securing a wireless network....

[djglenn]

I have been using a wireless network for little over a year now, and it suddenly dawns on me that I have never made it secure, so I assume that anyone within range can use my 4mb ntl.

What is the best way to make my wireless network, private?

[abeacock]

If you don't want people to find it, turning off the SSID broadcast and change the SSID from the default name.

If you don't want people to connect to it, add all your allowed PCs to the MAC address list and enable MAC address filtering

If you don't want people to be able to 'see' your traffic, turn on WEP or any of the other security protocols. Note: WEP seems to be the only one that is readily available on any PC although other types are normally able to activated by updating the network drivers.

[mart_haj86]

Agreed with abeacock, however WEP wouldn't be my first choice for a secure wireless network (I'm led to believe WEP can be hacked in around 10 minutes or so). I would recommend enabling WPA instead.

[abeacock]

I mentioned WEP as when we were adding laptops to our company wireless network on some laptops (normally the older ones) WEP was the only option!

[djglenn]

thanks for the input guys. I will have a fiddle with it when I get home, I imagine it should be simple enough for myself as I currently only have 1 pc connecting to it.

Just out of interest is there any anti virus / firewall software that protects wireless networks?

[abeacock]

If you mean software that runs on the wireless laptop/PC - all your current AV and FW software is fine.

On some routers you can change the level of built in firewall which could give you some piece of mind.

[Moby-Dick]

waay off topic

not seen a VtS banner since I was a member !!

think of security within a layered approach. If you can use WPA , then its a lot better than WEP.

restricting access by mac address wont turn your network into fort knox , but its a step in the right direction.

keeping your PC's secure would also prevent any potential intrusion onto them but wont stop people from nicking your intarweb

[Neo_VR]

If you don't want people to find it, turning off the SSID broadcast and change the SSID from the default name.

If you don't want people to connect to it, add all your allowed PCs to the MAC address list and enable MAC address filtering

If you don't want people to be able to 'see' your traffic, turn on WEP or any of the other security protocols. Note: WEP seems to be the only one that is readily available on any PC although other types are normally able to activated by updating the network drivers.

Seconded..

I recently setup wireless for a house full of students.. originally i was using WPA-PSK encryption with AES.. but XP home doesnt support AES, so changed that to TKIP (bigger overhead) but still XP home can be fiddly to work properly with WPA, so eventually changed it back to WEP with mac filtering and hidden SSID

[snedger]

I found using XP Home's wireless configurator was more successful to set up WPA2 than the software that came with both Gigabyte and MSI wireless NICs.
Check out wikipedia for a good description of WEP, WPA. TKIP, AES etc. I think the advice for pre shared keys was to have a length of at least 20 or 23 (can't remember exactly).
Still not perfect though - my router sometimes resets itself - resulting in no security. I don't notice straight away, 'cos the only PC that uses wireless doesn't get used daily.

[ash_rm]

Make sure you use a decent paraphrase/password with whatever security your using. Don't use normal dictionary words. Also change you password often.

Tools like KisMAC can crack a simple WEP key in under a few minutes.

Turn your wireless access point/router off when your not using it for long periods.

[Moby-Dick]

Turn your wireless access point/router off when your not using it for long periods.

Quoted for truth , its the best security you can have for your WLAN. why not get yourself one of those timer switches and automate the process.

WEP is secure enough to deter the casual piggybacker , but as mentioned can be reverse engineered to give the key without too much difficulty.

[djglenn]

waay off topic

not seen a VtS banner since I was a member !!

lol, not been a member myself for a very long time (planetarion days). However, kept the siggy as I was too lazy to make a new one.

Just out of interest (sorry for all the questions), but I have a 250GB external HDD, is it possible to have it accessible from my laptop? The HDD is currently connected to my desktop.

[Moby-Dick]

you could share it out over the network - do you use XP home or pro ?

Yeah I gave up PA a while back - it was nice to be able to sleep again !

[djglenn]

you could share it out over the network - do you use XP home or pro ?

Yeah I gave up PA a while back - it was nice to be able to sleep again !

lmao..amen. Bad to think back that I used to have my alarm clock set at crazy times like 2-6am.

I use XP pro atm, was hoping to go to Vista in the new year.

[Moby-Dick]

well you should be able to rigth click on the ext drive and look at the sharing options.

[djglenn]

lmao, sounds difficult. I firstly need to replace the HDD in my laptop before I can test it out...

Thanks for the heads up though, as you can tell, networking aint my thing.