Wireless modems and security.

[DavidNW]

Hi, all.

I've just read a thread on a site, relating to wireless modems. Basically, the poster was saying that he was not happy using wirelss modems per se, because
it's "dead easy", as he put it, to connect to someones else's net for free, using laptop and scanning software with an old Pringle tube for maximising signal strength. Most people, he claims, do not configure devices properly and do not use security to its max potential to stop this.

The guy is an ex Internet security consultant, so maybe he has raised a potentially worrying issue. Anyone else heard of/experienced this sort of thing?

 

[zeus]

Most people, he claims, do not configure devices properly and do not use security to its max potential to stop this.

I dont know bugger all about networking or wireless modems but im sure this is true. I know someone who says he can use his laptop in a particular parking space in his street.

 

[Addis]

This really is dependent on the configuration of the network.

Wireless networks, unlike wired networks must transmit their data through radio waves, open for all to receive. however, from the beginning wireless networks have had security measures. An early security method was WEP, or Wired Equivilent Privacy. This was a bit of a failure, since it can be cracked in about 30 minutes for someone skilled.

WEP is no longer (or should not be) used anymore because of this critical flaw. however, new security protocols have been developed. the successor to WEP is WPA, or Wifi Protected Access and this is is much, much more secure than WEP.

I use WPA at home, more specifically I use WPA-PSK (meaning that I have a passphrase like pwnthissecurityn00b that encrypts the connection, instead of a hex key which is hard to remember). There are two different ways of encrypting data with WPA, TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) and AES (Advanced Encryption System). TKIP is more widely supported than AES, while AES is a little bit more secure (but requires more processing for the encryption. I use TKIP for my network.

As long as you use a security protocol that is strong enough, you should be fine. I shuold also warn you that a typical 54g wireless network will be slower than a 100mbit ethernet connection for obvious reasons. However, this has no effect on your internet connection speed, it only affects you if you transfer large files over your network.

One last thing, WPA2 is an even more secure protocol than WPA, but its not as widely supported with older hardware. If you have really old wireless cards/laptops then WPA might not be supported at all, but that is unlikely.