- I've found it brought up on different help forums but there seems to be no consensus on the fix and, disappointingly, no accountability whatsoever...

An Ontario teachers' union is calling for an end to new Wi-Fi setups in the province's 1,400-plus Catholic schools. The Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association says computers in all new schools should be hardwired instead of setting up wireless networks. It also says Wi-Fi should not be installed in any more classrooms. In a position paper released on Monday, the union — which represents 45,000 teachers — cites research by the World Health Organization. Last year the global health agency warned about a possible link between radiation from wireless devices such as cellphones and cancer. Some believe wireless access to...

Although wireless Internet can be found everywhere from your corner coffee shop to your local dog park, a growing group of concerned parents across the country are urging health officials to keep it out of one place: schools. And if this year was any indication, the chorus of opposition to the popular technology and its potential health effects is gaining momentum. In September, at least 12 elementary and middle schools in Ontario and B.C. imposed sweeping bans on wireless Internet by not installing it or removing it completely from their classrooms. In May, the World Health Organization reclassified the radio...

I'm looking to purchase a Kindle Touch E-Reader from Amazon. The Kindle Touch ($99.00) has Wi-Fi connectivity and the Kindle Touch 3G ($149.00) has Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Otherwise, they're pretty much the same as far as screen size, battery life, and other features. I'm not familiar with the advantages/disadvantages of Wi-Fi vs. 3G and am wondering if the 3G model is worth the extra $50.00. Does anyone have any advice re: this matter? Thanks.

Diane Schou, who left her home in Iowa to live in West Virginia, said she used to live in a Faraday Cage prior to finding shelter in Green BankThere have been attempts in the not-so-distant past where citizens strapped on their tin foil hats and complained of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS), which is an illness typically caused by electromagnetic fields created by mobile devices and Wi-Fi. Earlier this year, for instance, some San Francisco, California residents pushed legislators to force cell phone sellers to display labels providing the amount of electromagnetic radiation their devices produce. This law was shelved in May...

I love a good hack, especially one that requires me to throw back a cold one before hand (or during). This simple wifi boost has actually been shown to increase signal strength by at least 2 to 4 bars. And, well, I will drink to that. These instructions came to me via The Chive and i think they are most definitely worth checking out. But here is the most important question: what kind of beer will you use? For this project you are going to need scissors, a utility knife, some adhesive putty and an empty beer can. More than...

Is your network safe? Almost all of us prefer the convenience of Wi-Fi over the hassle of a wired connection. But what does that mean for security? Our tests tell the whole story. We go from password cracking on the desktop to hacking in the cloud.We hear about security breaches with such increasing frequency that it's easy to assume the security world is losing its battle to protect our privacy. The idea that our information is safe is what enables so many online products and services; without it, life online would be so very different than it is today. And...

When you log on to a Wi-Fi network with a laptop computer, how much info about yourself do you reveal? I don't mean what you reveal to a cracker/hacker but to, say, the network administrator. I'm not asking about porn or anything illegal but normal net surfing. I ask because of the proliferation of Wi-Fi hotspots. Some local government entities, like schools, can have unsecured access, you just log on.

Minnesota hacker Barry Ardolf was sentenced to an 18-year term in a federal prison this Tuesday. Ardolf had terrorized a neighboring family for two years through a carefully planned campaign involving a hijacked Wi-Fi network to harass, frame and embarrass the next-door neighbors in every facet of their lives. Ardolf’s obsessive passive-aggression was apparently ignited in late 2008 when his neighbors, Matt and Bethany Kostolnik, filed a police report against him. The Kostolniks had a 4-year old son who wandered over to their next-door-neighbors property shortly after moving into the Minnesota suburb of Blaine. Ardolf, 46 and a father of...