Email Delivery

Receive new posts as email.

Email address

Syndicate this site

RSS | Atom

Contact

About This Site
Contact Us
Privacy Policy

Search


November 2010
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30        

Stories by Category

Basics :: Basics
Casting :: Casting Listen In Podcasts Videocasts
Culture :: Culture Hacking
Deals :: Deals
FAQ :: FAQ
Future :: Future
Hardware :: Hardware Adapters Appliances Chips Consumer Electronics Gaming Home Entertainment Music Photography Video Gadgets Mesh Monitoring and Testing PDAs Phones Smartphones
Industry :: Industry Conferences Financial Free Health Legal Research Vendor analysis
International :: International
Media :: Media Locally cached Streaming
Metro-Scale Networks :: Metro-Scale Networks Community Networking Municipal
Network Types :: Network Types Broadband Wireless Cellular 2.5G and 3G 4G Power Line Satellite
News :: News Mainstream Media
Politics :: Politics Regulation Sock Puppets
Schedules :: Schedules
Security :: Security 802.1X
Site Specific :: Site Specific Administrative Detail April Fool's Blogging Book review Cluelessness Guest Commentary History Humor Self-Promotion Unique Wee-Fi Who's Hot Today?
Software :: Software Open Source
Spectrum :: Spectrum 60 GHz
Standards :: Standards 802.11a 802.11ac 802.11ad 802.11e 802.11g 802.11n 802.20 Bluetooth MIMO UWB WiGig WiMAX ZigBee
Transportation and Lodging :: Transportation and Lodging Air Travel Aquatic Commuting Hotels Rails
Unclassified :: Unclassified
Vertical Markets :: Vertical Markets Academia Enterprise WLAN Switches Home Hot Spot Aggregators Hot Spot Advertising Road Warrior Roaming Libraries Location Medical Public Safety Residential Rural SOHO Small-Medium Sized Business Universities Utilities wISP
Voice :: Voice

Archives

November 2010 | October 2010 | September 2010 | August 2010 | July 2010 | June 2010 | May 2010 | April 2010 | March 2010 | February 2010 | January 2010 | December 2009 | November 2009 | October 2009 | September 2009 | August 2009 | July 2009 | June 2009 | May 2009 | April 2009 | March 2009 | February 2009 | January 2009 | December 2008 | November 2008 | October 2008 | September 2008 | August 2008 | July 2008 | June 2008 | May 2008 | April 2008 | March 2008 | February 2008 | January 2008 | December 2007 | November 2007 | October 2007 | September 2007 | August 2007 | July 2007 | June 2007 | May 2007 | April 2007 | March 2007 | February 2007 | January 2007 | December 2006 | November 2006 | October 2006 | September 2006 | August 2006 | July 2006 | June 2006 | May 2006 | April 2006 | March 2006 | February 2006 | January 2006 | December 2005 | November 2005 | October 2005 | September 2005 | August 2005 | July 2005 | June 2005 | May 2005 | April 2005 | March 2005 | February 2005 | January 2005 | December 2004 | November 2004 | October 2004 | September 2004 | August 2004 | July 2004 | June 2004 | May 2004 | April 2004 | March 2004 | February 2004 | January 2004 | December 2003 | November 2003 | October 2003 | September 2003 | August 2003 | July 2003 | June 2003 | May 2003 | April 2003 | March 2003 | February 2003 | January 2003 | December 2002 | November 2002 | October 2002 | September 2002 | August 2002 | July 2002 | June 2002 | May 2002 | April 2002 | March 2002 | February 2002 | January 2002 | December 2001 | November 2001 | October 2001 | September 2001 | August 2001 | July 2001 | June 2001 | May 2001 | April 2001 |

Recent Entries

In-Flight Wi-Fi and In-Flight Bombs
Can WPA Protect against Firesheep on Same Network?
Southwest Sets In-Flight Wi-Fi at $5
Eye-Fi Adds a View for Web Access
Firesheep Makes Sidejacking Easy
Wi-Fi Direct Certification Starts
Decaf on the Starbucks Digital Network
Google Did Snag Passwords
WiMax and LTE Not Technically 4G by ITU Standards
AT&T Wi-Fi Connections Keep High Growth with Free Service

Site Philosophy

This site operates as an independent editorial operation. Advertising, sponsorships, and other non-editorial materials represent the opinions and messages of their respective origins, and not of the site operator. Part of the FM Tech advertising network.

