EMERGENCY ??? AMATEUR RADIO NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW!

[Rob Seastrom]

Louis Mamakos <louie at transsys.com> writes:

> On the other hand, if you want to use commodity 802.11 wifi radios
> in the amateur service in some sort of wide area mesh network, then
> crypto is just what you need.

Why?

> How else do you prevent non-amateur stations from using wifi radios
> in an Amateur network they shouldn't be using?  Invent yet another
> flat-tire authentication system that just adds complexity as
> compared to existing widely fielded and robust protocols?

The existing widely fielded and robust protocol you want is IPSEC (AH,
not ESP).  Between stations, over an unencrypted 802.11 link, wrap a
GRE tunnel in AH, route packets over it as normal.  Hide the SSID so
as to avoid confusing people (not a security measure, rather a "keep
the phone from ringing" measure.  Problem solved, payload not
obscured.

-r