The scoop on wireless LAN snoops

Is that a secretary sitting on a park bench enjoying lunch or is it an intruder trying to do unspeakable things to your 802.11-based wireless LAN? According to Network World Fusion, the problem isn’t quite as silly as I’ve made it sound in the first sentence of this blurb. The reporter went on a tour of Cambridge, Mass. with a security consultant, and with the help of an IBM ThinkPad equipped with a standard wireless NIC the pair were able to see quie a bit of interesting (and even more not-very-interesting) network traffic, including router configuration data. One suggestion for network sanity: Keep the 802.11 seperate from your wired LAN.