Hacker News Reader

Maybe something like bluetooth pairing could work for wifi. Eg you would press a button on the device, and it would broadcast a "request to join network" message. Then you could authorize the request on your access points/routers interface. Passcodes could be added for better security (to ensure that the device doesn't attach to your neighbors network).

View on HN

There is a mechanism called WiFi Protected Setup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Setup) that does something similar, but none of the home routers I've personally used have had this feature. There is a mandatory push-button mode in there.

Yeah, on a closer reading one mode of WPS sounds like it would fit the bill. Too bad that it has also the major security hole mode ("enter AP PIN on device" mode). Hopefully that can be selectively disabled and eventually deprecated.

edit: Whats in WPS 2.0? There are some references to it, mainly saying that it could fix the security issues in WPS. But I couldn't find any solid info how it would to that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com