the other side of wireless security

[Andy Green]

Somebody in the thread at some point said:

> I've just been looking at possibly getting a laptop (a maddening
> exercise, if there ever was one), and have been playing with a friend's
> for a while, now.  One thing I haven't noticed are comments on the
> security of the other side of the wireless connection, your side.  Does
> the laptop treat connections made to its wireless interface in the same
> manner as it would a wired connection?  Do the encryption schemes you
> might use to connect to an access point work in the same way in the
> reverse direction?

Unless you run hostap or in adhoc mode, your laptop will only accept to
talk to and receive from the AP it is associated with, and then when the
packet is encrypted accordingly.

I actually made a project called penumbra

http://penumbra.warmcat.com

that is intended to allow you to use your wireless connection both
encrypted to the AP and selectively directly to other unencrypted devices.

-Andy