Re: [NTLK] wifi SSID

Bill Benson wrote:
> After noticing so many free hotspots on a recent road trip, I thought
> I'd pick up a cheap wireless card on ebay and bring my 2100 out of
> retirement as an e-mail client. The first issue, though, is learning
> or guessing the SSID name. I wonder if there's some special string
> that would match any broadcast SSID name to establish a connection?
> Or maybe there would be some trace of SSIDs encountered by the
> wireless driver in one its data structures that could be seen with
> Viewframe or Trashpak or some such? Any ideas or tips greatly
> appreciated.

Bill,

There are a number of standalone keyfob-sized hardware Wi-Fi finders on
the market which will find 802.11abg networks and display SSID's, and
also tell you whether or not they're using WPA/WPA2, etc.

Check out the TRENDnet TEW-429UB or the Zyxel ZyAIR AG-225H. They both
have street prices of around $30/ea, and are also USB 2.0 Wi-Fi radio
dongles as well.

> Incidentally, there's much more of a problem sending e-mail than
> receiving because so many SMTP servers require SSL. This may be
> common knowledge, but I've had success with the free site
> www.mail2web.com, which will send outgoing mail on your behalf,
> though you have to trust them with your e-mail login and password.
> I've accessed this through the venerable NetHopper, which works ok,
> though seems to want to center the text of received e-mails. Does
> anyone know how to control the formatting?
>
> -Bill Benson

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