Is it absolutely necessary to secure your wireless network?

corblimey

And so it begins... my brother in law got a wireless router for christmas (he says it's for the kids, but I have my doubts). He called me this afternoon to try and get tips on securing it. I pointed him at the sticky above but it got me thinking - he lives in the countryside, his nearest neighbour is about 3 miles away across some fields - is there any reason for him to worry about security? It's only really to stop people leeching from your connection right? There's no other major reason to do it?

pixbyjohn

I wouldn't think its absolutely neccessary in his situation, but its not difficult to lock it down anyway.

Tech3

a router wouldnt range that far, you would need to be literely next door to recieve it.

All the same at least you would be 100% safe if you slapped a password on it in case of people passing by connecting to your network. In your case though I dont think it would be needed.

regards

corblimey

tech2 wrote: »

All the same at least you would be 100% safe if you slapped a password on it in case of people passing by connecting to your network. In your case though I dont think it would be needed.

That's what I thought. If he figures it out by himself all well and good, but if he continues looking for free tech support from me, I might just tell him it's unnecessary.

Tech3

corblimey wrote: »

That's what I thought. If he figures it out by himself all well and good, but if he continues looking for free tech support from me, I might just tell him it's unnecessary.

If he decides to secure his wireless network the instructions that came with the router should help.

samhail

I left my router insecure. both neighbours have broadband but always meaning to put it back on. i think it was giving problems when the brother was trying to connect the Wii to the net. or maybe i was just too lazy to figure out how to do it for him (or forgot the key)

Some_Person

You should secure it just incase, people passing could be trying to connect or possible for your signal to be picked up from a distance by high power antennas too. WPA is better than WEP so use that if you can.

samhail

a high power antenna ? wont that be able to send data onto his network not recieve from it ?

Some_Person

Why would it not be able to receive? if his network is unsecured, anyone with a wifi card or wifi directional antenna on their roof etc could connect and use his net connection if the signal is strong enough.

samhail

If i have a wireless hub that extends for 2mi, and you live 3mi away from me, then i dont think it would matter what kind of equipment that you have, you wouldnt be able to pick up my signal.

though im sure there are some military applications have come up with something, other than exntended aerials).

i agree that some sort of wep should be applied.

Some_Person

You wouldn't need military grade stuff for it, you can get antennas that easily go over 5km, although depending on the access point strength.

mayhem#

There are two questions to ask:
1) what is there to secure?
2) what are te chances someone will try to gain access.

In a lot of cases the answers would be "not a lot" & "none".....

cmcsoft

I wouldn't be too worried to be honest. Unless they're parked in his drive no one is going to bother with it. Unless you have a home network set up with access points etc.

FruitLover

corblimey wrote: »

There's no other major reason to do it?

I'd be far more concerned about someone doing illegal stuff (e.g. looking at kiddie pr0n) on a connection traceable to me rather than bandwidth leeching.

In this particular case, I would personally still implement some security, but only because a) I'm paranoid and b) I'm handy with the techy. If it's going to be a hassle to support yer man, I'd just tell him there's not much to worry about.