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« Jaiku S60 Client Nearly Ready For Release | Main | Nokia E90 A Bit Harder to Infect with Bluetooth Worms »
Security and convenience are often at opposite ends of the spectrum. One of the challenges security-conscious people have is configuring mobile devices to use the insanely complex WPA keys we use for our WiFi access points. Imagine typing something like the following with a typical 12-key phone keyboard:
6t/~:w]k528U'm2PIV}_W(|]SE~^BcM"2|\+UHc`F2g2$IdI}rcFG_ovGF9hg6a
While this random gibberish ensures your WiFi access point is not going to be broken into anytime soon, that's hard to type on a regular keyboard, much less a 12-key keypad!
The solution I came up with might be heresy to some security folks, given that you essentially have to communicate your WPA key in the clear. The likelihood of anyone knowing what that random bit of gibberish goes to--assuming they're listening--is probably pretty small. In my mind, it's an acceptable risk.
I SMS my WPA key (without any explanatory text) to myself. Some operators provide a way to SMS their customers over the web. Others provide an email interface--my preferred method. Check with your operator. This gets the WPA key into a text message on my phone. I use the Copy and Paste feature in S60 phones, as Johanna demonstrates in her latest blog entry, though she uses a haiku she wrote. Same idea, except you paste that blob of text where you enter the WPA key.
Try it out and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
Comments
Ciao
why don't you just save it to a txt file, copy the file to the phone and then open it, copy and paste and that's it? then delete the file.
Alessandro
Posted by: Alessandro | August 8, 2007 05:40 AMHave a look at Devicescape (www.devicescape.com)
Posted by: Matze | August 8, 2007 06:44 AMWelcome to the S60 browsing team, Dameon! This is a great little tutorial. If anyone's using Firefox (as I would imagine they are) there's a GREAT little Google Plugin available from labs.google.com called "Send2Phone". It puts a little cellphone icon in the top right of your browser that you can click to open up an SMS interface. It's easily the handiest thing that I have on my browser.
Posted by: Ricky | August 8, 2007 10:01 AMI just create an iCal entry with the random data I want to send, sync it and then get it from the calendar.
Posted by: Abhishta Paranjpe | August 8, 2007 12:04 PMI just save the random data as an iCal entry, sync it and then get it from the calendar.
(Why didn't my initial comment show up?)
Posted by: Abhishta Paranjpe | August 8, 2007 12:07 PMThe text file/ical stuff also works as ways to get the data across.
I use the Google Send2Phone plugin frequently. Same idea, but I think that only works in North America. Could be wrong.
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Keep the cards and letters coming!
Posted by: PhoneBoyOkay, fewer key presses - check, secure - check.
Install QuickMark mobile barcode reader.
Goto http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/diy/?qrEncrypt and enter your WPA key and an encryption key and click on generate.
An encrypted QRcode will be displayed, then you just capture it with your S60 device, enter the decryption key and you will then be able to copy and paste the decrypted text.
Do I win a prize?
Posted by: david emmo | August 29, 2007 05:20 AMThat website is useful. However, the Barcode reader on the N95 won't offer to decrypt, so all I end up with is gibberish. It also doesn't offer to let me save the data it scans in a useful format (e.g. for the clipboard) either. Nice thought in theory, but doesn't seem to work in practice.
Posted by: PhoneBoy