Strange experience of different wifi encryptions

[MSIC]

I have just fully upgraded my wireless at home.
In terms of devices I have my router (it used to be 2: one for ADSL with wireless G disabled and a 'cable' type for MIMO extended wireless range ) with my main PC ethernet connected; in terms of wireless devices i have:
2 laptops, 1 wii, 1 wireless media player, 1 Sony Clie.

I was encryped with WEP only, and was fed up with generally rubbish wireless reliability for media transmission (where skips and jumps matter far more than in web browsing or file transfer situations), so upgraded to the new Pre N Netgear DG834N, and upgraded my main laptop to the WN511b that came with it.
All therefore should be good, and with the router and related card ought to be able to get super speeds (acknowledging that lesser cards whilst active this might drag it down, but still...).
I noted that top speeds were only available using the WPA2-PSK encryption, but that's all the better as it's more secure (probably) than WEP 64bit.

And indeed, once all set up and connected, the driver on the laptop was reporting variations between 70 MBps and 200+ depending on proximity to the router....
"Great" thought I. Let's try playing music over iTunes.
First problem - frequent stuttering & breaking up. "That's odd" - the bitrate should be almost nil in terms of available bandwidth. Checked the broadcast / recieve channel (since I have one neighbour unencrypted on 11 and another broadcasting a BT Home hub on channel 6), and sure enough i am on 1 as I wanted.

Tried playing some xvids - stuttering again, even more prominent.
Tried to copy a file of 300 meg, anticipated time to copy = 14 minutes!!!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!

Tried changing channels etc etc etc.

In the end, I have found out the only way to get really good file transfer speeds, streaming etc etc:
Change encryption to WEP 64bit.

And you know what? I think it works a little bit better than it used to....it better bloody had for the cost

[MadduckUK]

yeah, iv gone back to good old WEP. Isnt worth the extra overheads incurred to have WPA-PSK (the routers default).

[Avalon]

WEP is to security what Lard is to a low fat diet. Would it not be better to look into why WPA isn't working for you ?

[MSIC]

I'd love to.
Any suggestions?
I have tried all the different flavours and found WEP to provide (significantly) better throughput. This may suggest that others do a 'channel bonding' thing which is unacceptable to me as neighbours are clearly on other channels (and i wont hack into their routers to change theirs!). I must say, I have not read anything that states that WPA (PSK or whatever) is inherently slower, assuming the same wireless technology speeds. I am therefore a little dumb-struck that a 54G connection is significantly quicker than a 270N connection!

PS Am aware that WEP is rubbish, but i follow the principle of as long as I am better protected than my neighbour, i'm still ok. And at least one that I can see has none.

[MadduckUK]

MSIC, if you can turn SSID broadcast off on your AP then do that, then stop worrying

[MSIC]

Who's worrying ?
I might well do that, and even limit MAC addresses too.
Good advice.

[Avalon]

Guy's I don't want to appear rude but even if you are running WEP, SSID broadcast dissabled and MAC filtering it's still going to show up and be cracked in under 3 minutes if anyone cares. If you aren't bothered about security fair enough but suggesting that you can stop worrying if you do the above is wrong.

[Metier9]

*sniffs for a packet*

I had a problem with my house mates laptop not being able to work with WPA2... it couldnt do DHCP etc.. either... basically because the laptop wasnt up to scratch.

[dangel]

I'm fairly convinced different brand kit doesn't work well with WPA - and yes, i've found that dropping back to WEP gets things working just fine. You'd be (un)surprised how many people run wireless with no ecryption at all!

[MSIC]

Fair enough, didn't know that actually, but to be honest how realistic that someone with that level of tech know-how is going to try to crack mine, given that i'm not the most vulnerable? I dont live in flats, so we are talking about either close neighbours or 'drive-by' situations.

No Avalon, you arnt being rude but to say that we are not bothered about security is exaggerating the point - it's about reasonability and proportions.

Edit: PS With the WPA issues / speed stuff, I am talking about Netgear stuff that is the same generation and in fact was bundled together, so it is designed to work together.

[Avalon]

Exageration would be why don't you just start burning your personal files off to DVD and handing them out on the street corner or better yet post them through your neighbours letterbox's ... now that's exageration

The point I was making was MadduckUK's statment that you can run WEP with MAC filtering and SSID broadcast dissabled 'stop worrying' is wrong.

11b and to a lesser extent 'g was significantly more tollerant of background rf and as such I can see why 'n would not co-exist especially in an area you state has other active WLANS.

This makes interesting reading (2nd last paragraph on 'Backwards Compatibility'). However ..... That may be wrong as claimed here. But more worrying than any of that is this though it may shed some light on why your same generation products may not want to play nice together ?

[MSIC]

Thanks for that, I take your point Re: the 'worrying' issue, but would personally express it as a stepped process with grades of security.

The 3rd link, to PCWorld (US mag) was particularly enlightening as i hadnt heard that before at all.
Now i'm p'd off - I reckon that Netgear have pulled a fast one on me.

I am still curious however that the link as reported in the utility / windows states a solid 270Mbps connection (when my laptop is sitting next to the router) however i cannot stream a simple mp3 without stutters and jumping...

I think Netgear need one hell of a firmware upgrade.

Cheers Avalon
PS the 3rd link needs editing

[MadduckUK]

Exageration would be why don't you just start burning your personal files off to DVD and handing them out on the street corner or better yet post them through your neighbours letterbox's ... now that's exageration

yes, quite.

The point I was making was MadduckUK's statment that you can run WEP with MAC filtering and SSID broadcast dissabled 'stop worrying' is wrong.

not on this scale, as i believe this is an excersie in keeping out oppourtunists who see an open connection and connect. rather than the 1337 hacker who is focusing on you.

its interesting that higher security measures do kill data throughput, and very handy for manufacturers that this happens... make of that what you will.

but the real question is - Avalon, do you have a wireless network that is 100% totally hacker proof. if someone had a vested interest in getting onto your connection could you be certain that you had the measures in place to stop them?

no, probably not. and thats why we need "grades" as MSIC says, home users dont need fort knox security, just enough to see off "pests"

[Avalon]

Do I have a hacker proof WLAN ? I use random combinations of capital/lower alphanumeric's/punctuation of the maximum permissable length and the highest encryption level supported by my hardware. I've yet to see reports of WPA being cracked with anything other than dictionary based attacks so i'd rate my WLAN as being secure.

TBH i'd even agree with your point if it wasn't so pathetically easy to crack WEP and you are a static target exposed 24/7. You don't need to be the softest target just available, someone looking to connect for free isn't likley to be bothered about 3 minutes or less it would take to crack a WEP encrypted connection over unencrypted connection and as already discussed the skill level required has been reduced to next to nothing.