Copyright

Entire site and all contents except otherwise noted © Copyright 2001-2010 by Glenn Fleishman. Some images ©2006 Jupiterimages Corporation. All rights reserved. Please contact us for reprint rights. Linking is, of course, free and encouraged.

Powered by
Movable Type

« Portland Cloud Competition | Main | Free Akron Airport-Fi »

September 20, 2005

Google VPN for Wi-Fi

If you're using a Google Wi-Fi hotspot in SF, you can download Google Secure Access: It's a free VPN with no details about method (probably SSL) or encryption method (one hopes at least 128-bit Blowfish, but maybe more). Probably not. It looks like Google, for now, is offering this service for download only over its own free Wi-Fi networks, but it might work elsewhere, they suggest. This download-at-hotspot requirement limits distribution because one assumes you have to set up a VPN account or use your Google login. (You can try to download it from this location, too.)

This fuels interest that they'll sponsor or build much more free Wi-Fi--tied in with their fiber optic last-mile postulated plans. I still don't see how free Wi-Fi helps their business model. A tiny bit more Internet access would only provide a tiny bit more ad revenue.

I've exchanged email all morning with a colleague that thinks this spells death to HotSpotVPN, Public VPN, JiWire's SpotLock, and WiTopia's personalVPN. My reaction? This could create a lot more awareness about VPNs, a good thing, and not everyone will want to use Google's service. They're unlikely to provide phone support or fast tech support response, a must when someone's on the road and can't gain access via the VPN. They don't (yet) offer a variety of encryption types or tell us what they're using. Their choice of VPN transport might not appeal to all users.

A call into Google PR to obtain my own personal "no comment" hasn't been returned yet.

Update: Several folks have mailed to point out that this isn't SSL VPN, but it's PPTP, which is the weakest of the three widely used tunneling encryption methods. Further, it allows CHAP, MS-CHAP, and MS-CHAPv2. Both CHAP and MS-CHAP have well-known cracks that can be accomplished through readily available free software. MS-CHAPv2 is better, but the software isn't set up to require it.

A poorly chosen PPTP password can be cracked, too, even with MS-CHAPv2, which is a reason that SSL and IPsec-over-L2TP have been emphasized lately. Even HotSpotVPN.com, which originally offered just PPTP tunnels, enforced strong password selection by assigning a strong password. (HotSpotVPN now offers a variety of strong encryption with an SSL VPN as their main "rental" service.)

9 Comments

No Mac client yet, according to the site. Don't know if I'd want a vpn that I can only use on their network... Lots of questions, no answers. Any idea on the timing? Lets here from someone using it!

It is pptp not ssl, 128bits only. Speed is capped at about 500 bps.

Actually, it is PPTP, using the standard Windows PPTP client. The only thing special about it is the username and password, which are kept in Google's own client and passed into the Windows client automatically.

Who needs a Mac client when you can simply log in with an Applescript? http://www.kevinstock.com/osx/googlevpn/

As a freeware alternative I use iPig with good success. The software (http://www.iopus.com/ipig) includes the option to set up your *own* VPN server extremly easy. Thus all traffic goes to your
computer and not via the Google machines!

"I still don't see how free Wi-Fi helps their business model."
The future is all about mobile phones. Mobiles to pc's is already 3:1 and by 2010 it'll be 7:1. PC is out, mobile is in. Location based advertisement is the extra business model; Google offers free calls and webservices in exchange for personal data to be used for advertising and marketing. Where customers go, the money follows.
This is DISRUPTIVE as can be...

Capastorm

This is God!! Ok, I'm not crazy. Listen to this. My University has a filter on their internet service here. We have several OC3's on campus, but due to file sharing and bit torrent, it has been slowed down. I am not very familiar with vpn, but I downloaded this, and low and behold, I can access any site, and download anything I want to with bt or any p2p, and it all works!!

I"m using Google VPN anywhere. Not just in SF. I've used it all over Northern Calif at various hotspots. Not sure why its working but it is.