Frequently asked questions
About BT’s Wireless Cities programme
- What is a ‘Wireless City’?
- Why is BT doing this?
- How much Wi-Fi coverage has been provided in the city centres?
- Why have you just covered the city centre areas?
About devices
About Free Wi-Fi
About the Liberation Campaign
- What is the aim of the Liberation campaign?
- Why is the Liberation campaign only going to select cities?
- What will I be able to see / do as part of the event?
About Wireless Broadband
On reported health effects of wireless technology
About wireless security
- How do I ensure my network is secure?
- There are an increasing number of reports outlining how easy it is to hack into an organisation’s wireless networks. How do you respond to these?
- Security guidelines for end users
- Security guidelines for organisations
What is a ‘Wireless City’?
There is no set definition for an area covered by Wireless Broadband. BT has been working with each local authority to understand their requirements and will then deliver a network and applications to meet those requirements. It will involve rolling out extensive Wi-Fi coverage across city centres.
Why is BT doing this?
Wireless access is at the heart of BT’s mobility and convergence vision, which is to keep people and communities better connected, whether at home, in the office or out and about. We want to make sure people have access to all their applications and information on their choice of Wi-Fi enabled device, utilising the best network available with a simple user experience.
That’s why we’re extending Wi-Fi coverage across 12 city centres in the UK and Ireland, including London (Westminster and Waltham Forest), Newcastle, Birmingham and Liverpool.
How much Wi-Fi coverage has been provided in the city centres?
Building on BT’s Openzone network we have now installed additional access points and rolled out extensive Wi-Fi coverage across 12 city centres in the UK and Ireland. Where there is commercial demand BT will build out from the central area in conjunction with its City Council partners to provide coverage for Council services and other commercial requirements.
Why have you just covered the city centre areas?
The extent of coverage in the first phase is dependent on two major factors: what the City Council needs and where our customers are demanding it. Most often, this will fall in the areas of highest footfall, i.e. the city centre areas.
Where there is commercial demand, we will build out from the central area in conjunction with its City Council partners to provide coverage for Council services and other commercial requirements.
What devices can we use on this network, is it just for PCs?
Any device with Wi-Fi capabilities can be used. There are a wide range of PCs and hand held Wi-Fi enabled devices (sometimes known as Personal Digital Assistants – PDAs), gaming devices such as Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, and Wi-Fi compatible VoIP devices such BT Fusion and BT Office Anywhere.
BT expects the number and range of these Wi-Fi enabled devices to increase rapidly over the next 2-3 years, for instance Wi-Fi connected cameras, new types of very small portable computers, Wi-Fi connected media players and many more Wi-Fi compatible mobile phones.
Why isn’t BT providing this for free?
To provide sustainable services such as free Wi-Fi, there must always be a funding mechanism to meet the costs of providing a quality service. 'Free' is often a misused word in the world of “Wireless Cities” as somewhere, someone has to pay for it.
We believe that there are business models emerging that could support these services in a sustainable way and is actively considering how these can be brought to market and their benefit to address the social inclusion and digital divide debates.
For example in Birmingham, the council is using the Wi-Fi network to provide a Free Information Zone – FIZ – that will provide up-to-date online information on a wide range of local services including cinema listings and bus timetables, train and bus timetables, local news and sport and council services and will be free to anyone logging onto BT’s Openzone within the Wireless Birmingham area.
How much does it cost to use then?
BT Openzone offers a variety of payment methods to suit individual users and companies. Flexible payment options are available for the casual user to the regular user through to corporate subscriptions. Visit www.btopenzone.com to identify the best choice for you .
What is the aim of the Liberation campaign?
The Liberation campaign aims to help residents, businesses, council workers and visitors experience the exciting benefits of Wi-Fi, whether in the home, in the office or on the move.
As part of the initial campaign burst, four-day events are happening across five of the cities BT is working with on its Wireless City Programme – Birmingham, London (Westminster and Waltham Forest), Liverpool and Newcastle. The events, in association with Intel, will be giving residents, businesses and visitors the chance to experience the exciting benefits of Wi-Fi for themselves at a specially-designed interactive showcase.
Why is the Liberation campaign only going to select cities?
This year, the first tranche of the Liberation campaign will be visiting Birmingham, Newcastle, London (Westminster) and Liverpool. Next year, we’ll be taking the campaign to London (Waltham Forest) and other cities as well, so there definitely aren’t any network problems.
What will I be able to see / do as part of the event?
BT, in association with Intel, will be giving residents, businesses and visitors the chance to experience and learn about the exciting benefits of Wi-Fi for themselves at a specially-designed interactive showcase.
Where are BT Openzone’s hotspot locations?
