Wireless Security

mburke

Have setup a wireless network at home (2 laptops, access point, BB router).
I have set up the network with 128-bit WEP shared-key encryption.

What steps would you recommend I take so that I have a secure wireless setup ??

bada_bing

i would advise you to filter access by Mac addresses, my router allows me to do this. All i had to was ascertain the mac addresses of the users in my house, enter them and switched on the MAC filter.

Jaden

!28 Bit WEP is breakable, but only in theory. I've yet to manage it, far too much data is required.

Tips:

Make the WEP key difficult to guess, I have succeede guessing "password" "secret" and "hello". Make it big, with case mixing and numbers.

Make your SSID obscure too.

Switch off broadcasting your SSID. This will keep the netstumbler muppets away from you, as they won't know you've got a WLAN setup. They could still find it with Kismet, but there aren't many Linux war drivers about.

MAC filtering is a MUST HAVE. It only lets certain MAcv addresses join your network. MAC address cloning is possible, but it's a home LAN, not CIA HQ.....

Put the access point in a place where cover in the house is good, but where the signal is not leaking out onto the road, or next door.

Hope this helps.

namit_coro

mac recognition is easy to get around i would use it but then again would not rely on it comleatly.


Wep takes a bit more time but i would chage teh enc every few weeks.

Capt'n Midnight

You could use NetBEUI or IPX (security through obsecurity)
or you could use a VPN so that if someone sees the IP traffic it don't matter - windows has PPTP somewhere - messy setup.

Jaden

IPsec is the man for windows VPNs. Easy enough to install. You're right PPTP is a dog.