Re: Wireless router

Duane Arnold <notme@notme.com> wrote:

>bassbag <bassbag@bodybags.dragon.wales> wrote in
>news:MPG.1df5683f53bb8ece989689@news.ispserve.co.uk:
>
>> Im thinking of getting a belkin wireless router for my single home pc.
>> http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/Specifications.asp?ProductID=2074
>>
>> Just how secure are they compared with direct connection routers if
>> WEP is used.
>
>I keep hearing the WEP is easily crack able now. You want WPA.

Yes, but only to people who are technically savvy enough to do this
which eliminates 99% of the peopel who work in the IT Industry and
therfore 99.999& of all people.

WEP is less CPU intensive than WPA. The other issue is there can still
be some incopmpatibility from different vendors with WPA. If you don't
have a lot of visitors it isn't a problem.

>> I have read some reviews that suggests when WEP is enabled
>> it can cause connectivity problems.

Any encryption requires you to configure a joining laptop/device. This
means no one can join the netork without you appropriately configuring
their laptop's wireless. Linksys clients make this VERY difficult
cause they support a LINKSYS-only method and a convuluted HEX/ASCII
conversion of the key. I've found wireless print servers that I could
not connect to a WEP network of a different hardware vendor. This is
why most people can't get WEP/WPA to work.

If you don't believe you have hackers next door, your security is
relatively safe. You just want to stop casual usage of your network by
wandering strangers. Wireless technolphiles could use a wireless
sniffer to watch the packet-by-packet conversation. However, as a
professional networking person, I can tell you there are precious few
people in the industry that have any real capability of understanding
and reading packet traces. Even less that have access and can read a
wireless sniffer. And fewer still could crack the WEP key to try and
join your network.

You could use MAC filtering to prevent people from using your network.
Some users have difficulty even managing that much-simpler router-ony
change.

It largely depends upon your comfort level with technolgoy.

>The one problem you would have is if the WEP or WPA key on the wireless
>card doesn't match the key being used by the router. It will show a
>signal strength between the two devices but the computer cannot obtain a
>DHCP IP from the router or cannot use a static IP on the router as the
>key mismatch and the will prevent the machine from accessing the
>Internet.
>
>> Any comments/advice or suggestions
>> or better/preferred routers would be welcome.
>
>You may want to look at the Linksys WRT54G router, it can get free 3rd
>party firmware that can be implemented that allows logging to be
>implemented on the router so you can use something like free Wallwatcher
>to review the logs for inbound and outbound traffic in case someone is
>able to hack your wireless set up and use a DHCP or static IP on the
>router. The two 3rd party firmware's can stop inbound and outbound
>traffic by setting FW rules I hear.
>
>http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/wireless/a/aa112203_2.htm
>
>Duane :)
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Received on Sat Dec 3 04:18:44 2005