[MooseJam]

Originally Posted by woolymammoth

MAC filtering will NOT increase your security. It increases the amount of work your router has to do without providing any real additional security as MAC addresses can be spoofed. Use a proper algorithm, like WPA2 with TKIP and PSK, WITH a good passphrase, WITH numbers at the end. There's better algorithms on better routers, but be careful too of Windows as it sometimes has problems using very high security algorithms!

it won't uh sigh well I don't suppose it will do any harm as I have it and WPA2 with a 63 character password , never heard of TKIP and PSK is that really necessary, if it is I shall investigate further thanks

[woolymammoth]

Originally Posted by MooseJam

having read this I changed to WPA - PSK with a 63 character key, am I safe now ?

or do I have to change my ssid, thats the name of the network right like eircom3424 5763

sorry, i just seen this post MooseJam. Is that your SSID? 'cos if it is, you should have a look at this!!

as far as TKIP and PSK are concerned, no, they're not necessary, but neither is a steering wheel lock if you think your car has good enough locks and a loud alarm!

TKIP & PSK are encryption algorithms. They encrypt the data between your computer and the wireless router, making it impossible for anyone to connect to your wireless network.

[MooseJam]

ah no just made that up, so currently I have WPA2 with a 63 character password so am relatively safe, I'll have to look into TKIP and PSK, though I'd guess my netopia router doesn't support it, thanks for the info

[jakeyb]

Generally, this is called 'War Driving' which of course is not really known big here in Ireland. Reason is that folks just don't the limitations on how exposed they are with wireless broadband. If you are to drive around say half of Dublin with few applications that searchs for wireless lan, you will notice that there are loads on open networks around. Any deteremined networ guru can within mintues bypass a WEP wireless security, whilst WPA2 is more secure, not that it can't be hacked though.

We all talk about this becuase we know few things about network/computers, but just image the avrage person out there who just want to surf the net or book air ticket with his or her broadband service, a broadband provider comes and installs and goes - user does not even know any thing about Router web acces, talkless of changing default password.

[Type 17]

For what it's worth, when that "Eircom routers are wide open" story broke in the papers last year, the Irish Indo's story contained the following text: "Using wireless networks without permission is a criminal offence under the Criminal Damage Act 1991 and the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001."

I pasted it into the DHCP message field of my WLAN access point, so that anyone who manages to get into it (through the 63-character WPA2 key ) will get this on their screen when they get an IP address

It's handy for me to see it too, as then I know I'm logged on...

[PogMoThoin]

My networks secure, but i'm thinking bout openin it & doin this as i've got a home server that handles DHCP.

Would really fcuk with their heads