O/T: Wi-Fi Security

[Martin Keene]

That's the one  

Sold to the funny looking chap with the weird car

Cheers Mate...

[Club Secretary (Reserve)]

IT hat on.

Set up a WPA key which is long and complex (ie a mixture of numbers and letters and preferably upper and lower case, eg. something like this "N05fer4tu154LUn4t1cbUt50meofH15pr0PHec1E5c0meTRue")

"Nosferatu is a lunatic but some of his prophecies come true"

Not that hard to crack

The practice of using a real word, words or phrases, but replacing some letters with numbers is a well known and also easily cracked tactic. Using random selections is much more secure, but obviously you need a way to keep track of the nonsense you wrote in case you need to get back in at some stage. As has been said, a good strong WEP/WPA key will put off the casual freeloader, whereas the "pros" will probably crack it whatever you do.

And remember, using someone elses wireless connection is actually an offence under the Wireless and Telegraphy Act (I think), so if you catch someone, try to get as much info as possible (car reg number, plus any details you can get from their connection) and call the rozzers, who may or may not be interested, but at least you have reported the offence.

IT hat off.

[peterg]

I was only using that as a example    personally I use registration numbers of cars and bikes I have previously owned as that gives a nice random mix of numbers and letters that would be impossible to 'guess' OK?        

[Martin Keene]

Cheers guys. I feel a happier about the security of them know.

During my searching I have found this webpage, Clickage, which seems very useful.

I think I'll use WPA, turn off the SSID, and change the IP address.

I also have a cunning password, using letters and numbers, the number is a code I use for something else which is not written down anywhere, is not connected to me in anyway shape of form, i.e. it's not a birthday, car reg, phone number, etc.

Disabling the SSID Broadcast seems to be the most useful tool. If you stop the router broadcasting itself to anyone, then they only way anyone will know there is a network there is if they know there is a router in the house by seeing it surely?

[VX2L16V]

you don't IME have to keep a not of your complex key phrase as if you forget it/need to change it you can plug a cat5 cable in & monkey around with it from there.... assuming you haven't forgotten the admin password

[ChrisG]

Forget about only allowing certain MACs, it's way too easy to spoof MAC addresses to get access and do braodcast your Network ID.

MAC address restriction on its own isnt a good deterent, but its another tool to reduce the chance of the casual amateur hacker getting onto your system so no reason not to have it switched on IMHO.

[v7slr]

Your security options are:

1. Change the Router's admin password

2. Hide/do not broadcast the SSID

3. Implement MAC address filtering (spoofable but in the context of the other security features it's another layer)

4. Encryption. WEP is hackable if you can get past the other security layers but is "good enough" if your laptop doesn't support it. WPA is a lot better.

5. Range: don't underestimate how effective your security is if it is simply too weak to log onto from any distance. Statistically reduces the number of people that might try.

6. Possibly switch it off when not in use. This is easily the best security feature you have at your disposal. I flick mine off at night and only switch it back on again when I get back home. I have a DMZ dedicated for one laptop which I use for downloading movies and TV series which is not dependent on my wireless router (I have a lot of hardware at my disposal so this is easy for me) enabling me to leave the "wired" internet connection up at all times.

[peterg]

One of our best security features is that our nearest 'neighbour' of any sort is a Golf Club over 300 yards away, nearest house is over 600 yards away and we're down a private drive so no one could get a parked car nearer to the house than 300 yards  

[DMMS]

QUOTE

using someone elses wireless connection is actually an offence under the Wireless and Telegraphy Act

The offence of piggybacking comes under the Communications Act 2003 and is classed as "dishonestly obtaining an electronics communication service".  Actually accessing someone elses computer would also be covered by the Computer Misuse Act 1990.  The first prosecution under the former legislation was about two years ago.  What was "interesting" was that  that the court dished out a £500 fine and confiscated his laptop.  This was considered rather harsh considering it was never proven that the chap involved had any hostile intentions against the owner of the bandwidth.  So anyone tempted to piggy-back really should be careful!  Would it truly be worth it?

From the other side of the coin, not only are there implications of data security for wireless networks (there was an interesting segment on a recent episode of The Real Hustle about how easily your data can be accessed) but there is the whole issue of what someone else is accessing via your internet connection.  It is not uncommon for those involved in using the internet for criminal purposes (downloading paedophilia etc) leaving their networks open in order to claim that, should their activity be noticed, they could claim ignorance.  There is a view that this type of defence would not work since they would have ultimate responsibility for any and all activity through their internet connection.  This, of course, implies that, should someone piggy-back YOUR connection for criminal activity, your could be considered culpable.

I do not agree with this perception since criminal intent must be proven.  If you did not know of the activity then you had no intent.  Proving your innocence, of course, if an entirely different matter.  What is certain is (a) I would feel exceedingly sick if I knew someone had used my network for downloading paedophilia and would make pretty damn sure that I had done everything I could to prevent such; and (b) it would take for all your electronic equipment to be removed/examined and a lengthy series of interviews under caution before anyone believes the “it wasn’t me, guv” defence.  Imagine the shame.

[Ian Podmore]

I've used a few Netgear wireless units, I find them very easy to set up.

I'll second the point about ensuring the firmware is up to date even on the first day you power it up.  I had one Netgear unit that dropped connections when subject to very heavy multi user access, problem never occurred again after the firmware update.

[WilliamB]

Disabling the SSID Broadcast seems to be the most useful tool. If you stop the router broadcasting itself to anyone, then they only way anyone will know there is a network there is if they know there is a router in the house by seeing it surely?

No it doesn't work like that.

It means it doesn't show up when a PC normally searches for networks looking for a SSID broadcast. No network ID is being sent out, but the radio waves that your network sends out are still traceable.

A simple bit of software will find and lock into your signal with SSID on or off as it searches for wireless signals and not just the SSID broadcast header.

As I said, turning off SSID just masks the network from showing to other wireless users and increases the chance of someone unwittingly using the same channel for their network as yours and causing interference.