wifi passwords

1 files changed, 89 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/static/src/_posts/2022-05-03-why-do-we-have-wifi-passwords.md b/static/src/_posts/2022-05-03-why-do-we-have-wifi-passwords.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62c16af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/static/src/_posts/2022-05-03-why-do-we-have-wifi-passwords.md
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+---
+title: >-
+    Why Do We Have WiFi Passwords?
+description: >-
+    A possible UX improvement.
+tags: tech
+---
+
+It's been longer than I'd like since the last post, and unfortunately I don't
+have a ton that I can actually show for it. A lot of time has been spent on
+cryptic-net, which is coming along great and even has a proper storage mechanism
+now! But it also still has some data specific to our own network baked into the
+code, so it can't be shown publicly yet.
+
+-----
+
+Since I don't have much I _can_ show, I thought I'd spend a post diving into a
+thought I had the other day: **why do we have wifi passwords?**
+
+The question is a bit facetious. Really what I want to ask is the adjacent
+question: why do we use usernames _and_ passwords for wifi networks? The
+question doesn't make much sense standing alone though, so it wouldn't do as a
+title.
+
+In any case, what I'm proposing is that the vast majority of people don't need a
+username/password authentication mechanism to secure their wifi network in a
+practical way. Rather, most people could get along just fine with a secret token
+mechanism.
+
+In the case of wifi networks, a secret token system might be better named a
+secret _name_ mechanism. Using this mechanism a router would not broadcast its
+own name to be discovered by the user's device, but rather the user inputs the
+name into their device themselves. Existing hidden wifi networks work in this
+way already, except they also require a password.
+
+I'm not going to look at this from a technical or cryptographical perspective.
+Hidden wifi networks work already, I assume that under the hood this wouldn't be
+appreciably different. Instead I'd like to highlight how this change affects the
+user experience of joining a wifi network.
+
+The current experience is as follows:
+
+* USER discovers the network name and password through external means.
+* USER opens "add new wifi network" page on their device.
+* USER finds network name in network list, possibly waiting or scrolling if
+  there are many networks.
+* USER selects the network name.
+* USER inputs password into text box.
+* USER is connected to the wifi.
+
+What could this look like if the network name was secret and there was no
+password? There'd be no network list, so the whole process is much slimmer:
+
+* USER discovers the secret network name through external means.
+* USER opens "add new wifi network" page on their device.
+* USER inputs secret name into text box.
+* USER is connected to the wifi.
+
+The result is a 33% reduction in number of steps, and a 50% reduction in number
+of things the user has to know. The experience is virtually the same across all
+other axis.
+
+So the upside of this proposal is clear, a far better UX, but what are the
+downsides? Losing a fun avenue of self-expression in the form of wifi names is
+probably the most compelling one I've thought of. There's also corporate
+environments to consider (as one always must), where it's more practical to
+remove users from the network in a targeted way, by revoking accounts, vs
+changing the password for everyone anytime a user needs to be excluded.
+
+Corporate offices can keep their usernames and passwords, I guess, and we
+should come up with some other radio-based graffiti mechanism in any case. Let's
+just get rid of these pointless extra steps!
+
+-----
+
+That's the post. Making this proposal into reality would require a movement far
+larger than I care to organize, so we're just going to put this whole thing in
+the "fun, pointless yak-shave" bucket and move along. If you happen to know the
+architect of the next wifi protocol maybe slip this their way? Or just copy it
+and take the credit yourself, that's fine by me.
+
+What's coming next? I'm taking a break from cryptic to catch up on some house
+keeping in the self-hosted arena. I've got a brand new password manager I'd like
+to try, as well as some motivation to finish getting my own email server
+properly set up (it can currently only send mail). At some point I'd like to get
+this blog gemini-ified too. Plus there's some services running in their
+vestigial docker containers on my server still, that needs to be remedied.
+
+And somewhere in there I have to move too.