BT Openzone has hotspots in quality locations where customers demand them, such as British Airways customer lounges around the world, BAA airports, mainline train stations, Hilton Hotels, Thistle and Ramada Jarvis Hotels and Welcome Break and RoadChef service stations.
Through roaming agreements with other Wi-Fi providers, BT Openzone customers can work, talk and play over high-speed wireless broadband at over 2,000 hotspots in premium locations directly managed by BT in the UK and Ireland and at over 35,000 sites globally.
There have been some serious allegations about Wi-Fi being dangerous to health. Surely you are putting more of us at risk by creating wireless networks across our city centres?
BT is concerned about, committed to and proactive in trying to ensure the technology it supplies is safe. We take these issues very seriously and ensure our in-house medical experts have sight of the latest research available on these topics, which currently indicate that there are no health risks associated with our Wi-Fi work.
We welcome any further research into the area, which we believe will reassure our customers that there are no proven adverse health risks related to exposure to wireless technologies. BT is currently working with medical experts, researchers and industry bodies to continue encouraging investigation into these areas. We will continue to monitor the latest research, being vigilant and quick to communicate, with our customers, local councils, industry alliances and the media.
How do I ensure my network is secure?
We have always advised our customers directly on what they need to do to deploy and use wireless networks securely. As the technology increases in popularity, we recognise, as industry leaders, the need to educate people further on their responsibility to ensure networks continue to be secure and information is protected.
There are an increasing number of reports outlining how easy it is to hack into an organisation’s wireless networks. How do you respond to these?
We are working to make security as simple and easy to implement as possible. A more immediate need from our customers is to help them understand what they need to protect in terms of their environment (i.e. the Wi-Fi enabled devices and infrastructure) and the information sent across those networks. From this assessment, we can educate them on the security measures they should implement based on their needs, and create the appropriate balance between usability of the technology and security needs.
Security guidelines for end users
Many of the stories surrounding improper wireless use occur because no security has been enabled on the wireless network. To draw a parallel, not enabling security is not just a case of failing to lock your front door; it’s like having no front door at all.
Wireless networks are convenient and easy to install and home owners with high-speed internet access are adopting them at a rapid pace. Indeed many of the broadband modems supplied by internet providers already have wireless capabilities built in, and many of these are supplied with wireless enabled by default with little or no security present.
Presently, there are over 100,000 wireless hotspots globally which allow people to send emails, surf the net and log onto their corporate networks from locations that range from the local coffee shop to the North Pole.
Most portable PCs, and many PDAs, have built in wireless capabilities and these can be used with the wireless capabilities both at home and at Hotspots to connect to the internet and other network services.
To ensure you protect your personal data and minimise any security risks, there are several steps you can take to improve wireless security both at home and when using a public wireless hotspot.
BT has produced the following guidelines to help you enjoy the freedom of wireless networking while managing security challenges.
- Change the default Service Set Identifier (SSID)
The SSID is the name given to your wireless network at home, and it can be anything you wish. Your Wi-Fi enabled devices may have a default SSID set by the factory. Hackers know these defaults and can try them to join your network. Change the network's SSID to something unique, and make sure it doesn't refer to the networking products you use, or identify you or your company directly. - Disable SSID broadcast.
By default, most Wi-Fi enabled devices are set to broadcast the SSID, so anyone can easily join the wireless network. But hackers will also be able to detect and connect so unless you're running a public hotspot, it's best to disable SSID broadcast. - Change the default password needed to access a Wi-Fi enabled device.
For wireless products such as access points and routers, you will be asked for a password when you want to change their settings. These devices have a default password set by the factory. Hackers know these defaults and will try them to access your Wi-Fi enabled device and change your network settings. To thwart any unauthorised changes, customise the device's password so it will be hard to guess. - Install a personal firewall on your PC.
Whether or not you intend to use the wireless capabilities, any Wi-Fi enabled device should be secured by a personal firewall. Firewalls can help prevent unwanted users from accessing your device when you enable wireless on your PC, intentionally or otherwise. Some more sophisticated products will even alert you when an attempt is being made. By installing a personal firewall it reduces the ability of attackers to gain access to resources on your computer by allowing only traffic which is authorised by the intended user. Some operating systems include a personal firewall as standard, but it is important to check that the firewall is enabled and correctly configured. Free trial firewalls can be downloaded from the internet before a user decides to purchase a full security firewall. - Enable security and encryption on your wireless network and PC.
There are a number of different security standards that many Wi-Fi enabled devices support today. Identify the capabilities of your wireless router and your PC and select the strongest option that best suits your circumstances. However, remember that this will only secure the link between your PC and the wireless router and any sensitive information may require other security mechanisms to be used (see the ‘Secure personal details’ section below).
