[sf-lug] WIFI set-up

[Akkana Peck]

maestro writes:
> how do you set-up your linux distro (and which distro are you running?) to
> connect *SECURELY *to all public and shared wifi networks (with shared
> passwd)?

Debian stable on my laptop. No firewall. I'd probably run a firewall
if I could find an easy way of doing so, but I don't think it matters
much if I'm not running daemons that are listening on external ports,
does it? I try to pare down the distro I run so I'm not running a
bunch of services I don't need (for performance reasons as well
as security).

> what configurations do you do and/or software do you run to keep
> 'trolls/assholes' from knocking you off wifi connections?

I didn't even know that was a thing. I often lose the connection on
public and motel wi-fi, and have to reconnect, but I didn't think
that had anything to do with other users on the network; I thought
it was just the provider being flaky. (Public wifi is almost always
flaky; I usually have to try several times before getting connected
in the first place, and then I have to re-authenticate with the
stupid browser redirect authentication they all insist on using
instead of a standard like a WPA password.)

Can you explain what these 'trolls/assholes' are doing to knock
other people off the wifi, and are you sure it's not just flakiness?
Maybe I need a solution here and didn't even know it.

        ...Akkana