Wireless Security

[Curt Harms]

Hi All

I just finished installing a mixed wired/wireless network. The router is a Linksys WRT54G. It has the ability of select which devices it will communicate with, specified by either MAC address or I.P. address. It seems difficult for a ne'rdowell to access the network unless the router recognizes his computer. The SSID broadcast can also be turned off. This SEEMS pretty secure to the ignorant (me). Is there a wireless way to hack into this network? I did find at least 2 other wireless networks in the neighborhood. I live in a townhouse development.

Prior to this I had a HPNA (home phoneline) network. It worked well but there's a limited array of devices available for HPNA, and those available are more spendy than their WiFi counterparts.

Thanks for any insights.

Curt

[Don Abele]

Curt, by using a MAC address authentication you are virtually eliminating any possibility of someone hacking into it. IP addresses can be duplicated (192.168.xxx.xxx) so are not as secure, MAC addresses are practically unique. You should change your SSID from the default "Linksys" as well as change the default channel "6". This just adds that additional level of security. Remeber to change them on your cards as well (or that connect light will go right out :D ). This will make your wireless connection about as secure as it can get without enabling encryption.

[Rob Littleton]

Airmagnet will be able to sniff that SSID. Also, a MAC address can be spoofed using the right tools. I feel a lot more secure running WEP on my wireless home network. With 128 bit key encryption, it might take some time to get inot my network. Also, my SSID is called "Go_away", that might give them a clue.

Just a heads up.....if you are in the neighborhood and you are a known woodworker (for example) and you change your SSID to "woody" or "carpenter", that is just like naming it your name. Put something bizarre on there to distract your netowrk.

[Scott Greaves]

Hey Curt,

On one of my other forums we have a gentleman who is very knowledgable about wireless network security, and he has been explaining in detail how we can improve our security. The forum is Penturners.org, and you need to look under Discussion Forums, then Casual Conversation, then Gone Wireless. Excellent step-by-step descriptions of how to set it all up. Good Luck!

Scott.

[Chris Johnson]

Download netstumbler and you will be amazed at what you can see!



Hey Curt,

On one of my other forums we have a gentleman who is very knowledgable about wireless network security, and he has been explaining in detail how we can improve our security. The forum is Penturners.org, and you need to look under Discussion Forums, then Casual Conversation, then Gone Wireless. Excellent step-by-step descriptions of how to set it all up. Good Luck!

Scott.

[John Weber]

Scott,

THANKS! That guy with the lessons is awesome. I have a Dell notebook on order and components rolling in, so I hope to have our wireless network up and running next week. Thanks again for the link, very helpful.

John

[Curt Harms]

Hey Curt,

On one of my other forums we have a gentleman who is very knowledgable about wireless network security, and he has been explaining in detail how we can improve our security. The forum is Penturners.org, and you need to look under Discussion Forums, then Casual Conversation, then Gone Wireless. Excellent step-by-step descriptions of how to set it all up. Good Luck!

Scott.

Hi Scott

Thanks for the pointer. I'm afraid to go to a turning forum. I have enough bad habits as it is!! :) .

Curt

[Curt Harms]

Airmagnet will be able to sniff that SSID. Also, a MAC address can be spoofed using the right tools. I feel a lot more secure running WEP on my wireless home network. With 128 bit key encryption, it might take some time to get inot my network. Also, my SSID is called "Go_away", that might give them a clue.

Just a heads up.....if you are in the neighborhood and you are a known woodworker (for example) and you change your SSID to "woody" or "carpenter", that is just like naming it your name. Put something bizarre on there to distract your netowrk.

Hello Rob-

Thanks for the pointers. I can enable encryption--I've just heard it slows things down. My adapters also support WAP which is supposed to be more secure then WEP, but I don't know what's involved there. Besides, I'm not all THAT interesting a target :)

[Christopher Stahl]

I wouldn't worry too much about people snooping your network to see what you're up to. Usually people get their kicks by connecting to someone's wireless network just to get a connection.

There are some better ways to button down a wireless network. MAC based addresses and WEP are ok, but neither are that great. WAP is newer but not supported by much equipment. WEP is actually quite inefficient and can be a PITA when people come over with laptops and need your WEP key.

If you want to get better security, you may want to look into a cheap VPN box or install a software based VPN. This will get you true authentication mechanism and encrypted data streams. The VPN encryption algorithms are much more difficult to break.

Both will work and educational to boot. Newer wireless formats will be available soon with higher speeds and better encryption.

chris