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) - This is the original security standard that wireless supported. It is available in both 40 bit and 128 bit versions. While neither of these provide a great level of security, they do deter opportunist users from connecting to you network or PC. You should consider one of the later, stronger, security options. If your PC does not support these enabling WEP is much better than doing nothing.
WPA-PSK (WiFi Protected Access - PreShared Key) - This is the improved security mechanism that followed WEP and provides far greater protection. It still has a number of known flaws, mostly relating to weaknesses in the PreShared Key value, and care must be taken when selecting a suitable key to make sure that it can not be easily obtained by brute force methods.
WPA2-PSK - As above, but this replaces to older RC4 cypher with the more modern AES - Advanced Encryption Standard. Users may find that their PC does not support WPA2, and to use this it will be necessary to purchase a software supplicant.
- Secure personal details
Only input bank and other personal details when SSL or HTTPS sessions are in progress (look for the padlock icon in your browser and configure your Internet browser to confirm that the security certificate is valid). - Turn off file and print sharing on your computer.
This will help prevent anyone from accessing your hard drive and looking at your files. To do this using Windows XP, go to your Control Panel, click on Network and Dial-Up Connections, find your wireless card, click on the Properties button, and uncheck the File and Print Sharing box to turn it off. - Look into consumer VPN services
Although Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are generally used by company networks to provide strong authentication and encryption for hotspot communications (as well as GPRS, dial up and broadband), there are also inexpensive consumer VPN services that give you many of the protection measures that a corporate VPN would offer. - Automatic log on
Ensure your Laptop/PDA cannot automatically log-on because you have configured it to remember passwords. This should be turned off (often an Internet Explorer browser setting).
Security guidelines for organisations
An increasing number of organisations are realising the benefits of installing enterprise wireless network and giving employees the ability to access information without being tied to a desk.
For business critical applications potentially involving sensitive data, organisations need to have a enterprise wireless network security strategy that integrates with the corporate network security policy and complete approach which ensures only authenticated and authorised devices and users can access data.
To ensure you protect critical business assets and manage security challenges, BT has produced the following guidelines to improve wireless security and help you achieve full confidence in the security of your enterprise wireless network.
These have been split into three key areas which should inform any wireless security strategy:
- Choosing Security Standards Best-Suited to Your Business Needs
- Implementing Vigilant Security Policies
- Making the users an active partner
- Implement Security Standards Best-Suited to Your Business Needs
- To protect your network from security breaches, begin by selecting the appropriate user authentication and data encryption mechanisms best suited to your business needs, budget, and resources. This choice should be informed by the network security needs you have as a business. For example, a small business may not need to or have the resources to deploy and manage an enterprise-class security solution.
- Consider the capabilities of your existing infrastructure/equipment, but do not set the security level at the lowest common denominator. Whilst the best option would be to invest in upgraded equipment, if you must use older less capable devices, consider segregating these onto a separate and less trusted (DMZ/Firewalled) part of the network.
- Next, select a security standard best suited to your business needs. Security standards are based on IEEE 802.11 and range in levels of security encryption. You should choose a standard that carries a level of encryption that is most appropriate for what you need to protect, not necessarily the lowest common (security) denominator that your equipment is capable of supporting.
- Implement Vigilant Security Policies
Without a policy requiring regularly scheduled security checks, you're putting your network at risk for future security breaches.- Develop enterprise wireless network security policies and establish quarterly performance objectives based on these policies.
- Regularly scan for rogue or unknown access points, and/or client devices.
- Change default management passwords and Service Set Identifier (SSID) on access points.
- Implement the appropriate IEEE security specifications.
- Make the User Your Partner in Security
IT professionals have enough to worry about. By educating users to be security partners, you can help further manage challenges.- Advise employees of their shared responsibility to security.
- Explain to employees the risk of setting up access points without the knowledge or consent of the network administrator (called Rogue Access Points). When setting up Rogue access points, employees often fail to address security settings, incorrectly assuming they are turned on, or fail to set adequate levels of security that can be easily breached.
- Implement a system where users know the names of the access points/SSIDs, and stress the importance of connecting only to known and approved wireless networks.
- Educate users about the security risks of connecting wirelessly using peer-to-peer, or "ad-hoc", networks.
- Ensure users understand they should only access the corporate network from home, public or shared wireless networks via a secure VPN (Virtual Private Network)
- Ensure that all Wi-Fi enabled devices have an appropriate personal firewall and antivirus package installed. Regular updates should be undertaken to ensure that these remain effective against newly emerging threats.
- Show users how to check security mechanisms on their device and enable the appropriate functions.
For further information on Wireless Broadband please contact 169 1397
