Wireless security

[Korma2]

Hi there,

I have a wilerell router (bt voyager 2100), and its working fine currently i have it set up to hide the ssid and using wpa encryption. So its pretty tight.

BUT, to use a nintendo ds wi-fi with it, it cant use wpa, only wep or none, but if i enable wep i have problems with the connection using the internet normally (i.e dropouts, sometimes the wireless network doesnt get recognised etc...)

My question is, if i hide the ssid and NOT use any encryption wep or wpa, will this be reasonably enough security considering wireless g does not really broadcast over a large range (so maybe just my two neighbours either side of me will be in range right?)

And since they wont know my ssid they cant access my net?

Or can they still get through?

Thanks

 

[Phnom_Penh]

Hiding the SSID without encryption is pretty pointless, enabling mac access would be best, although that can be hacked by using mac spoofing, but is better than not encryption, and wep.

 

[Korma2]

Well the range of my network will not be very far will it? am i right in guessing only my adjacent neighbours will be able to receive it? (medium-small houses terraced).

If so, as far as i know they arnet any kind of hackers lol (maybe they are closet hackers).

So will no security with a hidden ssid be anough do you think?

Or will the range be to the whole street?

 

[Phnom_Penh]

It depends. some wireless cards can detect and connect to signals further away than others. I would say it would be best to use mac access as well as turning off SSID.

 

[Korma2]

Hmm ok Phnom, ill have a look into the Mac filtering, its a shame the DS doesnt support WPA, Nintendo are claiming that they only chose WEP because its the most popular, but surely all the tech guys working at nintendo know that wep is a bit poop?

 

[Phnom_Penh]

Yes they do know its a bit crap, and their defence of their descision to use WEP instead of WPA is crap too, you could do one of two things...

1. Get a wireless access point, and then connect that to you router, and set it to use wep, and you can turn it off when you dont need it. You could also get the DS Wireless adapter and plug that into a pc and connect to that.

2. Use the current security your using, instead of something more secure like wep.

 

[Toxteth O'Grady]

The risk of running unencrypted is that it allows a nosey neighbour or passing Wardriver to steal your Internet bandwidth. Encryption is really the only answer and WEP is fine for the risk to the average SoHo user.

However you are stuffed because your DS wont run properly with it. You'll have to run the risk of using your DS unprotected. There are steps you can take to reduce the risk further such as the SSID Disable and MAC filtering already mentioned. In addition you could set up firewall rules in your modem router to block LAN IP addresses other than your own equipment.

For example if your LAN uses the range 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.254 you could disable DHCP, set your PC to fixed IP 192.168.1.100, your Nintendo DS to 192.168.1.200 and router to 192.168.1.254. Then create firewall rules to drop all incoming/outgoing packet types for all ports in the IP ranges 192.168.1.101 -> 192.168.1.199 and 192.168.1.201 -> 192.168.1.253. That should give you another layer of protection.



TOG

 

[Phnom_Penh]

The risk of running unencrypted is that it allows a nosey neighbour or passing Wardriver to steal your Internet bandwidth. Encryption is really the only answer and WEP is fine for the risk to the average SoHo user.

However you are stuffed because your DS wont run properly with it. You'll have to run the risk of using your DS unprotected. There are steps you can take to reduce the risk further such as the SSID Disable and MAC filtering already mentioned. In addition you could set up firewall rules in your modem router to block LAN IP addresses other than your own equipment.

For example if your LAN uses the range 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.254 you could disable DHCP, set your PC to fixed IP 192.168.1.100, your Nintendo DS to 192.168.1.200 and router to 192.168.1.254. Then create firewall rules to drop all incoming/outgoing packet types for all ports in the IP ranges 192.168.1.101 -> 192.168.1.199 and 192.168.1.201 -> 192.168.1.253. That should give you another layer of protection.



TOG

The only difference is speed difference, the overheads from wep take the speed of 802.11b down from about 700kb/s to about 500kb/s. As for wep encryption, I could get around in about 11 mins.

 

[Toxteth O'Grady]

As for wep encryption, I could get around in about 11 mins.

Very true. There was a security conference last year where they demo'd a 128 bit wep hack in less than 3 minutes.

But it's all about risk management. What's the probably of you or them or anyone else with that capability sitting outside Korma2's house? Why would they be there in the first place?

Sure I wouldn't use it on a corporate network but I dont see any risk in a home network using wep.



TOG

 

[Phnom_Penh]

It really depends on korma's neighbours, but its also possible that there would be wardrivers around, who could phish or steal senstive information from the computers or steal bandwidth etc, unlikely I know, but not impossible.

 

[Korma2]

What's the probably of you or them or anyone else with that capability sitting outside Korma2's house? Why would they be there in the first place?

TOG

Lol #looks out the window#, nah i live in a quiet Close, and if a wireless g network only transmits a house or 2 away, then im not too worried, i have taken some of the advice here and to go along with the hidden SSID, iv enabled mac filtering.

Although this can be worked around my neighbours would bother (or have the knowledge to), and i dont really have any confidential info on my laptop so its no biggie they can steal my mp3's lol.

At least now i can use the DS without messing around with router settings etc.. each time i want to use it.

 

[yorkie]

Wondered if you can help what is NAT and how do i check if its working new to wireless

 

[Dav0s]

NAT is not special to wireless...it is a protocol used in networking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAT

 

[yorkie]

Thanks for that, should make good bedtime reading