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What is a CPE?

by | Apr 2, 2018 | Blog, Computers, general, internet stuff

Ok, I had a potential client call me this morning, and ask me if was familiar with 5ghz CPE. I wasn’t at home or near computer when she called, and as soon as I indicated I didn’t have 100% knowledge on the subject she hung up. Big mistake on her part. Folks, it’s a COMMON marketing ploy to take an age old technology, wrap it in a new box (i.e.: …give it a new name) and hope that the general public is dumb enough not to recognize it and pay the 250% markup they are hoping to get on it. I get so tired of it really. It started with “THE CLOUD” …remember when that term was new? How many of you were, or maybe still are, confused the “The Cloud” …big clue…the “CLOUD” …is just another term for the internet, and internet related products and services. Stuff stored “in the cloud” …is not all that mysterious. This is only 2018 and everything has a PHYSICAL location. Someone, somewhere, has a data center, and you connect to it through the internet, and that’s the cloud.

OK, so back the CPE thing: CPE stands for “CUSTOMER PREMISES EQUIPMENT” …it’s equipment, owned by your internet (or other) service provider, and located on your premises. Pretty lame huh? Basically, a 5Ghz CPE is a “mysterious” nomenclature for a N-band router. (even more lame now that you know, right?) …oh, not just any router, a router owned by your service provider, located on a customer’s premises. I rolled over laughing hysterically when I looked this up ….and I see that the term is actually being used more and more often now. Like this one I saw at on a Fry’s electronics ad today: https://www.frys.com/product/9226939?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG …it’s an outdoor wifi repeater/range extender/switch unit thingy that sends the wifi signal from your house (indoors) …to your outdoors area. I guess you must have to have a very big house to need one of these, because my standard router sends a signal that I can reach out in my carport, and a good 500 yards away from my door. (or more, I never actually measured it as I drove away, but I would not have a need for this device)

If you want some info on the 5Ghz signal (wifi) …this is a pretty good page: https://www.howtogeek.com/222249/whats-the-difference-between-2.4-ghz-and-5-ghz-wi-fi-and-which-should-you-use/

Do you think I’m making this up? I’m seriously not. Read here: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/CPE-device

Black Monday for Wifi

by | Oct 16, 2017 | Blog, Computers, hacking, internet stuff, Security, Web Development

Today is BLACK MONDAY: WiFi is No Longer Secure”

Today is being called “Black Monday” in many information security circles. We have had a major Wi-Fi vulnerability announced that affects absolutely every device that supports Wi-Fi. The vulnerability allows attackers to decrypt WPA2 connections. A second vulnerability has also emerged today. This is a bad day for security. 

There is a lot of very technical information, which most of you won’t understand, but if you techies want to read the full article, WordFence wrote it much better than I ever could. You can catch that post here: WORDFENCE WPA2 ENCRYPTION CRACKED!  

Just to show you how quickly a hacker can now get onto a wifi network, and get passwords, and much, much more, I’ll add the Video here so you don’t have to click to watch the video. 

 I will follow up this post, as soon as I learn how to secure wifi again. As it is, everyone is using WPA2, it was supposed to be the unbreakable security method. But I’m sure they will tell us quickly how to block these kind of attacks, and I will pass it on to you as soon as I find out myself. (because information should be shared)