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Security without penalty

Posted on 30 Mar 2009 at 16:17

Paul Ockenden reduces the strain on his netbooks, continues his Wi-Fi investigations, and reveals the perils of using a mobile as a modem.

I suspect the reasons I've outlined above also explain why twin-aerial routers and ADSL modems sometimes perform better in reviews than their three-aerial competitors - my suspicion would be that the person doing the test was using a laptop with an embedded two-antenna Wi-Fi card, or perhaps even a USB stick version (which tend to also be limited to twin-antenna, mainly because of size considerations). If comparative reviews had been conducted using a three-aerial setup at the laptop end too, then I suspect that the test results - especially throughput under marginal signal conditions - would have been significantly different, but I've never seen a Wi-Fi router review where the reviewer even mentioned how many antennae their laptop employed (there's actually another fairly major shortcoming with many Wi-Fi reviews and tests, but that's something I'll come back to in a future issue).

In the meantime my tests are continuing, especially with regards to dual-band (2.4GHz plus 5GHz) devices, and I'll continue to give you advanced news of any significant discoveries via this column. Incidentally, I'm indebted to the folks at VoxMicro and its e-commerce arm OxfordTEC (www.oxfordtec.com/uk), who have been really helpful with advice and in loaning me kit for my testing. I'm more than happy to give OxfordTEC a big plug here because not only does it have one of the best ranges of Wi-Fi clients that I've found so far from a UK vendor, it also has pretty keen prices.

Am I a naughty boy?

Here's an email I received recently from a PC Pro reader. For reasons that will become obvious as you read it I'm not going to name the reader, the company or the mobile network concerned:

I have a question to ask you regarding the Internet Connection Sharing facilities on Windows Mobile 6 and the mobile operators' data terms and conditions. I have tried to research this but am still unable to find a definitive answer, and I was hoping that you might be able to shed some light on this.

I have a mobile contract with data as a paid-for add-on with the phone. It's an HTC TyTN (I know it's getting on a bit, but it does the job). When I am at work I have my phone connected to my laptop and I use the phone's internet connection for the laptop. My company has very strict Websense restrictions, so I use my phone connection to view sites that are blocked (nothing dodgy, just things like Gmail and LogMeIn).

When I read the terms and conditions of my own network's data plan, and also the O2 data T & Cs (as I'm thinking of moving operators to get an HTC Touch Pro), I noticed they both state that the data connection must not be used as a modem - obviously, they want you to buy their USB modems at extra cost. However, using Internet Connection Sharing doesn't appear to get me charged extra - my network just lists it as data on my statement, and my laptop connections are not distinguished from my phone browsing and email collection. So in a nutshell, is Internet Connection Sharing deemed using the phone as a modem or not?

Many thanks in advance, and hoping you have the time to read this mail.

It's an interesting question, and I know this reader isn't alone as I've had similar emails in the past. To answer the question, is using Internet Connection Sharing classed as using the phone as a modem? Yup, I'm afraid it is. So are you breaking the terms and conditions laid down by your mobile provider? Absolutely yes, you are. The chances are good that you may even be in breach of your employment contract, since I'm sure your employer installed those Websense filters for a good reason - using your mobile connection to bypass them could result in anything from a stern telling-off, to "15 minutes to clear your desk" and getting frogmarched to the door between two security men.